One of Europe’s most famous cartoon character Tintin may make it to the Oscars this year! Now a Golden Globe nominee, Tintin has been part of the Art of the Home libraries for decades and is a traditional gift passed on from grandfathers to young boys so we were quite excited to hear that the latest Spielberg’s movie “The Adventures of Tintin” came out yesterday in the US. The Adventures of Tintin comic books were written by the talented Belgian artist Hergé (his real name is Georges Remi but he used his initials reversed “R.G” as his artist name which in French phonetically sound like “her(R)-gé(G)”). With the movie coming out, we thought you may be interested in finding out more about the famous Tintin comic books – they are well known in Europe but not as much in the US and make a great wholesome read for boys (men enjoy them too!). The movie is actually based on 3 of the comic books (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure) but “The Adventures of Tintin” collection is made of 24 books in total (see below for the books in the order they were published in France). The Crab with the Golden Claws (Le Crabe aux Pinces d’Or) has a special meaning for us – this was the first book read by one of Art of the Home’s favorite papy (grandpa) — over half a century ago!
The Tintin Collection – Complete List in Chronological Order
The Adventures of Tintin: The Complete Collection
So if you are interested in starting a Tintin collection for a young gentleman in your family, we have listed below all the Tintin books (albums de Tintin) as they came out in France. But these can be offered to gentlemen of all ages — in fact, a famous saying in France is that Tintin is “pour les jeunes de 7 à 77 ans” (for the youth 7 to 77 years old) so Tintin books are not just for young ones. As far as the chronology of the books, you don’t necessarily need to go in order but some go in pairs (16&17 for example) so it’s best to get the pair together or read them one after the other. You may notice his comic books “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon” were published over a decade before a man actually landed on the moon. He was quite the visionary and that is one of the reason his comic books are so appealing to the inquisitive mind of young boys.
The Adventures of Tintin – Les Aventures de Tintin
| US Title | French Title | Date of Publication | |
| 1 | Tintin in the Land of the Soviets | Tintin au pays des Soviets | 1930 |
| 2 | Tintin au Congo | Tintin au Congo | 1931 |
| 3 | Tintin in America | Tintin en Amérique | 1932 |
| 4 | Cigars of the Pharaoh | Les Cigares du Pharaon | 1934 |
| 5 | The Blue Lotus | Le Lotus bleu | 1936 |
| 6 | The Broken Ear | L’Oreille cassée | 1937 |
| 7 | The Black Island | L’Île Noire | 1938 |
| 8 | King Ottokar’s Sceptre | Le Sceptre d’Ottokar | 1939 |
| 9 | The Crab with the Golden | Le Crabe aux pinces d’or | 1941 |
| 10 | The Shooting Star | L’Étoile mystérieuse | 1942 |
| 11 | The Secret of the Unicorn | Le Secret de la Licorne | 1943 |
| 12 | Red Rackham’s Treasure | Le Trésor de Rackham le Rouge | 1944 |
| 13 | The Seven Crystal Balls | Les Sept Boules de cristal | 1948 |
| 14 | Prisoners of the Sun | Le Temple du Soleil | 1949 |
| 15 | Land of Black Gold | Tintin au pays de l’or noir | 1950 |
| 16 | Destination Moon | Objectif Lune | 1953 |
| 17 | Explorers on the Moon | On a marché sur la Lune | 1954 |
| 18 | The Calculus Affair | L’Affaire Tournesol | 1956 |
| 19 | The Red Sea Sharks | Coke en stock | 1958 |
| 20 | Tintin in Tibet | Tintin au Tibet | 1960 |
| 21 | The Castafiore Emerald | Les Bijoux de la Castafiore | 1963 |
| 22 | Flight 714 | Vol 714 pour Sydney | 1968 |
| 23 | Tintin and the Picaros | Tintin et les Picaros | 1976 |
| 24 | Tintin and Alph-Art (Unfinished work, published posthumously) |
Tintin et l’Alph-Art | 1986 |
Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou)
How to Draw Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock
And to inspire future generation of cartoonists, feel free to share this video of Hergé in the 60’s drawing his famous characters: Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou) and Captain Haddock (Capitaine Haddock) – what a gift to see him in action!
Hergé Drawing Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou)
Hergé (1907-1983)
Hergé Drawing Captain Haddock (Capitaine Haddock)
Hergé (1907-1983)
Getting Started with Your Tintin Collection
So one idea for a gift that is sure to bring joy for many years to come to boys is to get them started on reading the adventures of Tintin. You can start with one Tintin book with a couple movie tickets this year to go see the movie over the Holidays. And every year after that or for birthdays they can get the next one. We do offer them at the boutique (we actually had our Tintin section in the Boutique well before the movie came out) but it may be too late to get it for Christmas so we’d recommend checking your local Barnes&Nobles or other bookstore in town – with all the movie buzz they most likely will carry them. Our French collection is hardcover but the hardcover price is excessive in the US (about $40 each) so we recommend paperback copies which are below $10 and are of great quality. We find that the paperback alternative is just fine and in fact we offer those as gifts regularly – great wholesome gift for your sons, grandsons, and even the dad (le papa) and the grandpa (le papy)!