Comics, Tintin in search of a new world record: the original drawing is up for auction

The original drawing for the album cover «Tintin in America», estimated at between 2.2 and 3.2 million euros, will be the top lot of the auction «The world of Hergé, the creator of Tintin» organized by Artcurial in Paris on February 10th. The sale could mark a new world record for a comic drawing. The relationship between the Belgian cartoonist Hergé (born Georges Prosper Remi (1907-1983) and the French auction house Artcurial is a long-lasting and fruitful relationship: in January 2021 he sold the cover of the album «The blue lotus» – the fifth adventure of Tintin – for 3.2 million euros, a price which, in addition to being the highest paid at auction for a comic book, has also become a new world record for Hergé. Now, just over a year after this record selling, Tintin returns under the hammer of Artcurial with a new adventure, from China to America.After four adventures in Soviet Russia, in America, in the Belgian Congo and in Egypt, in the fifth album he leaves for China: it was 1934 when Hergé decided to send Tintin to the Orient with «The Blue Lotus». «Tintin in America», which sees the young Belgian reporter Tintin spend some time in the United States between Chicago and the Midwest, was one of the best sellers of the saga.

«Tintin in America» was first published in 1932 with a small illustration printed on the cover showing Tintin sitting on a rock with Snowy lying next to him. For the third edition, in 1937, the small cover illustration was replaced by another version showing Tintin riding a horse, printed on paper and pasted directly onto the album cover.