Tintin drawing sells for $1.2 million in Hong Kong auction

The “only original“ drawing remaining from the Tintin classic The Blue Lotus sold for a record breaking 9.6 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.2m) at an auction in Hong Kong. The story is set in Shanghai and the drawing is by Belgian cartoonist Herge. French auction house Artcurial organised the auction. They said the work was the only original from the book still in private hands, and had been bought by an Asian collector. Click on this link to see the drawing. [caption id=“attachment_2457860” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Cover of The Blue Lotus[/caption] “The Blue Lotus is considered by specialists as the masterpiece album of Herge,” said Eric Leroy, Artcurial’s expert in comics. “It was also unusual to talk about China in the thirties in Europe,” he added. The auction house also facilitated the record-breaking sale of a hand-drawn Tintin In America cover for 2.65 million euros in Paris in May. For lovers of Tintin comics, some delightful nuggets on the reporter with that impertinent tuft of hair: Tintin will soon be 80 years old. Since 1929, more than 230 million copies of Tintin comics have been sold and translated in more than seventy languages. The real name of Tintin’s creator is Georges Remi. By reversing his initials to R.G. he created his pen name : Hergé. Tintin explored the moon in 1954, that’s 15 years before Neil Armstrong. The Thom(p)sons are not brothers nor identical. We can tell the difference between them by comparing their moustaches. Captain Haddock makes his debut in the ninth adventure - The Crab with Golden Claws.