My Travels with Tintin
“Since 1929, more than 270 million copies (figures for 2019) have been sold. The Tintin adventures have been translated in more than 110 languages.”
Although my blog is primarily dedicated to my model building, this section is a little different.
Given our favourite reporter’s status as a global traveler, it should come as no surprise that the Adventures of Tintin album series has been translated into more than 110 languages (according to the official Tintin website).
With so many options available that made collecting Tintin albums in the local language of the various countries I’ve visited, if not easy, at least generally possible. Rather than bring home yet another tourist mug, t-shirt, snow globe, etc. whenever I travel, I do my best to hunt down a Tintin album as THE souvenir from my trip. Of course, it’s not always possible to find them in the wild. There are limits to the the time I can devote, the logistics involved, and my wife’s patience. But, one way or another, I’ve managed to track down a Tintin album that represents my trip to almost every country I’ve ever visited. That’s 18 albums to date (out of the 21 I’ve visited).
Be warned, the posts in this section aren’t model-building related. They’re there more or less to serve two purposes.
The first is to provide some information on the foreign language Tintin editions that I personally own. This includes whatever publishing history/background information I can find for the specific language editions. If you want to know more about the various foreign language editions, I can’t recommend this site highly enough – Intertintin.com – it’s been a great resource for me!
It’s also includes a bit of a story of how I came about each edition. I wish I could say I just walked into a bookstore in each of these countries and picked one up off the shelf, but it’s never quite as easy as that. Some of them were found in situ, but many I needed some help from a friend, or had to wait a long time, to get my hands on them.
The second part of each of these pages is more or less my personal travel blog and isn’t Tintin-related. You can feel free to skip those parts if you like. They’re certainly not nearly as adventurous or entertaining as Tintin’s are. I’ll understand if you take a pass!
The Countries I’ve visited:
My Travels with Tintin – Cambodia - I only have a single Tintin album in Khmer, "ផ្កាឈូកខៀវ." (The Blue Lotus), but then again, that's all anyone else has - it's the only Tintin album officially translated into the language. It was published in 2001 by Casterman, as… …
My Travels with Tintin – China - I have a few Chinese language editions, in both Traditional and Simplified, but the album I have in my collection that represents my trips to Northern China is the PERFECT one, "蓝莲花" (The Blue Lotus). Translated by Wang Bingdong, it… …
My Travels with Tintin – Greece - I have one Tintin album in Greek, "Ο Τεντέν στο Κονγκό" (Tintin in the Congo), which was published in 1997 by Mamouthcomix. It might not have been the right choice for Greece, but sometimes it's the "right now" choice that… …
My Travels with Tintin – Hong Kong / Macau - I have one Tintin album published in Hong Kong, "黑島" (The Black Island). It published in 2004 by The Commercial Press (Hong Kong), as part of a (nearly complete) 22-album series released in 2004. The Tintin albums published by The… …
My Travels with Tintin – India - I only have a single Tintin album in Hindi, "तिब्बत टिनटिन में" (Tintin in Tibet), but really, it's the only one I need. Translated by Puneet Gupta this lovely softcover edition was published in 2013 by Om Books International. It… …
My Travels with Tintin – Indonesia - I have one Tintin album in Indonesian, "Si Kuping Belah" (The Broken Ear). It published in 2008 by Gramedia Pustaka Utama, as part of a full 24-album series released between 2008 and 2009. The Tintin albums have actually been in… …
My Travels with Tintin – Italy - I have one Tintin album in Italian, "Il Drago Blu" (The Blue Lotus), which was published in 1986 by Gandus. I don't think there is a "perfect" album for Italy, so when in doubt, go with The Blue Lotus, right?… …
My Travels with Tintin – Japan - I have one Tintin album published in Japanese, "めざすは月" (Destination Moon). My album, originally translated by Keiko Kawaguchi and published by Fukuinkan Shoten in 1991, is a beautiful hardcover edition that was re-printed in 2011... apparently as the 15th printing!… …
My Travels with Tintin – Latvia - I have a single Tintin album in Latvian, "Vienradža noslēpums" (The Secret of the Unicorn), but it is one of the most treasured additions to my foreign language collection. Translated by Inese Pētersone, it was published in 2013 by Zvaigzne… …
My Travels with Tintin – Poland - I have two Tintin albums in Polish. The first, "Berło Ottokara" (King Ottokar’s Sceptre) was translated by Marek Puszczewicz and published in 2009. The second, "Błękitny Lotos" (The Blue Lotus) was translated from the original French by Daniel Wyszogrodzki and… …
My Travels with Tintin – Russia - I only have one Tintin album in Russian, but it's the PERFECT one - "Тинтин в стране Советов" (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets). The Russian edition is quite frankly beautiful. Published in 2023 by Bumkniga (бумкнига), it's more… …
My Travels with Tintin – Singapore - My Tintin album from Singapore came with an interesting decision... what language do you choose? There are four official languages - Malay, English, Tamil, and Singaporean Mandarin. In the end, I chose Mandarin - mainly because a) I already have… …
My Travels with Tintin – Taiwan - I have a few Chinese language editions, but the Traditional Chinese album I have in my collection that represents my trips to Taiwan is "向日葵教授綁架案" (The Calculus Affair). Translated by Wang Bingdong, it was first published in Taiwan in 2011… …
My Travels with Tintin – USA - I only have one Tintin album in American English, but really, if you already have Tintin in America, what else do you need? I'm not quite sure when my copy was actually published, but the copyright date is 1979, so… …
My Travels with Tintin – Vietnam - I have two Tintin albums in Vietnamese, "Sao Băng" (The Shooting Star) and "Cây vương trượng của vua Ottokar" (King Ottokar's Sceptre). They were both published in 1996 by Nhà Xuất Bản Thanh Niên (Youth Publishing House), as part of… …