An original drawing used for the first published "Tintin" cover was sold at auction¹ on Saturday in Dallas for $1.12 million.

 

《丁丁历险记》第一版的一张封面图原稿周六在达拉斯112万美元被拍卖。
 

 

The identities of seller and buyer have not been released.

 

The illustration, by Tintin creator Herge (the pseudonym² of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi), shows the plucky³ young reporter sitting on a tree stump⁴ carving⁵ a makeshift propeller⁶ for his plane after the original was damaged in a rough landing somewhere in the Soviet⁷ Union. His faithful dog Snowy (Milou in the original French) sits and watches, bandaged from tail to nose.

 

The beloved Tintin books have been translated into more than 70 languages, but in 1929, 22-year-old Herge was still telling the young journalist's story in the pages of Le Petit Vingtieme (The Little Twentieth), a kids' supplement to the Belgian daily Le Vingtieme Siecle (The Twentieth Century).

 

The serialized Tintin stories proved so popular that soon Le Petit Vingtieme published them in 16-page installments⁸ instead of the original eight, and on February 13, 1930, Tintin made the cover.

 

It was only a few months later that the first book in what was to be a series of two dozen -- "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets⁹" -- was published. More than 200 million Tintin books have now been sold worldwide.

 

The drawing sold Saturday, in India ink and gouache, was signed by Herge. A Heritage Auctions¹⁰ spokesman told AFP the illustration, which turned up in Brussels, was one of the "rare cover illustrations signed by Herge in private hands," as well as the oldest.

 

The author and artist -- who often set his Tintin tales in the most exotic of locales -- rarely left Belgium in his lifetime. He died in 1983.

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