Tintin Forums

I am no printing expert , hence this query

I have The Tintin Tibet by Egmont .I have noticed that someone has filled in /rewritten/edited (??) the following bubbles in a shaky handwriting to resemble the prevalent font :-

1) Page 5 , top row ,3rd frame , Haddock tells Cuthbert "You ... you and your champagne !!"

2) Page 33 , bottom row , 1st frame , Tintin says " .........that was after ......."

That the writing looks different , is it because some proof reader saw that the words were missing/wrong , so he used a 'correction fluid' and copied the texts in his handwriting or was some editing done at some point in the Methuen/Egmont editions.

Could someone please go through their books and please let me know what they think.

Yes these are most obvious in the more modern editions - which is the one I have with me at the moment. Annoyingly I can't check any of my earlier ones though - does anyone have a 1960 first edition to hand that they can look in?

Ed

I'd never noticed that before. I have the 1995 Mammoth paperback edition, but this does occur in mine too. No idea why though!

I haven't got a 1960 edition, but my '72 Methuen copy looks original.

I imagine that it was probably a correction done later, and I'm guessing because there was some damage to the original printing plate or acetate overlay with the text. Instead of calling in Mr Hyslop to reletter the entire page, it would have been far more economically sound to simply fix it themselves, correcting the bits where the damage was - hence the wobbly samples of text.

Sorry to be a smartypants but wasn't the English first edition released in 1962...?

Yes, the first edition was published in 1962 (the French one was published in 1960), according to the Tintinologist book guide, anyway ...

Sorry to be a smartypants but wasn't the English first edition released in 1962...?

Doh! Of course you're right - will do better next time :-)

Ed

Actually, there are many times when there are printing errors in individual books. I didn't notice anything unusual there, but I might have found printing irregularities elsewhere...

Anyway, I doubt that there was shaky handwriting in that book. I have already seen two fonts for the Tintin texts, and Herge wrote the stuff in French.

I am therefore quite convinced that a printing irregularity, not a case of shaky handwriting, occurred here...

I'd personally say that it is indeed shaky handwriting, and I stand by my damaged plate / overlay argument. However, for anyone who's still undecided and would like to judge for themselves, here are the two panels in question, scanned from the 1996 Mammoth paperback edition :

Page 5, A3 :


Page 33, D1 :


Whilst the jury is out on the reason for the shaky lettering, the next question : when did these corrections occur ?