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I was recently in the Tintin shop in Covent Garden and saw a book (in French) which compared three different versions of The Black Island.
They were displayed together across double page spreads to allow easy comparison. One version of the story was in black & white from the Thirties, another was a redrawn colour version from the Forties, and the third version dated from the Sixties.
I wasn't aware that it had appeared in three different versions.
My question is: how many of the other stories were also drawn at three different times like this?

I only recall Land of Black Gold recieving the same treatment.

I assume that the Forties re-drawn colour versions were never released in English-language editions?

Although the facsimiles of the 1940s colour versions of Black Island and Black Gold are only available in French, you wouldn't have any difficulty following the story, assuming you've got the modern English versions to hand (or in your head). As you no doubt saw from that book in the Tintin shop, café noir, the dialogue and action in the 1940s Black Island book was matched almost frame for frame in the 1960s redraw. And the page or so of completely different stuff in the 1940s Black Gold (the involvement of the Jewish gang in Palestine) is pretty easy to follow from the pictures.

Only the early pages of Black Gold were redrawn in the 1960s version - the scenes on board the Speedol Star were updated and the Palestinian setting was changed to the fictional Khemed, with changes to its soldiers and its insurgent gangs. After that, once Tintin gets taken into the desert, the 1960s version isn't redrawn at all from the 1940s book. And of course, the 1930s black-and-white version of Black Gold stops halfway through, because Hergé abandoned the story at the outbreak of war.

So to answer your original question, café noir, I think The Black Island is the only Tintin book which has gone through three complete redraws, and the only adventure where all three different book versions are complete.

True and that was because of the war. The story was redrawn and picked up after the World War.

Balthazar wrote:
I think The Black Island is the only Tintin book which has gone through three complete redraws

But is that really true? Isn't the second version from 1943 basically an edited and colourized (but not redrawn) edition of the original black and white version from 1937?

I think you're absolutely right, Mikael, and I stand corrected. Although some of the black and white adventures were redrawn when first being put into colour, I think you're right that The Black Island wasn't one of them.

So, sorry for the mental lapse and thanks for the correction.

But is that really true? Isn't the second version from 1943 basically an edited and colourized (but not redrawn) edition of the original black and white version from 1937

As far as I remember from looking at the book, the forties version was very similar in style to the sixties version and not just a colourised version of the thirties one (though I could be wrong about that) The two colour versions seemed very similar in style, but the most noticable difference was the updating of planes, trains etc. in the sixties version.
i'll have to go back and take another look now!

BTW thanks for all your useful info - it's great to be in the company of such knowledgable tintinogolists..

Funny, I was only reading the Dossier Tintin last night!
The 1943 version was simply a coloured version of the 1938 original. It was barely edited at all (one short sequence removed and replaced by a single drawing, frames cropped) as it ran to 124 pages, which halved exactly to fit the required 62 pages.

The 1965 version was completely redrawn but the composition, storyline was left the same - just updated drawings. The text is even pretty much the same, a few words changed here and there.
Apparently Hergé had wanted to redraw the book as early as 1960/61, and had also considered reworking The Broken Ear.

So it seems that in effect it was really only redrawn once. Thanks to all concerned for clearing that up for me.