HERGÉ - Lot 61

HERGÉ HERGÉ The Adventures of Totor, C.P. Des Hannetons Original strips no. 2 and 3 from plate no. 23 published in Le Boy-Scout Belge, March 1929. India ink and white gouache on paper 55.3 × 35.5 cm (21.77 × 13.98 in.) This is an exceptional piece of pre-Tintin Hergé! But it's already reminiscent of the hero with the tassel! It features a motif that would become the theme of Tintin's third adventure: America, the Western, cowboys, and also that of Popol et Virginie au pays des Lapinos. The script is tailor-made for this purpose: Boy Scout Totor, patrol leader of the Hannetons, must travel to Texas to visit his aunt and uncle. There, he is confronted by gangsters and Indians. There are only 26 plates from this promising debut, published between 1926 and 1929. It's an "old-fashioned" published story, with text below the frames, as in La Famille Fenouillard and Bécassine. This sequence comprises six panels, unlike the plates at the beginning (4 panels) and those at the end (9 panels). Note that this page was published in March 1929, and that Hergé had begun Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in January of the same year, so there's a clear connection with the Petit Vingtième reporter. We can't fail to be impressed by this young artist's dynamism and sense of narration, with field-contradictory shots, clarity in the use of blacks and speed effects resulting from his passion for the films of Charlie Chaplin and Harry Langdon. The Adventures of Totor, C.P. des Hannetons did not end in 1929, but continued until 1930, with Evany (Eugène Van Nijversel) at the helm. Evany would later work as Hergé's assistant - designing the lettering for the Tintin albums - and then as artistic director of the Journal Tintin in the post-war period - designing the models for the albums (the "bearskin" and the "checkerboard") in the first Lombard albums.