The 1936 version of Blue Lotus by Hergé, one of Tintin’s most famous adventures, returns to bookstores this Wednesday in a new colorized version.
The character of Tintin begins to be free of rights, in a very restricted way, but the legacy of its author Hergé, who died in 1983, remains fruitful, as evidenced by the interest in reissues of the albums. THE Blue lotus, one of the most famous adventures of the little Belgian reporter, which takes place in Shanghai, comes out on Wednesday in a new form.
The Moulinsart and Casterman editions are reissuing the 1936 version, 124 pages first published in the newspaper Le Petit Vingtième in 1934-1935. But, instead of the black and white of the time, they are colorized. The back cover announces « a unique color palette, the nuances of which particularly enhance the night scenes, thus revealing the intensity of the action and the beauty of the vignettes ».« Tintin in the Land of the Soviets », « Tintin in the Congo » et « Tintin in America » had undergone the same treatment between 2017 and 2020. These colorized albums were praised by Tintinophiles.
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“Non-event”
« Purists weren’t particularly expecting them but, with their large format, they have the charm of the larger images of today’s comics. In the thickness of the line, the dynamism of the adventure, there is a fluidity and a modernity which calls for rediscovery »comments Benoît Peeters, one of the great specialists in the work of Hergé, interviewed by AFP.
The original edition, in black and white, of « Tintin in the Land of the Soviets », is no longer protected by copyright, in the United States only, since January 1. American legislation allows works 95 years old to be exploited, regardless of the date of their author’s death. Which allows this 1929 album to be freely reissued.
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The rights holders of the Belgian designer see it as a « non-event », as they told BFMTV in December. « The economic stakes are low. Tintin has little presence in the United States, as we saw with the relative success of Spielberg’s film », confirms Benoît Peeters, evoking « The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn »in 2011. In Europe or Canada, Tintin remains fully protected until January 1, 2054, i.e. 70 years after Hergé’s death in March 1983. The rights holders, namely Hergé’s widow, Fanny Vlamynck, 90 years old , and her second husband, Nick Rodwell, 72 years old, have adopted a die-hard line, in accordance with the last wishes of the creator: strict ban, for anyone to draw Tintin and his acolytes.
“Minutiae and simplicity”
« We often talk about abuse on their part. It must still be said that in the era of piracy and pillaging of books by AI, it is normal to protect the work of an author, even long after his death. And that’s what they do »comments Benoît Peeters. They even go beyond, since the cover of this new Blue lotus, designed from a vignette (found on page 24), as well as all the colors inside, are contemporary choices. It is impossible to say to what extent Hergé would have approved of them. What the preface reminds us is that he retained an eternal gratitude for Chinese art, which he had learned to design his decorations.
« I drew from it my taste for order, my desire to reconcile meticulousness and simplicity, harmony and movement », said Hergé in 1975, quoted in this Blue Lotus of 2025. In Belgium, the Hergé museum in Louvain-la-Neuve addresses this influence in an exhibition entitled « In China with Tintin »which opens Friday. The key character is a Chinese artist based in Brussels, the famous Tchang. A biography, « Tchang Tchong-Jen artist traveler », signed by his daughter, Tchang Yifei, and a Tintin specialist, Dominique Maricq, is also published by Casterman and Moulinsart on Wednesday.
