Same fervor from this French couple who machine-gun the window: “We came across it by chance while discovering the city. We all knew Tintin. At my parents’ house, there are always all the albums and we saw the cartoons.” But in their bag, no souvenir of the journalist or Snowy despite their visit to the store. And this is the whole challenge that Tintin has had to face in recent years.
We visited several booksellers to find out if “Tintinmania” still existed.
“Conserve Hergé’s work”
First stop at Multi BD, on the Brussels pedestrian zone. Bernard, also manager of the specialized bookstore obviously aptly named “Moule à Gaufres”, always has at least two copies of each volume of Tintin in stock. “I sell maybe 5,000 a year. In Congo, Chez les Soviets, the Blue Lotus or even the Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure for the film. Boule and Bill, I sell some 50. Tintin has something of heritage.”
The grave of the mother of “Captain Haddock” classified as a historic monument
The bookseller compares it with another Belgian heavyweight: The Smurfs. “The two titles took different trajectories. Already, for the Smurfs there is always current events, unlike Tintin.” IMPS/Lafig, which manages the rights of the little blue men, “sold the license all over the place to make it a family product. Tintinimaginatio sought more to defend and preserve Hergé’s work. Both models are good but, as we can see, a tourist leaves with a Smurfs goodie and with one of the 24 volumes of Tintin.”
Concerning Belgian customers, the observation is more bitter: “A Belgian never buys a volume for himself again. Or he buys books that talk about the story around Tintin, but no longer the original volumes. If he buys one, it is to show his children or grandchildren. The world of comics is evolving, we are not here to defend this or that title but with heroic fantasy, comics, then mangas… Tintin doesn’t have a cell phone. It may seem outdated now to some. But for 10 years, sales have not declined. And the Tintin derivative products are not, however, without remainder. They are of quality and are of interest to both collectors and less knowledgeable people. Having a beautiful rocket in your living room can please anyone.”
“I couldn’t afford not to have this on my shelves.”
Same comment at the House of Comics in Brussels-Central. “Don’t you have any comics in Portuguese?” asks a customer. “Yes, I have Tintin”, Jean-Philippe proudly replies from behind the counter. The shelves overlooked by Milou are always full of tourists. “We have volumes in Hindi, Russian, Ukrainian. It’s historic, known worldwide, translated into more than a hundred languages.” But Jean-Philippe is waiting to see for the future. “There are young people who read Tintin with their parents but in the new generations, manga overwhelms everything so we have to see when the generation that saw the birth of Tintin is gone if the following generations will take over.”
More eccentric, in Uccle in Claude Aronis’ Bleus d’encre bookstore, Captain Haddock, the Dupond and Dupont or Tournesol are sold “still not bad. They are not the best-selling but we sell them all year round. Either way, I couldn’t afford not to have this on my shelves,” proof if one more was needed that Hergé’s universe is not about to be lost.
Let’s leave the capital region and its tourist concentration to go to Mons. At Ligne Claire, a bookstore specializing in comics and particularly in the world of Tintin, “it remains a timeless classic in the community of comic fans but this community is in sharp decline in general. So sales decline over the years. Since real Tintin fans generally have all the albums, they don’t repurchase any.” But the bookstore always sees the return of “nostalgic old people” who buy for themselves.
75 Hergé comics offered at auction in Paris: Quick and Flupke, Jo, Zette and Joko as well as Tintin
“We sold a few. Not a lot”
Succession, as our interlocutors pointed out, is far from assured. Even for a bookseller’s grandson. Philippe, at the helm of Gastu Press for 21 years in Gastuche (Grez-Doiceau), observed this: “I spoke about Tintin to my grandson who is 9 years old and, Tintin, he doesn’t know.” If the reporter always has a place of honor in the store, during this festive period, it is struggling to sell: “OHe sold a few. Not a lot. These are no longer big sales unlike Asterix which has a new album every two years. The last Asterix, we sold 170 to 180. Tintin, as there is no new album, we sell a lot less.”
Once again, it is the Tintin generation that saves him: “At the end of the year, Casterman (the editor) took action for the release of a recolored album. They put all the Tinitins back on the shelves and next week, January 8, the new recolored version of the Blue Lotus is released. I already have someone who stopped by this morning to get it even though it’s not yet in the store.” The Tintin page is still far from being turned but it risks closing after… 77 years.
