LES AVENTURES DE TINTIN
THE CASTAFIORE EMERALD / DE BIJOUS VAN DE CASTAFIORE
was
the most translated of all Tintin adventures. Prior to it, only major
international languages (English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian, Chinese, Indi, Japanese, Thai) would translate the Tintin
titles to a large audience.
In addition of National languages, Tintin was aslso transalated in a number of dialets from Monégasque, to Swiss German and including Belgian Wallon, Flemish, Picard and Provençal.
The Adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of comic
strips created by Belgian artist Herge the pen name of Georges Remi
(1907 1983). The series first appeared in French in Le Petit Vingtieme, a
children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle on
10 January 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely
mirroring our own, Herge's Tintin series continues to be a favorite of
readers and critics alike 80 years later.
The hero of the series is
Tintin, a young Belgian reporter. He is aided in his adventures from the
beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (Milou in French).
Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash, cynical and
grumpy Captain Haddock, the bright but hearing-impaired Professor
Calculus (Professeur Tournesol) and other colorful supporting characters
such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (Dupond et
Dupont). Herge himself features in several of the comics as a background
character; as do his assistants in some instances.
The success of
the series saw the serialized strips collected into a series of albums
(24 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for film and
theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the
20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more
than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.