HERGE: (1907-1983) Georges Prosper Remi. Belgian cartoonist, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Tintin. An excellent original pencil drawing executed and signed by Herge, one page, small oblong 8vo (approximately 12 x 7.5 cm), n.p., n.d. (early 1960s). Herge's preparatory sketch depicts Tintin and Captain Haddock in three-quarter length poses together as they angrily watch a young girl, Miarka, running away from them (the girl having just bitten the Merchant Marine Captain's hand). Signed ('Hergé') in pencil to the left of the panel, the final version of which was published in the comic album Les Bijoux de la Castafiore (1963; The Castafiore Emerald) and had previously been serialised in the weekly Tintin magazine from July 1961 to September 1962. Rare and desirable in this form. Some very light, minor age wear, with remnants of former affixing to the verso, otherwise G

In the published comic album version of Les Bijoux de la Castafiore the final version of the present drawing appears on page 2 (panel C1) with Captain Haddock declaring 'Mille milliards de mille sabords!' in an angry reaction to having just been bitten on the hand by Miarka, the young Romani girl. Les Bijoux de la Castafiore was the twenty-first volume in Herge's comic album series The Adventures of Tintin and is the only book in the series where the characters remain at Captain Haddock's family estate, Marlinspike Hall. The story has been described as 'the most surprising of Tintin's adventures'.