Misplaced Pages

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40-624: The Secret of the Swordfish was first published in Tintin magazine from the very first issue in September 1946. In 1950, the first 18 pages were redrawn and reduced to 17 pages—giving more details on the background of the events leading up to the main plot—and the first half of the story was published as the very first comic album by publisher Lombard , in the later famous Collection du Lombard . A second part followed in 1953. The two part edition

80-616: A change of art style. In order to keep its readership loyal, Tintin magazine created a sort of fidelity passport, called the "Chèque Tintin" in France (Tintin-voucher) and "Timbre Tintin" in Belgium (Tintin-stamp), which was offered with every issue of the magazine, in every comic album by Le Lombard , and on many food products as well. These stamps could be exchanged for various gifts not available in commercial establishments. Other brands, mostly from food companies, affiliated themselves with

120-656: A cheaper version was created as well: Chez Nous (in French) / Ons Volkske (in Dutch), printed on cheaper paper and featuring mainly reprints from Tintin magazine, plus some new series by Tibet and Studio Vandersteen. In the 1960s the magazine kept on attracting new artists. The editorial line was clearly bent towards humor, with Greg (as editor-in-chief and author of series such as the remake of Zig et Puce ), Jo-El Azara (with Taka Takata ), Dany (with Olivier Rameau ) and Dupa (with Cubitus ). Other authors joined

160-441: A drastic solution; concentrate all the base's efforts on the assembly of only two working Swordfish, which should be enough to destroy a Yellow invasion force. He estimates thirty hours are all the time needed to accomplish this, and Admiral Grey gives him his word that the base will hold. The next morning, a vast Yellow task force, composed of an aircraft carrier battle group and a number of land and air forces, appears and surrounds

200-549: A financial disaster. The circulation of the magazine dropped dramatically, and publication of the Dutch version Kuifje ceased in 1992, and the French version, renamed Hello Bédé , finally disappeared in 1993. From the beginning, Tintin magazine was in competition with Spirou magazine. As part of a gentlemen's agreement between the two publishers, Raymond Leblanc of Le Lombard and Charles Dupuis of Dupuis , if one artist

240-541: A report to the high council of the Yellow Empire. The Yellow are having more and more difficulty controlling their new empire; rebellions and acts of terrorism have continued worldwide, and despite their best efforts, they have still not been able to sweat the Swordfish plans out of Mortimer. As chief of the Empire's security service, Olrik is the natural scapegoat for this state of affairs; he therefore decides to take

280-403: A small publishing house after World War II, and decided to create an illustrated youth magazine. They decided that Tintin would be the perfect hero, as he was already very well known. Business partner André Sinave went to see Tintin author Hergé , and proposed creating the magazine. Hergé, who had worked for Le Soir during the war, was being prosecuted for having allegedly collaborated with

320-584: A small town in the Herat province . There, they are quickly betrayed by a Yellow spy. The episode ends with a cliffhanger: the soldiers of the Yellow army are directed to the room where Blake and Mortimer are staying and as they enter they find an astonishing surprise (naturally the reader can only see their reaction, not the cause of it). "Mortimer's Escape" takes place in two distinct halves. The first one picks up right where "Ruthless Pursuit" left off. After finding

360-493: Is rescued by Blake and Nasir, who then take him to a submarine and manage to escape under the nose of the Yellow navy and air force. "SX1 counterattacks", the third part of the saga, begins soon after Mortimer's escape. In the first pages, British commandos attack and capture a Yellow train taking imprisoned scientists to a forced labor camp. The scientists are freed and taken back to the Hormuz base, where they also begin to work on

400-494: The 1970s were: And more in the humor vein: The 1980s showed a steady decline of popularity of Tintin magazine, with different short-lived attempts to attract a new audience. Adolescents and adults preferred the magazine À Suivre , if they read comics at all, and younger children seemed less inclined to read comic magazines and preferred albums . Still, some important new authors and series started, including Grzegorz Rosiński , with Thorgal , and Andreas , with Rork . At

440-632: The British military has been secretly working on a new type of superweapon known as the Swordfish, in anticipation of the war. Forewarned of the attack by a traitor in the Yellow army, Captain Francis Blake, a British officer, and Professor Phillip Mortimer, the scientist developing the Swordfish, escape with the superweapon's plans, their destination being a secret base in the Middle East where they will be able to finish their work. The rest of

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480-421: The British publisher Cinebook Limited published a hardcover collection of the series titled; Valerian: The Complete Collection , spread over seven volumes, with three to four stories in each book. These volumes are in full original color, printed on glossy paper and measure 220 mm × 290 mm. In 2019 Cinebook launched a hardcover book series collecting the complete output of Lucky Luke . Olivier Cadic

520-605: The Franco-Belgian comic publishers Dargaud , Dupuis and Le Lombard – into English and have also issued an original series about the French Queen Marguerite de Valois , also known as Queen Margot. Cinebook works with a team of translators, including native speakers of French , British English and American English . So far, the company has published, or plans to publish, the following comic series in softcover editions: During 2017 and 2018

560-537: The Germans, and thus was without a publisher. After consulting with his friend Edgar Pierre Jacobs , Hergé agreed. The first issue, published on 26 September 1946, was in French. It featured Hergé, Jacobs, Paul Cuvelier and Jacques Laudy as artists , with their mutual friend Jacques Van Melkebeke serving as editor. (Due to suspicions of incivism left over from the war, Van Melkebeke was forced to step down as editor soon after.) A Dutch edition, entitled Kuifje ,

600-509: The Swordfish project. Soon after this, acts of sabotage begin to disrupt the base, and Blake suspects that one of the captured scientists was actually a Yellow mole. This is eventually revealed to be none other than Olrik himself, who personally undertook the operation in an attempt to reestablish his reputation before the Emperor. Olrik manages to escape from the base, and the British are faced with an imminent Yellow invasion. Mortimer suggests

640-506: The Tintin voucher system: they could be found on flour, semolina boxes, etc. A Tintin soda existed, and even Tintin shoes. The French Railways Company went as far as to propose 100 km of railway transportation for 800 stamps. Among the gifts, there were super chromos extracted from the magazine issues, or original art. At the time the vouchers were initiated, the magazine was selling 80,000 copies in Belgium and only 70,000 in France. Due to

680-423: The Yellow (including many of the incidents that Olrik is being blamed for). They now have two urgent priorities; first, to find the lost plans and second, to break Mortimer out of prison. The first problem is resolved when Mortimer is able to pass a message to Nasir telling him where the plans are hidden. Soon after this, Mortimer almost manages a prison break on his own; before the Yellow are able to capture him, he

720-414: The Yellow task force in minutes, though one of them is lost in combat. The base is saved, and Sir William Grey launches a radio call to the resistance movements of the world telling them the news and urging them to revolt. In the following week, open rebellions erupt worldwide, taxing the overextended resources of the Yellow to the limit until the Emperor decides to end the war by launching ICBMs against all

760-440: The base. The initial attacks are defeated and turned back by the heroic efforts of the British. Olrik then deploys new chemical weapons against the base, which allow the Yellow to gain a foothold and slowly begin to work their way inwards, but both Mortimer and Grey keep their word, and the two Swordfish (designated SX1 and SX2, hence the title) are finished in time. The weapons, piloted by Blake and Mortimer, are unleashed and destroy

800-689: The end of 1980, the Belgian edition was cancelled, leaving the French edition remaining. In 1988, the circulation of the French version had dropped to 100,000, and when the contract between the Hergé family and Raymond Leblanc finished, the name was changed to Tintin Reporter . Alain Baran, a friend of Hergé, tried to revive the magazine in December 1992. The magazine disappeared after six months, leaving behind

840-552: The end of his contract. Some artists moved from Spirou to Tintin like Eddy Paape and Liliane & Fred Funcken , while some went from Tintin to Spirou like Raymond Macherot and Berck . Cinebook Ltd Cinebook Ltd is a British publishing company that publishes comic albums and graphic novels . It describes itself as "the 9th art publisher," the 9th art being comics in continental Europe, especially France, Belgium and Italy. They typically translate Franco-Belgian comics – predominantly originating from

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880-488: The episode follows their attempts to escape the pursuing Yellow forces, led by the cunning and conniving Colonel Olrik, Basam Damdu's chief of security. They initially escape from Britain in a jet-powered airplane called the "Golden Rocket", but are shot down somewhere over Iran by Yellow interceptors, and must continue the trek to the secret base on foot. Along the way, they encounter resistance fighter Ahmed Nasir, who becomes an invaluable help to them, and finally seek refuge in

920-401: The gloves completely off and torture Mortimer as harshly as necessary, hoping to finally elicit a confession. Under instructions from Nasir, who has managed to infiltrate his prison, Mortimer pretends to relent, and agrees to reconstitute the Swordfish plans for the Yellow. After this, in the secret base, Blake and the admiral in command, Sir William Grey, have been conducting resistance against

960-472: The largest European animation studio, producing ten feature-length movies, including a few featuring Tintin. It was Van Milleghem who also introduced Bob De Moor to the magazine and to Hergé. De Moor became a regular in the magazine and the main artist in the Studio Hergé .) In 1948, the magazine grew from 12 to 20 pages and a separate version for France was launched. A group of new young artists joined

1000-695: The last word - "hopefully, this time, for good". The three parts are published in English as The Secret of The Swordfish Volume 1: Ruthless Pursuit , The Secret of The Swordfish Volume 2: Mortimer's Escape and The Secret of The Swordfish Volume 3: SX1 Counterattacks in 1986 by Les Editions Blake and Mortimer. Cinebook Ltd republished these three volumes in 2013. Chavanne, Renaud (October 2005): Edgar P. Jacobs & Le Secret de l'Explosion . Paris, Editions PLG, collection Mémoire Vive . ISBN   2-9522729-1-3 Tintin (magazine) Tintin ( French : Le Journal de Tintin ; Dutch : Kuifje )

1040-409: The magazine, like William Vance (with Ringo and Bruno Brazil ) and Hermann (with Bernard Prince ). In the 1970s the comics scene in France and Belgium went through important changes. The mood for magazines had declined in favor of albums in the late 1960s. In 1965, Greg was appointed chief editor. He transformed the editorial line, in order to keep the pace with the new way of thinking of

1080-553: The reader is told that the enemy is an Asian superpower known as "the Yellow Empire ", ruled by the Emperor Basam Damdu; the free world and the Yellow Empire have been locked in a cold war for the past three years. Within the first few pages of the book, the Yellow launch a worldwide aggression with modern rockets, bombers and paratroopers that quickly destroy and conquer the world's other major powers. However,

1120-448: The rebel targets (with Olrik strapped to one of the rockets as punishment for his failures). Before he can do this, however, an entire squadron of Swordfish arrives over Lhassa and nukes the city, killing Basam Damdu and decapitating the Yellow Empire under Olrik's mocking eyes. The last scene shows Blake and Mortimer back in a ruined and destroyed London, with Blake commenting that they will rebuild and that civilization, once again, has had

1160-453: The room empty, the enraged Yellow commander orders his troops to search the city until they find Blake and Mortimer; the commander executes one of the community's elders in the process when the latter refuses to cooperate. This sparks an immediate insurrection in which the outraged townsmen quickly massacre the Yellow troops; in the ensuing chaos, Blake and Mortimer emerge from hiding and take off again, still with Nasir helping them. Eventually,

1200-494: The success of the vouchers, the circulation in France quickly rose to 300,000 a week. The vouchers disappeared by the end of the 1960s. In the 1950s new artists and series showed up: The magazine became more and more international and successful: at one time, there were separate versions for France, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, with about 600,000 copies a week. The magazine had increased to 32 pages, and

1240-545: The team: the French Étienne Le Rallic and Jacques Martin , Dino Attanasio and the Flemish Willy Vandersteen . For decades, Hergé had artistic control over the magazine, even though he was sometimes absent for long periods and new work of his became rarer. His influence is highly evident in Vandersteen's Suske en Wiske for which Hergé imposed a stronger attention to the stories, editing, and

The Secret of the Swordfish - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-583: The three of them make it to the Strait of Hormuz, but Blake is injured and loses the wallet containing the Swordfish plans while trying to escape a Yellow patrol. Mortimer then tells Nasir to take Blake to safety, while he returns to search for the plans. He is himself then captured by Yellow troops, but not before he is able to find and conceal the plans. The second half of the episode begins three months later in Lhassa (the Yellow capital), with Colonel Olrik making

1320-581: The time. The characters gained psychological dimensions, real women characters appeared, and sex. New foreign artists series were added to the magazine. Moralizing articles and long biographies disappeared as well. These transformations were crowned with success, leading to the Yellow Kid prize at the Lucca comics festival , awarded to the magazine in 1972 for the best publication of the year. Greg quit his chief editor position in 1974. The major new authors in

1360-578: Was a weekly Belgian comics magazine of the second half of the 20th century. Subtitled "The Magazine for the Youth from 7 to 77" , it was one of the major publications of the Franco-Belgian comics scene and published such notable series as Blake and Mortimer , Alix , and the principal title The Adventures of Tintin . Originally published by Le Lombard , the first issue was released in 1946, and it ceased publication in 1993. Tintin magazine

1400-695: Was given the French National Order of Merit , according to the Birmingham Mail this award is: A vindication of his work to make an important part of French culture available in the English-speaking world through Cinebook, as the ambassador himself noted when noting the publisher had now printed twice as many Lucky Luke books in the last three years as had been published in the previous fifty. A 2013 article from DowntheTubes.net discusses how Cinebook have been criticized for

1440-596: Was of considerable interest to fans, for example alternate versions of pages of the Tintin stories, and interviews with authors and artists. Not every comic appearing in Tintin was later put into book form, which was another incentive to subscribe to the magazine. If the quality of Tintin printing was high compared to American comic books through the 1970s, the quality of the albums was superb, utilizing expensive paper and printing processes (and having correspondingly high prices). Raymond Leblanc and his partners had started

1480-489: Was part of an elaborate publishing scheme. The magazine's primary content focused on a new page or two from several forthcoming comic albums that had yet to be published as a whole, thus drawing weekly readers who could not bear to wait for entire albums. There were several ongoing stories at any given time, giving wide exposure to lesser-known artists. Tintin was also available bound as a hardcover or softcover collection. The content always included filler material, some of which

1520-441: Was published by one of the magazines, he would not be published by the other one. One notable exception, however, was André Franquin , who in 1955, after a dispute with his editor, moved from the more popular Spirou to Tintin . The dispute was quickly settled, but by then Franquin had signed an agreement with Tintin for five years. He created Modeste et Pompon for Tintin while pursuing work for Spirou . He quit Tintin at

1560-444: Was published simultaneously (Kuifje being the name of the eponymous character Tintin in Dutch). 40,000 copies were released in French, and 20,000 in Dutch. For Kuifje , a separate editor-in-chief was appointed, Karel Van Milleghem. He invented the famous slogan "The magazine for the youth from 7 to 77", later picked up by the other editions. (Van Milleghem gave Raymond Leblanc the idea for the animation studio Belvision , which became

1600-409: Was reprinted 9 times between 1955 and 1982. A single volume edition was published in 1964. In 1984, the story was republished in three parts, with new lettering and colouring, and with the inclusion of a number of full page illustrations that had appeared in the magazine but were omitted from the comic albums. The first volume, "Ruthless Pursuit", opens on the eve of a World War. Details are scarce, but

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