Herge Hergé Tintin and Snowy sketch with dedication.

I finally acquired a Hergé sketch of Tintin and Snowy and wanted to share it! There I was in Paris, walking around. Stumbled upon a lovely European comic shop with a treasure trove on Euro comics and vintage ones too. In the showcase was this piece...I thought about it. Left. It ate at me and I returned the next day. After ascertaining its providence (sold via Piasa auction in 2010), I pulled out my credit card and made it mine.

This sketch is done in turquoise/blue ink and circa 1956. It's sketched to Serge Praillet on a YMCA Brussels postcard. There's a lovely story behind the sketch and card. Back in 1953, the YMCA moved opposite Herge's garden and he was displeased with the ruckus they made. He finally bought the land from them and they had an afternoon event 3 years later. I suspect this sketch was done at said event in 1956!

So the story goes via: http://en.tintin.com/news/index/rub/0/id/3794/0/did-herge-live-near-marlinspike-hall

D.M. : At one point there was a neighbourly dispute between the comic-strip author and a YMCA youth club from Bousval, which established a base on land opposite the artist's garden. The anecdote has recently been told in an issue of Hergé magazine, published by Studios Hergé: 'The shouting, screaming and boisterous squawking of young children, was too much for Hergé and his neighbours. Repeated warnings seemed to have no effect, and appeals for calm didn't improve the situation. When they learned that the youth club had bought more land to enlarge its territory, Hergé and his neighbours went to court. It is an astonishing story: Hergé, ex-scout patrol leader and prodigious illustrator of a Belgian scout magazine, was forced into opposing the activities of another youth movement!'

But everything finished with singing and... drawing?

D.M. : In the end, the whole matter was ended amiably. Hergé bought the land from the youth club which, with the money, was able to establish itself further away in a wood where, three years later, they invited the artist for an afternoon event. The children and their supervisors were disguised as characters from The Adventures of Tintin. Today there remain a few photographs and a short film of the event, which I managed to acquire.

When I bought it, it came in this frame. But it will soon be properly mounted in archival materials.

The card has aged surprisingly well!