An essential volume for collectors. Tintin au Congo was first published in book form in French in 1931. This translation by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, the original Tintin translators, includes a fascinating foreword describing the publication history of Tintin's African adventure, and placing it in its historical context.

This English language edition of Tintin in the Congo, in colour, completes the series of 24 Tintin adventures, created by Hergé, making it an essential volume for collectors. Tintin au Congo first appeared in June 1930, in "Le Petit Vingtième", the children's supplement to the Brussels newspaper "Le Vingtième Siècle", where it was published as a serial over a period of a year. ln 1931 the story was published in book form by Les Editions du Petit Vingtième and a few months later by Editions Casterman of Tournai. The first English language edition, translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, was published in 1991 by Sundancer, London.

Tintin in the Congo featured the full length version of the story with black and white illustrations. ln 1946 Tintin au Congo was revised by Hergé and published in colour by Casterman in the standard 64-page album format. lt is from this edition that the present book is translated. ln addition, when Tintin au Congo was later to be published in translation in Scandinavia, Hergé redrew page 56, and the revised version of this page is included here. ln his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Hergé reflects the colonial attitudes of the time. He himself admitted that he depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period - an interpretation that some of today's readers may find offensive. The same could be said of his treatment of big-game hunting.