Explorers on the Moon (1954) is the first story recounting a space voyage and the exploration of our satellite by Tintin and his companions, fifteen years before Commander Neil Armstrong ! A remarkably well documented science fiction story with an incredible visionary precision. It was bound to happen. Having journeyed everywhere from America to the Congo to Tibet, Tintin blasts into outer space. Together with his faithful pooch, Snowy, the spunky boy reporter has joined an expedition “based at the Sprodj Atomic Center, high in the Zmyhlpathian Mountains, in the kingdom of Syldavia.” Following a perfect lift-off, the myriad misadventures begin, as the ubiquitous “certified detectives,” Thomson and Thompson, are discovered on board–inadvertent stowaways who threaten to monopolise the ship’s precious oxygen supply. All’s well that lands well, however, as Tintin and his colleagues return safely.

‘Hergé’ was born Georges Remi on 22 May, 1907 in Etterbeek, a suburb of Brussels, in Belgium. After leaving school, he worked for the daily newspaper, Le XXe Siècle (The 20th Century). He was responsible the for the section of the newspaper designed for children. Tintin, the main character in his works, was introduced on January 10, 1929 in a story entitled ‘Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.’ Each story ran as a comic strip in the newspaper and then was published as a book. Some of these books were adapted for the small screen including The Crab With The Golden Claws, Star of Mystery, Red Rackham’s Treasure, Black Island, Objective Moon and The Calculus Affair. French TV produced longer versions of twenty of the books in 1992, which have been broadcast in over fifty countries. On 3 March, 1983, he died in Brussels. At the time of his death, he was working on Tintin and the Alpha-Art, which was published in an unfinished form.

First U.S. Edition

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