Tintin Facsimile Color Edition - The Secret of the Unicorn

Facsimiles are identical copies of the first editions of Tintin's albums. Like The Shooting Star before it, The Secret of the Unicorn was published in color from its first album edition. However, its pre-publication in the daily press (Le Soir) was in black and white, in small strips of a few panels. The facsimile reproduces, as usual, the original edition. Dated 1943, it is recognizable by the German occupier's authorization numbers at the bottom of the back cover: 1785 - 1786 - 1787. There are few differences in text or drawing between this first version and the one distributed today: the correction of a Belgianism, one or two spelling or typographical errors ("Monsieur" becomes, more correctly, "monsieur" without an unnecessary capital letter). The Unicorn's flag is not blue in the panels, although it appears to be on the cover and will become so after a few reprints. For many Tintin enthusiasts, this cycle of two albums (The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure) represents a pinnacle of Hergé's art, both graphically and narratively.