This English language edition of Tintin in the Congo, in colour, completes the series of 24 Tintin adventures, created by Herge, making it an essential volume for collectors. Tintin au Congo first appeared in June 1930, in "Le Petit Vingtieme", the children's supplement to the Brussels newspaper "Le Vingtieme Siecle", 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 Vingtieme 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 Herge 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, Herge redrew page 56, and the revised version of this page is included here. ln his portrayal of the Belgian Congo, the young Herge 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.