Comics, they make movies, books, games, apparel, etc., etc. The Comic Book Market has appeared in the news multiple times. Not for braving all the odds and saving the planet like the heroes in them, but something similar (saving the comic industry) that keeps the comic market alive. They have often made the news for their invaluable auctions that fetch more than one can guess. Yeah, the comics market is one growing greenish market.

Got to start somewhere, so we decided lets talk about Tintin and The Shooting Star. Yeah, Tintin, the ace-intrepid-investigative Belgian reporter who along with his white Wire Fox Terrier, Snowy, goes for adventures braving all the odds. The Shooting Star is the tenth volume of the Adventures of Tintin by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, in which Tintin and Snowy and friend Captain Haddock going on a scientific expedition to the Arctic Ocean on an international race in pursuit of the meteorite that fell to the Earth. 

Did you know: Georges Prosper Remi’s pseudonym was Hergé 

The original cover for Tintin’s tenth volume “The Shooting Star” has been sold for €2.5 mn, making it a near-record for a comic artwork. 

The art was on sale at the Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair (BRAFA) by Huberty & Breyne, a Brussels-based gallery dedicated to comic book art. As per AFP, Marina David of Petits Papiers-Huberty-Breyne had said that a European investor bought the work, and no further details were shared except that the buyer was neither Belgian nor French. The work shows Tintin and Snowy looking bewildered as a huge, red, white-capped mushroom swells up out of a beach. The price, 2.5 mn euros, is one of the highest for a Hergé. 

In 2019, the cover of the first Tintin book fetched $1.12 million.

In 2016, the 50cm x 35cm drawing in Chinese ink by the Belgian cartoonist known as Hergé shows the boy reporter, his dog, Snowy, and sailor Captain Haddock wearing spacesuits and walking on the moon looking at Earth was sold for E€1.55m in Paris. 

Alongside the moon drawings, Artcurial also sold 20 ink sketches including Tintin and Snowy skiing, or the Thompson twins ice-skating, Hergé created for a series of New Year greeting cards known as his “snow cards” were brought for €1.2m.

And again in 2016, a drawing from The Blue Lotus depicting Tintin and Snowy in Shanghai was brought by an Asian investor paid $1.2m.

Almost around mid-2016, the artwork of the original last two pages of King Ottokar’s Sceptre fetched $1.2m (£1m), while almost by at the start of the late-2015, a double-page slate from the same book was sold for more than €1.5m.

In 2014, a two-page spread drawn in Indian ink depicting Tintin in various risky escapades against the villains of his day was sold for €2.65 mn in Paris. 

In 2014, as per the auction site—eBay, a near-flawless edition of Action Comics No. 1 featuring Superman dating from June 1938 bought the hammer down at $3.2 million following intense bidding at the last minute. 

Again 2014, at Artcurial, a plate by Hergé broke the record for a piece of comic art selling for €2.519 mn ($3.434 mn).

Most of Herge’s work is held by a family foundation, and the “The Shooting Star” cover design was put up for sale by a private collector.  

In 2012, the 1932 cover illustration of Tintin in America was auctioned for €1.3m.

These sales and auctions convey that the market for comic books and art is brewing strong.

^{Pic Credits: Courtesy of Moulinsart}