"The Calculus Affair", the version from the "Tintin" magazine.
"The Calculus Affair", the version from the "Tintin" magazine.
Originally published in Tintin magazine from December 23, 1954 to February 22, 1956, the first version of The Calculus Affair appears for the very first time in album format in an exceptional edition. Page after page, this tense espionage story, set on the border between Syldavia and Borduria, allows Hergé to display the full extent of his narrative and graphic mastery.
As he embarked on The Calculus Affair , Hergé reorganized his working methods. In offices separate from his home, the creator of Tintin had just set up Studios Hergé, a small team capable of assisting him with the creation of the backgrounds and the coloring. Marked by the context of the Cold War and the brain drain, this new adventure brilliantly employs the tropes of the spy story, without neglecting the farcical twists that have characterized The Adventures of Tintin since their inception.
This original version presents numerous variations compared to the final edition, notably its last twenty pages laid out in landscape format. These are presented vertically on a single page, in a slightly reduced size, to improve readability and reading comfort. Carefully restored from the artist's archives, all the pages are brought together here for the first time in their entirety, accompanied by a richly illustrated historical dossier retracing the behind-the-scenes story of the creation of the most Hitchcockian adventure ever produced by Hergé.
After a cancelled sale in the fall of 2025, The Calculus Affair in its Tintin magazine version will be available from October 21st.