New World Record: Tintin Comic Tops $3 Million

Setting a new world record for a comic, a plate of the Belgian comic book Tintin drawn by Hergé was sold for €2.519 million ($3.434 million) at Artcurial in Paris on Saturday, the AFP reports.  The China ink double page spread held a pre-sale estimate of €700,000 to 900,000. It was initially conceived to be used for the front pages of a number of albums published between 1937 and 1958.

It shows the smart reporter and his dog Snowy (Milou in the original French edition) in a variety of situations linked to their famous adventures: Tintin as a cowboy, on a boat, in a plane. The plate also features a picture of Tintin wearing a thick fur coat, an image which is not related to any identified stories. This has led Hergé experts to speculate that the Belgian cartoonist was preparing a new album taking place in the Far North.

The previous record for Hergé was set in 2012, also at Artcurial, when the 1932 cover for Tintin in America fetched €1.3 million.