Collecting Tintin Memorabilia
Many of us were introduced to Herge’s hero Tintin as children and collecting Tintin memorabilia takes us back to our childhoods. After completing his military service in an infantry regiment Herge became a cartoonist and photo engraver and later married Germaine Kieckens. It wasn’t until Wallez asked him to develop his own comic strip that the idea for Tintin was born. His only brief was to create a young heroic character that would fight for good against evil all over the world.
Appearing in the 11th edition of Le Petit Vingtieme from January 10, 1929, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was the beginning of a series that would eventually have a huge cult following. Along with his faithful sidekick, a white fox terrier called Sowy (Milou), ollecting Tintin memorabilia takes us back to our childhoods. After completing his military service in an infantry regiment, Herge became a cartoonist and photo engraver and later met and married Germaine Kieckens. It wasn’t until Wallez asked himn to develop hiTintin the reporter set off on an action-packed adventure in the Soviet Union. Issued in album form in 1930, 500 copies were printed and signed with the names of Tintin and Milou. Although hard to find, these early examples are extremely sought after and highly prized.
Filed under Comics | Tags: collecting, collecting Tintin memorabilia, Tintin, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in Tibet, Tintin memorabilia | Comment (0)Batman
Batman was first mentioned in Detective Comic,#26 in 1939 and acquired his sidekick, Robin, in 1940, which is also the year in which the first Batman comic was published. The title was drawn by Bob Kane and written by Bill Fingers.
Items relating to the original character are highly prized. His debut comic appearance is still the most sought after of all Batman collectables with an estimated value of around £100,000. Something slightly more affordable is edition 407 from May 1987, entitled Batman Year One Part 4, and is signed on the front cover by Kane, was recently valued at £375.  Kane was a prolific doodler and sometimes donated one-off Batman related sketches to fans.
the main Batman comic has had many directions and notable story lines, such as Year One when Batman returns to his darker side. In 1988, A Death in the Family featured this death of Robin, that being the second Robin, Jason Todd. Two versions of issue #428 were produced, one featuring an injured Robin and the other a ‘killed’ Robin.
Fans were allowed to vote in issue #427 and poor Robin lost by 72 votes, which meant that The Joker was allowed to complete the dirty deed. The original Robin character was known as Dick Grayson and has moved on to become another character called Nightwing, founding member of the Teen Titans.
Batman was helped to survive by strong villains and storylines. The characters, especially The Joker, are highly collectable. At the Christie’s Vintage Film Poster sale, which took place in September 2000, a limited edition black leather bomber jacket with a detachable black sheepskin collar sold for almost £650. This jacket was made unique by the fact that it was decorated with a patch printed with the Batman logo. The left arm displayed a badge printed with the face of The Joker.
Apart from comics, action figures and toys are one of the largest collectable lines. Companies such as Kenner and Hasbro have been producing Batman action figures for a number of years relating to the films and cartoon series. Tin toys, especially those made by Japanese manufacturers are very collectable too. In July 2000 at the Christie’s T.V. Generation auction a Nomura toy for Fairylite, was sold for £940. It was battery operated with blue, dark blue and yellow lithographed and painted tinplate, a foot high and came complete with a vinyl head and fabric cape. If that price is a bit steep, the
Filed under Comics | Tags: Batman, Comics, Kane, Robin, Superheros, the Joker | Comment (0)