Since he first appeared in Hergé's weekly cartoon strip in Le Petit Vingtième in Paris in 1929, Tintin - the intrepid young reporter and world explorer - has become one of the most celebrated characters in the history of the comic world. With more than 200 million copies of the famous 24 "albums" sold worldwide, Hergé's iconic hero has exploded genres and expectations, bringing readers of all ages to his stories for their unique mixture of artistry, history, and adventure.

Drawing on the archives of the Hergé Museum in Brussels, this book is the first to explore Hergé's masterpieces from an artistic perspective. Setting aside the contextual theories behind the stories, which have dominated interest in Tintin for so long, the book looks at the evolution of Hergé's artwork itself, from the broader simplicity of the early newspaper strips to the genre-defining sophisticated graphic work of the later books. An avid art collector, Hergé was inspired by Old Masters but infatuated with graphic design and modern art, from the Constructivist work he studied in his youth to the Lichtensteins and Miros he would travel to see in his maturity. Produced in collaboration with Moulinsart and the Hergé Museum, and with an introduction and essays by the Belgian art critic Pierre Sterckx - translated by the British expert on Tintin, Michael Farr - this is the definitive book on the art of Tintin. With pencil sketches, character drawings, and watercolors that have never been published before alongside original artwork from the finished stories themselves, the book illuminates Tintin's progress from whimsical caricature to profound icon, and reveals Hergé's parallel development from cartoonist to artist unlike existing biographies of Hergé or compendiums of Tintin albums.