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Quick & Flupke by Hergé |
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The First 50 years (1930-1982) Although best known for the Adventures of Tintin, Hergé also wrote a series of 310 short comic strips known as Quick et Flupke in French (Kwik en Flupke in Dutch) about two street urchins in Brussels named, of course, Quick and Flupke. The two boys unintentionally cause trouble, often aggrivating their parents, neighbors, shopkeepers, and the police. 
The Quick & Flupke strips (called "gags" in Europe) were published in black and white on the pages of Le Petit Vingtième a weekly youth supplement to the conservative Catholic newspaper, Le Vingtième Siècle. The supplement, which included two pages of Tintin and two of Quick & Flupke, appeared every Thursday starting in January 1930 and continuing until May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium. From time to time, the Quick & Flupke strips were gathered together in books, 5 in total of 88 to 96 pages each, titled les nouveaux exploits de Quick et Flupke, gamins de Bruxelles (The New Exploits of Quick and Flupke, the kids of Brussels). The first two books were published by the Editions du Petit Vingtième while the last three and all the subsequent books were published by the Casterman publishing house. Volume 1 (1930) was reprinted as a replica book in 2011. Some of the strips were also republished in the 50's in Tintin magazine, conceived by Raymond Leblanc, this time colored by Studios Hergé.Hergé eventually abandoned Quick & Flupke in order to spend more time on The Adventures of Tintin, his more famous series. Over the years, most of the strips were colored by Studios Hergé and published in two series of books, both titled Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke by the Casterman publishing house. Series 1 (serie) was 10 books of 30 pages each published between 1949 and 1961. This series plus an additional volume 11 was reprinted in the mid to late 60's with solid color covers without background stars. Series 2 (recueil) was 6 volumes of 62 pages each published from 1975 to 1982. Covers from books in all three of the series are shown below. (Click on any image for a larger pic.) 
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 Tintin Magazine 27 June 1951, #26 had Quick and Flupke on the cover and a 2-page strip inside.  21 Dec. 1950: Quick and Flupke cover and strip. |
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| 11 books published 1949-1960, reprinted late 60's, full color, 30 pages each |
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| First printing (1949-60) had stars on the cover background, second printing had solid color covers |
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Archives Hergé, Volume 2, (1978) In 1978, Casterman printed a 258-page large format hardcover book containing 8 black-and-white full-page comic strips (gags) of "Cet Amiable M. Mops" (The Amicable Mr. Mops). Flupke appeared in the last of these strips. The remainder of the book (pages 20-258) contains black-and-white reproductions of 120 single- and double-page Quick and Flupke strips. Many of these are the earlier strips and 23 of them do not appear in any of the later three series of books. The book has only two pages of text; the rest is devoted to reprints of the Mr. Mops and Quick & Flupke strips. Price of the book, when you can find it, ranges from 30€ to $200 or more. |
Later Days and Re-releases (1985-1991)
A few years later between 1985 and 1991, 253 of Hergé's strips were re-issued in 11 hardcover volumes, 48 pages each, published by Casterman. Interestingly, the first book in the new series, Haute Tension, is not by Hergé but by Johan de Moor, the son of Hergé's assistant Bob de Moor. It has an additional 23 strips, for a grand total of 276 in the 1985-91 series.
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Quick & Flupke 2-volume set, (2002) Two-volume boxed set (148 pages ea), contains a selection of strips (gags) in black and white with text comments. Has the same material as the 1978 Archives book, but also includes 30 additional plates of strips or other illustrations from the 1930s. One section of comments is an analysis of the creative process of Hergé, the other describes the history of releases. Book published Nov. 2002; still in print and available for 50€ in France and Belgium but priced much higher elsewhere. |
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Reprint of first 11 Les Exploits books (2011) In September, 2011, Casterman reprinted the Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke 1949-1960 series in two books. Volume 1 (182 pages) contains Serie 1 to 6 (1949-1954). Volume 2 contains Serie 7 to 11 (1956-1961) in 152 pages. Vol 1 has the same cover design as Serie 1 (1949) except it is pea green in color and in the lower right it reads, "1E VOLUME" rather than "1E SERIE." Vol 2 has the same cover as the reprint of Serie 7 (1967) and is also the same color yellow, but it has stars on it unlike the 1967 reprint. These books are currently in print and easy to mistake for one of the earlier volumes. Their list price is about 20€, but some unscrupulous sellers are listing them for 60€ or more. |
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Printed English Translations (1992-present)
The first two Quick & Flupke books by Hergé (Jeux Interdits and Tout va Bien) were translated into English by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, who had previously translated the Tintin books. These two books, Double Trouble and Two of a Kind were published in 1992 in paperback (softcover) form by Mammoth, an imprint of Mandarin, which is part of Reed International Books. The text in the English volumes is lettered in a different style from both the French books and the other Hergé books in English.
In January 2008, Euro Books India (a subsidiary of Egmont, UK) released English translations in softcover form of all 11 titles that were originally written by Hergé. Currently, these are available only in India, although Egmont planned to gradually release them in the UK. Two of them (#4, Under Full Sail, and #12, Fasten Your seat Belts), were released in 2009. Interestingly, these translations by David Radzinowicz are different from the India English translations, which are not attributed to any specific person. More books were to have been released in the UK in 2010-11, but none were. When will more be released outside of India? No one is saying.
Interestingly, the first two books in the series were given different titles in the India release by Euro Books; Double Trouble was called Forbidden Games and Two of a Kind was renamed Everything's Fine (see images above). Go figure.
I am seeking to buy the following books myself; if you can help, please let me know. Les Exploits... first series (1947-60) #3, #7, #10, #11. I'm also looking for the Jo & Zette book, The Secret Ray, Sundancer/Moulinsart, 1994.
On-line English Translations (2011-present)
I am a great fan of Hergé's work and was disappointed that so few English translations are available in the US and UK, some of which are very difficult to find today. Knowing very little French, I set out on a quest to find people willing to translate the books from French into English. Caleb of CTD Productions, another Hergé fan, tanslated three of the books and I translated Haute Tension by Johan de Moor.
Compounding the translation problem is the fact that many of the strips actually have two "gags," the visual one, which you often can understand from the drawings alone, and a second verbal or language gag. These do not translate easily, or sometimes at all. It's like translating Inspector Clouseau's scenes from the Pink Panther films into French—it just doesn't work.
For example, in the strip, "Competition," on pages 14-15 in Haute Tension, Flupke is making a sign and asks Quick if the word cravatte has one T or two so the sign will be correct. But then he misspells the word "chez" (home) as "chè" which, for some reason, is hilarious to a native French speaker, but is completely incomprehensible and impossible to translate into English. (In my translation, I changed the word gag altogether.)
This is not a money-making project by any means, it is a labor of love. However, the translated books are certainly worth something, so I'm making all four of them (48 pages each) available as four PDF files (NOT paper books) for just $5.00, payable by PayPal. You can view these PDF files on your computer, Kindle reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Adobe Reader X, Android (with one of the many PDF apps), etc. If you want hard copy (like a book) you can print out the files. All money from this project goes to Beyond the Walls, a non-profit organization that helps needy people around the world.
One sample double-page gag from each of the 4 books is shown below (click on it for a full-size PDF image of 2 sample pages from each of the 4 books). Each PDF file of an entire 48-page book is quite large so if you buy all four books for $5.00, I will send you the PDF files as four separate e-mail attachments.
Obtaining Quick & Flupke Books
You can buy Hergé's Tintin books in just about every large bookshop and from many on-line web sites. Not so with Quick & Flupke. For those, you're going to have to look far and wide, make some friends in Belgium, France, or India and pay some high shipping costs. For example, the English translations from Euro Books in India have a list price of 199 rupees (about $4.15) and can often be found at discounters for less than half of that. But most vendors will not ship them out of India. So by the time you find a guy in Australia who got them from India and is willing to send them to the USA, you wind up paying $25 or $30. This chart shows the range of prices I've found recently on eBay, Amazon, Abe Books, and other booksellers. Currently, one vendor, PrintsAsia, stocks and ships the Indian Euro Books from New York for $4.00 + $3.99 postage per book (no matter how many are in the order). Euro Books do not seem to be available in other English-speaking countries (UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc.)
| Book or Book Series | Belgium, France | UK | USA |
| les nouveaus exploits (1930-40) | 190 - 985€ ea | ||
| 1930 Replica (facsimile) Edition (2011) | 16 - 19€ | £17 - 25 | $46 |
| Les Exploits (Serie 1-11, 1947-1960) | 10 - 180€ ea | ||
| Les Exploits (Recueil 1-6, 1975-1982) | 5 - 28€ ea | £19 and up | $100 - $130 ea |
| Archives Hergé-2: Les Aventures de Monsieur Mops, Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke, 1978 | 27 - 80€ | £40 - 120 | $140 - $200 |
| French book series (12 vols, 1985-1991) | 2,5 - 10€ ea | £6 - 9 ea | $12 - $25 ea |
| Jouez magazine (1987-88) | 5 - 20€ | ||
| Quick & Flupke 2-volume set (2002) | 45 - 50€ | £40 - 90 | $115 - $140 |
| Les Exploits (Volumes 1 & 2, 2011) | 19 - 60€ | £20 - 29 ea | $50 - $70 |
| English Translations | |||
| Double Trouble, Mammoth, UK, 1992 | £12 - 25 | $85 - $200 | |
| Two of a Kind, Mammoth, UK, 1992 | £12 - 25 | $35 - $150 | |
| 11-book series, Euro Books, India, 2008 List price 199 rupees ea. (approx. $4.15) | $6 - $30 ea | ||
| Under Full Sail, Fasten Your Seat Belts, Egmont, UK, 2009 | £5 - 8 ea List price: £6.99 | $10 - $20 ea | |
| PDF files, 4 books, SwapMeetDave.com, 2011 | 3,35€ for all 4 | £3.40 for all 4 | $5 for all 4 |
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