Certainly, Pierre Assouline, Benoît Peeters and especially Philippe Goddin recounted in their respective biographies, in great detail, the relationship between Hergé and Casterman. But until now there was no detailed work on the saga of Tintin’s album editor. It is now done, with the imposing Casterman, from Tintin to Tardi by Florian Moine, published a few months ago in New Impressions. His book is an adaptation of his thesis History directed by Pascal Ory and supported in 2020.

The researcher began his story in 1919, when the brothers Louis and Gérard Casterman gave new life to the family business, founded in 1776. Publishers of religious texts and children’s literature, the Casterman also printed Belgian telephone directories and railway guides (for the state), and publications from other publishing companies. Thanks to one of their commercial directors, Charles Lesne, Hergé agreed to illustrate books from 1932, before entrusting to Casterman, from 1934, the edition of his albums.

Florian Moine brings many new or little known anecdotes. Thus, we learn that, in the 1930s, the best-seller of Casterman editions was not an adventure of Tintin, but the biography of Queen Astrid by Jeanne Cappe. Moine also recalls that on the French border, until the 1950s, a comic book was not considered a book but classified as an image album or coloring album, whose tariffs were higher. Something Casterman vigorously contested.

The arrival of the Lombard editions in 1946 posed a major threat to the Tournai firm. Ultimately, Raymond Leblanc and his French counterpart Dargaud were able to agree with their competitor, entrusting him with the marketing of the Tintin newspaper’s unsold items in the form of collections, and the printing of derivatives and Asterix albums. . 

Florian Moine talks about the successes (the Martine series, etc.), but also the failures of the publisher. For example, the first stories of Corto Maltese sold very badly. Faced with this setback, Didier Platteau proposed to Hugo Pratt to publish the 161 plates of La Ballade de la mer salée in a paperback, in black and white. Released in 1975, this new volume attracted readers who loved adult literature more than comics. The object was in a way the first graphic novel of the Casterman editions, and was followed, in 1978, by the birth of the magazine (to follow).

Continuing its activities, the Casterman House suffered severe economic difficulties at the end of the century. Bought by Flammarion in 1999, it is now in the fold of the Madrigall group. But this is another story.

Although not exclusively devoted to Tintin, Florian Moine’s book is certainly the most important work of 2022 for a Hergé specialist.