The war period was a special time for the adventures of Tintin & Snowy. In fact, before 10 May 40, Hergé pre-published all his stories in a weekly supplement called Le Petit Vingtième. This Thursday recreational publication for children was linked to the newspaper Le XXème siècle, which was published mainly in Brussels, with a circulation of around 30,000.

But on 10 May 40, the day Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany, Hergé had to stop publishing abruptly, as the magazine was closed for good.

Hergé joined another newspaper, "Le Soir", which was controlled by the occupying forces for all the information it contained. Hence the name "Soir volé", which had a daily circulation of almost 300,000 copies and was distributed throughout Belgium. Ten times more than his previous paper. From The mysterious star The rhythm will be found in a daily black & white strip, which he will then use to compose the 62 coloured pages for the album, which will be published by Casterman.

The Secret of the Unicorn was published as a serial from June 1942 to January 1943, before being released as a colour album with a look that delighted Hergé.

On 15 September 1943, Charles Lesne, his contact at Casterman for the last 10 years, wrote to him: "And here is 'La Licorne'. I'm sending you the very first finished copy in paperback so that you can have a look at this new child as soon as possible". - The sale will take place on 5 October with a 4th plate A20 n° authorisation 1785-1786-1787 as for L'Oreille & L'Ile noire. He was jubilant and replied: "Thank you so much for sending me this hot off the press. This one is really very good, and the small imperfections that you point out, and rightly so, are more than compensated for by the care taken with the vast majority of the drawings: the naval combat passage is particularly well done. Great progress, too, on the title page and page 1, which look very attractive. My congratulations to the printer-publisher for the quality of the printing and the precision of the register".

While the first edition of his Etoile Mystérieuse had a print run of 12,000 copies a year earlier, this new edition at the end of '43 had a print run of 30,000, which gives an idea of the character's growing notoriety. And it was all thanks to his contribution to this newspaper, read by the whole of Belgium, since it was impossible to find any other daily news except perhaps Radio Londres ....

A remainder of this edition will be printed in 500 copies with the rare 4^th Plate A21: authorisation no. 5593 1786. See attached image of the slip from the Casterman archives. 

This first edition of the Unicorn will be sold out immediately!