Sales: Over 200 million The adventures of Tintin, the boy wonder I think he was supposed to be a journalist, which makes sense, since we all live in mansions and have at least one salty sea captain friend have been delighting audiences since 1929. Beginning as a serialised strip in Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Tintin was popular enough to be spun off into his own magazine, to be translated into over 70 languages, and to reach sales of more than 200 million. The globe-trotting Adventures of Tintin have reached new generations of fans through the French-Canadian cartoon in the early 90s and the recent film by Steven Spielberg, but it's the original comics that people always come back to: Herge's signature ligne claire art style, his intensively-researched stories and boundless imagination are what make them so darn popular.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
