Publication History
Prisoners of the Sun was the first Tintin adventure to be published in the newly-created Tintin Magazine in 1946. The pages were published in a landscape design crossing two central pages rather than the standard portrait way. The original version begins with Tintin on his way to Marlinspike following his visit to the hospital where he witnessed the mass panic attack of the explorers in The Seven Crystal Balls.
In order to fit the story into 62 pages when published in book form, many scenes had to be edited out.
The edited or deleted scenes included:
- Tintin, walking to Marlinspike, is so engrossed by a newspaper report of recent events that he misses a plank of wood and falls into a river. (The story then proceeds to Haddock and Tintin setting off for the city port and on to Peru. These events were ultimately published in the book The Seven Crystal Balls.)
- When Tintin meets Alcazar at the port and Chiquito on board the ship, the three men act as if the meeting at the theatre in The Seven Crystal Balls had never taken place. Those scenes had originally been published in 1943 and Hergé may have felt that readers needed more than just a reminder.
- While waiting for Zorrino near the bridge in Peru, Tintin and Haddock meet the mysterious Indian who gave Tintin the medallion. He smiles at Haddock's insults with the words "Anger is bad for one's health, señor."
- While walking through the mountains, Haddock discovers a skull mounted on a pole. A terrified Zorrino says that it is a warning that he is under sentence of death for guiding foreigners to the Temple of the Sun.
- During their trek through the jungle, Tintin shoots a jaguar as it leaps towards them, and Zorrino strikes a snake with a stick when it attempts to bite Haddock.
- Haddock discovers and pockets gold in the Inca's cave behind the waterfall. He is later forced to give up the gold in order to get through the hole into the Inca tomb.
This original version was published in book form in France and Belgium in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Prisoners Of The Sun
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