Tintin strips fetch record prices in Paris auctions

Two original Tintin comic strips were expected to break records at auction in Paris on Saturday. One sold for 1.55 million euros.

An exhibition of Hergé's work is on at Paris's Grand Palais at the moment Siegfried Forster / RFI

The first strip, a page from the 1954 Explorers on the Moon sold 1.55 million euros, auctioneers Artcurial announced on Saturday.

The page, entitled "We walk on the moon", has the boy reporter, his dog Snowy and blundering sidekick Captain Haddock making their first moon walk from their red and white rocket.

Artcurial valued it at least 900,000 euros.

Belgian artist Hergé (real name Georges Remi), who died in 1983, already holds the world record for the sale of a comic strip.

A double-page ink drawing that served as the inside cover for all the Tintin adventures published between 1937 and 1958, sold for 3.5 million euros to an American fan two years ago.

Saturday's sales are expected to break records for single strips.

Rival auction house Christie's is putting drawings from another rare Hergé strip up for sale later in the day in Paris.

It said the page from the unfinished story Tintin and the Thermozero, estimated at 250,000 euros, was the first ever to come to market.