Every year hundreds of thousands of people go to comic book conventions and unknown to them, like the fast food joints they eat at while at the cons, there is a secret menu of items. This is Secret Convention Items.
Fan’s of Hergé’s classic series Tintin are typically the rabid fans to the point where they will rip apart any fan works. As well, the family of the classic comic creator has famously fought with vigilance against any fan works or parody of the series. Unknown to many fans then is the existence of the only canon Tintin fan work created by a very young Grant Morrison in a chance encounter.
The comic depicting an extraordinarily trippy adventure through the metaphysical realms with the classic Tintin cast was penned by now famous Scottish comic writer Grant Morrison in his early days.
On a random encounter at a comic convention Hergé and Morrison met and discussed comics. Morrison was able to impress Hergé enough to look at his fan comic at which point to push the comic artist further, signed the book and wrote official art. Pictures were taken, proof exists but the unfortunate events that hit afterwards caused the comic to fall out of the public memory.
Morrison during a brief trip to the United State years later returned home to find his apartment looted and various early works stolen including his original ending for Animal Man. Among the missing work was the signed Tintin fan comic. When reported though, none of the stolen material or a criminal was ever found.
Then 4 years ago in the Sudan the stolen comics and scripts turned up during a brief military ku and the comics were sold to a traveling comics fan who had been trapped in the area at the time of the ku. The writer contact Morrison but was unable to schedule a meeting with the creator who apparently thought the entire discovery was a hoax brought by his clone from another universe.
After assessing the value of the box (somewhere about $420,000) the collection was divided up and sold at auction. Once again though, the night before the auction, the Tintin comic was stolen from the New York auction house.
It has appeared in various places but is currently owned by Daniel Smith of Lexington Kentucky’s House Of Heroes Comics. He is unaware of the value of the comic and has the comic worth thousands in the dollar bin.
