The Hergé Museum has officially opened in Louvain-la-Neuve, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. The museum is dedicated to the work of Hergé (Georges Remi), who created the Tintin comic-books.

The hero of the series is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful fox terrier dog Milou (Snowy in English).

The first adventure was published in 1929. Over 200 million copies have been sold worldwide. Even today Tintin and Snowy are making waves in recently translated Chinese copies in Asia.

CAPTAIN Haddock would have choked on his whisky: original artwork for a Tintin comic book fetched a record US$1.2 million at a Paris auction on March 29th.

The 1932 oil painting, executed for the iconic cover of Tintin in America smashed the previous world record for an original comic book work.

That was set in March 2007 when a drawing by artist Enki Bilal called Bleu Sang (Blue Blood) fetched €177,000.