Herge Anna Ralphs Today

Back in 1998, Anna Ralphs—then an 86-year-old widow living in Dorset—received a letter from the young designer who had found her signature. The letter asked a simple question: “Were you the second hand of Hergé?”

What followed was a quiet revolution in Tintin scholarship. Anna produced a small portfolio of personal sketches from 1936–37, including a full-page ink of “Tintin in a Forest” that had never been published. The trees, she pointed out, were drawn with a stippling technique Hergé never used—but that matched English textile patterns of the era. herge anna ralphs

Anna returned to England, married, and became a textile designer under her married name. She never spoke of Tintin again. Back in 1998, Anna Ralphs—then an 86-year-old widow