In 1958, Hergé asked the famous Belgian creator of comic strips, Greg (Michél Regnier) to make a synopsis for a possible story with Tintin. Greg presented two ideas, Les Pilules and Le Thermozéro. These were two parallell files, one that developed the story and another concentrating on possible gags, as Greg was well aware of the fact that Hergé wanted to develop those himself.
Tintin and
Haddock are out driving in a car. Outside a service station, Haddock
argues with a large man (who happens to belong to a secret
organization). Soon afterwards, the large man overturns our friends
with his Volkswagen Beetle, but he loses control over the car and
crashes in a tree.
Tintin and
Haddock helps the injured man and some other persons turn up; Jolyon
Wagg and his family, an American from Dallas named Larry (or Harry)
Larmon and two mysterious, german-speaking men. When the injured man
spots them, he gets scared and hides something in his pocket.
The storyline would have taken Tintin to the heart of Berlin, but Hergé interrupted this project at the end of 1960 after having sketched eight pages, preferring to maintain complete control over his work.
In 1959, the
production company Belvision started to produce seven animated
Tintin-films for television, adapted by Greg. Fairly successful, this
series convinced Belvision to produce two films for the cinema. In
1969, Greg adapted The Seven Crystal Balls and The
Prisoners of the Sun into one film. In 1972 came the second
animated Tintin movie, Tintin and the Lake of Sharks.
To avoid the problems with the adaption of an existing album, this film
was an original story of Greg's. In addition to this, Greg was also
Editor-in-Chief of Tintin-magazine from 1964 to
1973.