Now available! Tintin's adventures in Hindi

Billions of bilious blue blustering barnacles! The adventures of francophone boy detective Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock are now available in Hindi.

That means hundreds of millions of Indians will be able to read the cartoon books, written and drawn by Belgian author Hergé who created the peripatetic hero 80 years ago. Until now, they have only been available in English, Bengali or 78 other languages they are less likely to speak.

The first eight of the original books translated into Hindi are now on sale, with four more coming soon.

Translator Puneet Gupta had problems with some of the language, especially Captain Haddock’s famous exclamations, like the one above.

Hergé sent Tintin to India in three of his 24 titles - The Blue Lotus, Cigars of the Pharaoh and Tintin in Tibet.

He has been criticised for a European colonial-era outlook, with an attempt to ban Tintin in the Congo in Belgium.