If you haven't read Popol and, like me, you get all excited at the thought of an undiscoverd book by Herge - ANY book - forget it. Like any collector, I will try and buy everything produced by certain writers, hence my buying Popol.

I soon discovered why it is renowned as Herge's weakest book - so weak in fact that he allegedly tired of it himself after only 15 pages - and was only ever a one-off. Apparently he was asked by his publishers to draw something for very young children for whom Tintin was too 'grown up': the rsults was a series called The Adventures of Tim the Squirrel out West, in 1931.
This developed into the strip The Adventures of Tom and Millie, in 1933, which became Popol Out West in 1934. The cartoons feature Popol the hatter and his wife Virginia, both of whom are some sort of animal, possibly a bear, and their talking blue mule.

They go to the Wild West of America to sell hats but fall foul of a tribe of rabbit 'Indians' called the Bunokees and an outlaw dog. It might sound pretty dire but the reality is far worse. ( )