A page of original art from the Tintin story Explorers on the Moon, drawn by series creator Herge (the nom de plume of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi), earned 1.55 million euros ($1.64 million) at auction, the highest sum ever earned by a page of Herge’s art, reports BBC.

Paris auction house Artcurial had estimated that the drawing, which is in Chinese ink and measures 50 x 53 cm, would fetch 700,000 - 900,000 euros.

The page, which was originally part of the serialized Explorers on the Moon story that appeared in Tintin magazine between October 1952 and December 1953 and was collected in 1954, depicts Tintin, his dog Snowy, and Captain Haddock traversing the surface of the Moon.

Tintin art pieces have been setting records for a while. The Tintin endpapers sold for $3.5 million in 2014 (see "Comic Art Sells for $3.5 Million"), and a Tintin cover sold for $1.6 million in 2012 (see "'Tintin' Cover Sold for $1.6 Million").

Tintin remains an eternally popular character in kids comics around the world, with translations into dozens of languages and 230 million copies in print. It also inspired a 2011 CG movie directed by Steven Spielberg.