In February 1942, Casterman suggested to Hergé that his books be published in a new format; 62-pages rather than the former 100 to 130 pages, and now in full colour rather than black-and-white. He agreed to this, and in 1943 "The Crab with the Golden Claws" was re-edited and coloured for publication as an album in 1944. Due to the changes in how the adventure had been serialised at , the album at this juncture was only 58 pages long, and thus Hergé filled the missing pages with four full-page colour frames, thus bringing it up to the standard 62-page format.