Luckily, he rediscovered a new kind of ingenuity for his other gag-a-day series, Gaston Lagaffe.įranquin decided to spend more time with Gaston Lagaffe, passing on the pen for Spirou. The last story about “baby”-Zorglub in Champignac felt like he had lost the lightning he once had in a bottle – I don’t really consider this graphic novel part of his golden age. New regular characters were soon introduced, fantastic inventions created ahead of time, and the stories became fascinating.įor me, this lasted up until about 1963 after which Franquin gradually moved towards a more intricate, rubber-like style. The first stories were full of action and humor, but it was not until about 1950 that Franquin really found his style. André Franquin took over the series in 1946 as the third artist. In 1943, the series was continued by Joseph “Jijé” Gillain, who invented Fantasio, Spirou’s best friend. It’s quite ludicrous and definitely affects the first impression negatively, but the later stories by Franquin are so excellent that I quickly learned to turn the blind eye to it. Right from this beginning Spirou wore a bellhop uniform that would become a hallmark of the entire series – kind of like Donald Duck always wearing a sailor shirt and cap. The eponymous protagonist was originally an elevator operator at a hotel together with Spip, a pet squirrel. Spirou was actually invented back in 1938 by Robert Velter. I’ve always been used to the shorter Danish names, but for this article I’ll keep referring to the original French names. Unfortunately, the characters in the series doesn’t have proper English names. Another reason why I like this period so much. In most of this golden age of the series, Franquin conformed to a clear line of style ( Ligne claire) – much like in Tintin. But only when we’re talking about those created by the Belgian artist André Franquin (1924-1997) and only during what I consider to be his golden age – the graphic novels from about 1950-1963. This series had amazing novels with an energy and an ingenuity that made for truly unique stories that deserve to be put up there on the golden shelf of fame. See this blog post for a small introduction.Īs an European, my childhood reading was dominated by the Franco-Belgian graphic novels, of which the most renowned titles today are probably Tintin, Lucky Luke and Asterix.īut right up there in top with all of those certainly was Spirou and Fantasio. This is part of a blog series about European graphic novels.
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