Sad news

Franquin died on 5th of January 1997. His work will live on...

This text appeared in a compilation of ``the best comics ever''. The editor is Måns Gahrton. I assume he or Jon Gisle, who took care of the Norwegian edition wrote this. Translated from Norwegian to English by Nicolai Langfeldt.

André

Self portrait of André Franquin as Gaston

Belgium has set tracks in the history of comics in many ways. Here Hergé created Tintin, and here André Franquin was born. He was born i Brussels in 1923, and in 1945 he got a job in a animated movie studio. Here he got to know two artists, who together with him, were to continue the tradition left by Hergé. One of them was Pierre Culliford (known as Peyo), who created the ``Smurfs'', and the other was Maurice de Bévère (known as Morris), who draws ``Lucky Luke''. (Morris has also done the manuscript of a couple of Lucky Luke stories, but most of the stories are by René Goscinny. Goscinny is most famous for ``Asterix'' (See separate Asterix page), that he created in 1958 with the help of the drawer Albert Uderzo.)

But there are few that can create so much action and humor in one single panel that André Franquin can. In the beginning he drew in a style reminiscent of Hergé, with clear, prescise lines. As time passed his style grew more relaxed and the drawings sped up, and more and more lines appeared in each pannel, not the least of which were the ``movies'' (lines that elude to movement). Franquin's style grew into a alternative to Hergé's ``clear line''. Franquin evolved his style to perfection and became an ideal himself. In addition to the distinct lines and all the movement in his drawings his style is distinctive because everything is caricated, not only humans and animals, but also things.

A comic called Spirou (se separate Spirou page) appeared for the first time in 1938. The main character was a bell boy in red uniform, the comic, made by Robert Velter (known as Rob-Vel), was a mediocre copy of The Adventures of Tintin. In 1944 Joseph Gillain took over the comic. Gillain, who signed Jijé, enhanced it, but quit after only two years. This gave Franquin the chance, in 1946, to try his hand, continuing in the middle of a story!

Franquin made Spirou into one of the leading comic adventures, and he evolved the characters, the adventurer Spirou and his choleric companion, Fantasio. In 1952 he invented the fantastic animal that got the name Marsupilami, it became the comic's most popular supporting character. So popular that it later got it's own comic, in addition to a pseudo scientific publication about marsupilamiology.

From ``Dark sides''
- Oh well, they weren't completely stupid, they left us some fine homes.

Franquin has more comics on his conscience, among others ``Dark sides'' (Norwegian title: ``Sorte Sider''), a collection of dark, bizarre humor. His most popular comic is from something boring, a office, but it's still one of the most popular comics ever made! The main character is a inventive, lazy, somewhat removed from reality, a office assistant named Gaston, that incessantly brings confusion and destruction to the publishing offices where he works. (See separate Gaston page) Incidentally the same offices that publish Spirou. Franquin started Gaston in 1957, and it became the reason for Franquin to leave Spirou to Jean-Claude Fournier in 1969. Franquins shoes were too big to fill for Fournier. And after some very mediocre albums by the partners Nic & Cauvin it was taken over by the current author and drawer, Philippe Vandevelde and Jean Richard Geurts (called ``Tome & Janry''). From their first album (Norwegian title: ``Virus'') they showed that the comic finally was back in good hands. Since that the albums have gotten more and more readers. In paralell Tome & Janry now draw another comic, one about the childhood of Spirou (Norwegian name: ``Lille Sprint''), that has gotten awards for both best comic and best childrens comic in Angulêne, where Europes largest comic convention is arranged every year.

...

I have received a mail from Pierre-François ``PiF'' Le Faou about this article, he points out some errors:

Hello Nicolai, I watched your "uncool" homepage, looking for a link with COMICS !! And especially your translation of the article about Franquin. I'm a newcomer on the Web but an experienced Parisian Franquin collector, so let me precise you some tiny details : Franquin is born in 1924 (3.rd January), not in 1923 ; he found a work at a cartoon studio (CBA) in september 1944 (not 1945) ; there he met 3 future comics artists, not 2 (Eddy Paape wasn't mentioned) ; Jijé began to make Spirou in 1943, not 1944.

Terje A. Langvand has a Marsupilami page with pictures. Also try searching for ``Franquin'' on the European Comics on the Web page.

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