Spirou: Origins [Part 3 of 3]

[houbanaut]

When Spirou was created by Rob-Vel, he was a rather blank and anonymous character. And even though Franquin later expanded his personality and gave him a human dimension, he still lacks a true psychology. ... I had so many questions: Why does he wear a hotel uniform when he never works as a bellhop? Has he ever been in love? Does he have any political views? How did he and Fantasio become lifelong friends? Who is Fantasio, anyway? And Spip, who is he? How come he can think?
— Émile Bravo

This is my last post in the series that explores the origins of Spirou. The first focused on the creation of the character and the early years of the series before Franquin, while the second presented Tome & Janry's comedic versions of Spirou's childhood. I'll wrap it up with Émile Bravo's acclaimed origin story, Le journal d'un ingénu and its prequel, but first I'd like to come at it from another angle: What are the experiences that turn readers (and future comic book artists) into Spirou fans?

Reading and Making Spirou

In 2008, for its 70-year anniversary, Spirou magazine invited whole bunch of famous artists to draw a one-page comic on the subject of "Spirou and me." The wide variety of responses can be seen on the Spirou Tribute Gallery. José-Luis Munuera had recently been replaced as the artist on the series, and in his contribution to the project, he looks back at his complicated history with Spirou, both as a reader and a creator:


"JD" is Jean-David Morvan, the writer on Munuera's albums. "Christian" is presumably the colorist, Christian Lerolle. (And as for their inspirations, Greg wrote some of the classic albums and Jijé drew the series before Franquin.) Nezchan posted an excerpt of Paris-sous-Seine ("Paris under Seine," a pun on those "Stratford-upon-Avon" style town names), the album that's mentioned, and both Morvan and Munuera actually responded. (He seems like a nice guy.)

By the way, the reason why El País didn't publish The Prisoner of Buddha (1958) until 1983 was that few foreign comics were allowed during the Franco regime. That's touched upon in the contribution by Émile Bravo, in a story that takes place a few years earlier:



I especially like this story because I can recognize some of my own experiences from reading comics as a kid. (Also, I should probably mention that I had trouble with the translation of both the one-pagers, and I won't guarantee the accuracy of the captions in the final panels in particular.)

The Making of Spirou

While Morvan and Munuera were writing and drawing the main Spirou series, Dupuis also launched a parallel series of out-of-continuity one-shots. These were given more freedom from the editorial restrictions the two official creators suffered under, and could explore variations on the character and the premise. The results have not always been successful, but the 4th entry in the series, Émile Bravo's 2008 Spirou: Le journal d'un ingénu (hard to translate; an "ingénu" is a young boy who is innocent or naïve due to inexperience; "A Boy's Diary" would be an approximate rendering) was an unqualified critical and commercial hit. The review in The Comics Reporter is a fairly typical rave. The title and logo is an obvious homage to the original Journal de Spirou design. (Less obviously, Spirou is standing on a Belgian flag edged with tiny swastikas and hammer-and-sickles.) Bravo is going back to Spirou's beginning, in the run-up to World War II. One of the things he's doing is bridging Rob-Vel's original character with the (very different) one established by Franquin.

OK, let's just get to it (7 pages out of 67):

You may recognize the portly porter as Entresol, from the early Rob-Vel stories.

Meanwhile, Spirou has been dragged away by some younger kids to broker a dispute. When his diplomatic efforts fail, he gets caught in the middle of the fight.



Later on, a glamorous couple check in. The concierge recognizes the woman:




Other stuff happens at the hotel, but let's move on...




You gotta love Fantasio's incredibly creepy vibe here. I would have made a run for it much sooner.




It shouldn't be giving away too much to say that the rest is a story of love, friendship, growing up, and war. Hopefully it will be available in English some day.

Back to the Beginning

Following up on Le journal d'un ingénu, Bravo made a short prequel called La loi du plus fort ("The Law of the Jungle") that ran in the anniversary issue #3653 of Spirou. Here then, finally, we get to see how it all started (About 1 2/3 pages out of 5):

St. Pancrace Orphanage, 1938. Two orphans, René and Jean-Baptiste, are playing in the chapel when they find the key to the altar wine. René is upset; he explains that his dad was a drunk who killed his mom and died in prison. He says that he'll piss in the wine, and asks Jean-Baptiste if his parents are dead too:



The priest (Father Albert), who is drunk and crazy, charges at them in a rage, but knocks over the ladder...



The cross hits him over the head, killing him. Jean-Baptiste is trapped under the body, and asks René to help him:


Having apparently been caught in the act, René is accused and summarily tried for murder. Jean-Baptiste's perfectly reasonable objection that the boy could hardly lift the cross, much less bash in a man's head with it, is ignored. He himself is expelled from the orphanage:



The priest tries to get Jean-Baptiste to admit that René killed Father Albert to "protect his [Jean-Bapt's] innocence," a notion he seems unhealthily fixated on. Jean-Baptiste doesn't understand...



While the priest goes off to talk to the director, a bellhop approaches Jean-Baptiste:



From the context, I'm guessing that, like spirou, spip is also a slang/dialect word for squirrel in French. "Redhead" is roux, pronounced like "-rou." I assume you've sussed out the identity of Jean-Baptiste by now.

Jean-Baptiste promises Fulgence that once he starts working, he'll help him out and things won't be so bad. He aces the interview and is hired on the spot:



And with that "FIN," we're back to the beginning, and to the end of this series. Hope you enjoyed it!

Comments

[arilou_skiff]

Ah, I've kind of got that wartime Spirou story spoiled (well, not spoiled as such I guess) but I've always wanted to read it...

[rhythmbandit]

Thanks for another great entry, I never knew anything about French comics but I'm slowly being enlightened. Sucks that Spirou: Le journal d'un ingénu isn't in English yet, it looks great.

[lakrids404]

Great entries.

I grew up with Franquins Spiro and they were one of my favorite comics series. But I knew very little about the new and old Spiro.

And it's rather sad, that now when I have the moneys. The comic book industry has nearly disappeared from Denmark both foreign and inland

[icon_uk]

Sigh, have to say, the more I read of these, the more I regret not stocking up on some Spirou when I've been in France. Thank you!

Oh, and ingenue is in common enough usage in English to describe a girl who is almost completely naive and wholesomely innocent, so ingénu would be the male equivalent.

[houbanaut]

Yeah, that's what I meant. English only has the feminine form, rendering the title untranslatable in any straight-forward way.

If only Spirou was a girl, the translation would be easy!


From La Vallée des Bannis. Not sure how "wholesome" she is, though...

[nezchan]

I'm not sure you can get "completely naive and wholesomely innocent" from that image...

[schala_kid]

This is all interesting, my first exposure to Spirou was a spanish translation of the Spirou et Fantasio cartoon, if it wasn't for sd I would probably have never known that he was a comic characters and much less about his history and origins.

Thank you scans_daily!

[caeliluminar]

I love Spirou: Le journal d'un ingénu, it's sadly the only Spirou story written in the 00s I've actually liked. And that first meeting between Spirou and Fantasio reads to me as Fantasio creepily hitting on Spirou no matter how many times I read it.

[houbanaut]

Oh yeah, definitely! It becomes even creepier if you work out the age disparity. (Spirou is what, maybe 15? And Fantasio is a grown man, probably in his early twenties.)

It's such a creepy scene I think it'd actually make for a more interesting preview image. (Updated!)

[morgana006]

The art in these stories are particularly nice.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So the electrical shock gives Spip human intelligence? I suppose it's one explanation.
That Entresol character is really a brute, isn't he? Do we ever see him get a comeuppance, or does he pretty much get abandoned with the rest of the hotel staff when Spirou starts having adventures?

[houbanaut]

Yeah, doing the secret origin of Spip's intelligence is maybe an instance of over-rationalizing something that doesn't really need an explanation. It pays off quite poignantly in the epilogue, though.

As for Entresol, do you mean historically, or in this story specifically? In Rob-Vel's original version, he wasn't such a bad guy, more just the authority figure who acted as Spirou's foil. The two of them even seemed to get along well enough in a couple of stories. He disappeared from the cast once Spirou left the hotel; I think this was his last appearance.

In Le journal d'un ingénu he shows up a few more times, and Spirou gets the better of him each time, but not in any conclusive way. I've heard rumors that Bravo is doing a sequel to the album, so maybe we'll get more closure then.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm not sure what I meant, really - it just seemed to me that Entresol was a nasty piece of work, and deserved a good comeuppance.

[parusmajor]

Thanks again for a great post :)

I had heard of "Le journal d'un ingénu", and I'd heard of people saying that Spirou & Fantasio's first meeting appears like Fantasio's hitting on Spirou. I had also seen scans, but it's great to finally read the scene in English and find out what exactly are they saying! LOL Fantasio, why so creepy

The last comic with Spirou/Jean-Baptiste: I don't think I've ever heard of that one before, and whoa :o Spirou's normally so clean and pure, so it's interesting that his origins are interpreted there as kinda dark (what with a drunk priest getting killed and all).

[nezchan]

Not to mention, Fantasio looks entirely too comfortable in a dress.

[ondine]

ooh, i love bravo's artwork.

[nezchan]

This was the first Spirou volume I ever bought, and I'm glad of it. The art and pacing are fantastic, although I'm not fond of the "electricity made him intelligent" origin for Spip. I prefer him as just gifted naturally and his development is due to being close to Spirou all the time.

[houbanaut]

Thanks for the responses, guys. Glad a few of you enjoyed it!

I'm probably going to take a break from Spirou for a while, but does anyone have any particular requests for when I get back to it (or for anyone else who feels like posting more ex-bellhop adventures)?

A couple of personal faves I was thinking of were "Spirou in the Ring," an early Franquin story where Spirou takes on a neighborhood bully in a back alley boxing match, and "Spirou in Moscow," by Tome & Janry, where Spirou and Fantasio gets detailed against their will as KGB agents to hunt down a Russian mobster.

[amethyste]

Thank you so much for this entry! ❤ I've read the actual Bravo album, but I never had the chance to read the prequel (as I do not live in Belgium or France).

To be honest, I'm not sure if I like these AU stories set in the WW2 era. Sure, Bravo did fantastic job there, no question, the comic book is fantastic with regards to everything - from artwork to dramatic development. But I'm just not sure how to think of the fact that those hors serie artists just go and create whatever they want, just using existing characters as a playground. In case of Spirou, it's more like an instant promotion of one's work, too. In my opinion, the theme, and the way it was executed (gloomy and depressingly realistic - touching upon themes such as Stalin purges and child abuse) does not really fit the Spirou universe. If Bravo wanted to make a WW2 story so badly, he could have used his own characters for it. Just my two cents, though - everyone except for me seems to be crazy for those hors serie stories, anyway. Even a German magazine which never reports about comics anyway has praised them, so w/e.

Again, thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading your comments on the chosen scenes. (: Going to save the pages now~

[gurundie]

A massive THANK YOU for all your posts. I hadn't logged in to Dreamwidth for long and it's a great pleasure that the first posts that I read after such a long time of absence were about my favourite comic characters, Spirou and Fantasio!

I grew up reading Franquin's comics - I still love them, and in my country (Indonesia) some of the titles are re-released, along with some works by Marvin & Munuera and Tome & Janry. I still love Franquin's the best - maybe because of their long history with me, but then again I really love his Spirou who loses his temper easily. To me that's cute :)

Now I've just got to find this Le journal d'un ingenu :)

[eyz]

What? There's a Spirou post on Scans-daily??
And I haven't commented her yet??

I love Spirou! Huge franco-belgium comics (aka Bande dessinée) fan here!
Got all of the albums!^^