One Perfect Moment Week: Fantasio

[nezchan]

Since icon_uk made a post about the ultimate sidekick, Obelix, I figured I'd post a Perfect Moment from one of the other great Franco-Belgian sidekicks, Fantasio.



So here's the setup. For almost all of the Spirou series' over 70 year history, Fantasio has been the loyal sidekick of the title character, alternately getting Spirou into and out of trouble, all with a somewhat off-key not-quite-comic-relief bluster. Despite his roots as a simple foil for the adventurous Spirou, Fantasio is capable of some amazing feats of daring, and when his friend is in trouble there's little that can stop him. In short, the epitome of bromance. =D

In this volume, Paris Sous-Seine (my translation), a mad genius has created a device that has immersed the city of Paris, and with their army of robots has also captured their inventor friend Champignac from right in front of them. They, of course, jump into the fray to track down the kidnapper, but in an underwater melee tragedy strikes. The canopy of Spirou's single person mini-sub is shattered, sending his squirrel companion, Spip, into the depths, and into the midst of the robots' assault. Overcome with grief over his only friend older than Fantasio himself, Spirou attempts to leap in after him but Fantasio rescues him and takes him to safety, among many harsh words along the way.



Now is that not a defining moment, with hardly any dialogue on his part (uncharacteristic for the effusive Fantasio), of a true friend willing to step up regardless of the dangers?

And besides, how happy does this panel make the fangirl in me? Pretty damn happy, that's how much.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Awwww... aren't they a cute couple!

[lonewolf23k]

I dare say that Fantasio may just be the ULTIMATE sidekick. Spirou may be the hero of the story, but time and time again, Fantasio has been there to fight alongside him, and the two have rescued one-another so many times it's pointless keeping score there.

There's a reason why most people just treat the series as having two heroes. 'Cause Fantasio is more then just a sidekick.

[nezchan]

Well, that's true. But it's hard to put him up against Obelix and ask "which one's better" since they're both superlative and your comments do apply to both.

One thing I really love about the Morvan/Munuera books is that they get Fantasio, in all his hilarious glory. So did Tome & Janry, for that matter. It remains to be seen what the new team of Yann & Vehlmann will be like, but from the side-story Les Geants Petrifies, it seems promising.

As an aside, I think one of my favourite Fantasio moments is him trying to pick up a girl with "I don't live in my parents' basement anymore!"

[nezchan]

That's what I'm SAYIN'!

[morgana006]

I'm all like "Aww, this is so sweet... There are hundreds of skulls in the background. Um."

[dalf]

YES! Munuera art!
Such a nice guy, and a great artist too. I loved his short run, they really deserved more albums...

[nezchan]

He actually commented on one of the posts I did when we were at IJ, I just about died.

What really gets me is that in an age when print comics are making less and less money, they pulled the plug on the run because of low sales. Way to blame the wrong people.

[nezchan]

I suspect that's based on some real place in Paris. There are a number of old tombs.

[schala_kid]

What the- Tell me Spip isn't dead! TELL ME!!!

[nezchan]

As it happens, no. The robots were programmed to attack humans who got too close to the operations, but to protect animals. So the moment they saw Spip in the water, they saved him and brought him back to home base where he was eventually reunited with Spirou and Fantasio (who seemed even gladder to see him than Spirou, honestly).

[dalf]

I often visit a spanish comic book forum were Munuera usually posts. He's really nice, and tends to joke about himself alot ("You got an award? Big deal, I get nominated to every comic award there is... and I never win anything, but still!").
He once commented that when he met Moebius (his hero), the guy started to ramble about how great his latest Spirou album was, how much he loved the art and the narration. Munuera was about to cry tears of joy, but then Moebius mentioned something about "cool dinosaurs"... and he realized he had been confused with Yann, who had done a recent oneshot.
So, as he says, there was a lot of awkward silence later.

[nezchan]

Oh man, that just hurts!

I'm not afraid to admit that Munuera is one of my favourite comic artists of all time, although most of what I've got of his is the Spirou books and most of the Navis series (I need to pick up the rest, maybe next weekend when I'm downtown for a consultation about my tattoo). I'm sort of obsessed with infusing my own work with motion, and Munuera's got that down cold! His stuff is like action lines with legs, and I find that incredibly appealing.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, while I'm not familiar enough with the series to argue the point, I'd venture to say that Captain Haddock is a pretty close contender for the position as well.