31-602: André Franquin ( French: [fʁɑ̃kɛ̃] ; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist , whose best-known creations are Gaston and Marsupilami . He also produced the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period seen by many as the series' golden age. Franquin was born in Etterbeek in 1924. Although he started drawing at an early age, Franquin got his first actual drawing lessons at École Saint-Luc in 1943. A year later, however,
62-432: A gag series which included contributions from René Goscinny (of Astérix fame) and Peyo. Franquin later returned to Spirou , but his contractual commitment to Tintin meant that he had to contribute to both magazines, an unusual arrangement in the comic industry. The series was later passed on to authors such as Dino Attanasio and Mittéï (Jean Mariette). In 1957, Spirou chief editor Yvan Delporte gave Franquin
93-400: A great deal of different occupations within the comics industry. In 1955, upon becoming editor-in-chief of Spirou in place of Charles Dupuis , a long-lasting collaboration with Franquin began, which would spawn many creations. This profile of a European comics creator, writer, or artist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Bandes dessinées –related article
124-403: A poor draftsman". Franquin was a prominent member of the first generation of the “ Marcinelle School ” (École de Marcinelle), also formed by Morris and Will, who would be joined during the 50s by the second generation including, among others, Peyo, Tillieux , and two subsequent generations joining during the 60s and 70-80s. Within this group, Franquin's influence was uncontested, especially among
155-463: A time. This happened between 1961 and 1963, in the middle of QRN sur Bretzelburg . During this time, he continued to draw Gaston despite his ill health, most likely because of the lighter nature of the series. (In one story, Bravo Les Brothers , Gaston's antics drive his boss Fantasio to yet another nervous breakdown. In desperation he takes some anti-depressants which "Franquin left behind".) In 1967, Franquin passed Spirou et Fantasio on to
186-589: A weekly magazine about radio and culture. He also worked for Plein Jeu , a monthly scouting magazine. During this time, Morris and Franquin were coached by Joseph Gillain ( Jijé ), who had transformed a section of his house into a workspace for the two young comics artists and Will . Jijé was then producing many of the comics that were published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou , including its flagship series Spirou et Fantasio . The team he had assembled at
217-540: A younger artist, Jean-Claude Fournier , and began to work full-time on his own creations. Gaston gradually evolved from pure slapstick humor to feature themes important to Franquin, such as pacifism and environmentalism . Franquin also used its characters in paid ad strips he drew and worked with the strip on and off until his death. The 1960s saw a clear evolution in Franquin's style, which grew more loose and intricate. This graphical evolution would continue throughout
248-531: Is credited with several creative contributions, among these his collaborations with Peyo on The Smurfs , with René Follet on Steve Severin (1/2) and André Franquin with the creation of Gaston Lagaffe and the co-authorship of Idées noires . Delporte started at Spirou at the age of 17. Where his first job was to retouch the cleavage in American comics which at the time were considered excessively lewd. He handled other odd jobs, and over time touched upon
279-609: Is even more obvious in the work of Ramón María Casanyes , a disciple and ghost collaborator of Ibáñez, especially in some of his solo works such as the short-lived "Tito, Homo Sapiens 2000", where the Franco-Belgian descent is unquestionable. (published by Marsu Productions) Comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators / artists in that they produce both
310-440: Is much more adult-oriented than Franquin's other works, focusing on themes such as death, war, pollution, and capital punishment with a devastatingly sarcastic sense of humour. From 1978 to 1986, he was part of the team that developed the concept of Isabelle , the adventures of a little girl in a world of witches and monsters. The character was named after Franquin's daughter. Proof of his popular and critical appeal, Franquin
341-648: The Republican elephant . Comic strips received widespread distribution to mainstream newspapers by syndicates . Calum MacKenzie, in his preface to the exhibition catalog, The Scottish Cartoonists (Glasgow Print Studio Gallery, 1979) defined the selection criteria: Many strips were the work of two people although only one signature was displayed. Shortly after Frank Willard began Moon Mullins in 1923, he hired Ferd Johnson as his assistant. For decades, Johnson received no credit. Willard and Johnson traveled about Florida , Maine, Los Angeles , and Mexico, drawing
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#1733093560825372-594: The Spirou supplement, Le Trombone Illustré (with other cartoonists like René Follet ) and later for Fluide Glacial . With Idées Noires , Franquin showed the darker, pessimistic side of his nature. In one strip, a pair of flies are seen wandering through a strange landscape, discussing the mistakes of their predecessors. In the final panel, we see the landscape is a city made from human skulls, and one fly responds: "Don't be too hard on them, they did leave us such splendid cities". Drawn entirely in black and white, Idées Noires
403-466: The "18th greatest Belgian ever". Franquin's style rests in opposite corners of the aesthetic spectrum from Hergé: If the pictures of Tintin's creator were characterized by the use of ligne claire , flat colors, and certain statics, Franquin's graphic approach progressively evolved towards a multi-color aesthetics, chiaroscuro and a vigorous sense of movement. Hergé expressed on several occasions his admiration for Franquin's work: "Compared to him, I’m but
434-495: The 18th century, poked fun at contemporary politics and customs; illustrations in such style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Following the work of Hogarth, editorial/political cartoons began to develop in England in the latter part of the 18th century under the direction of its great exponents, James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson , both from London. Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and caricature , calling
465-458: The 1950s. Starting in the 1970s, Ibáñez made extensive use of ideas and designs from Franquin's works, adapting them to his own universe, but also importing many graphic and narrative solutions. Even one of his characters, "El Botones Sacarino", can be easily identified as a hybrid of Spirou (he is a bellboy) and Gaston Lagaffe (he works in a publishing company and is the source of never-ending disasters), whom he resembles physically. Franquin's shadow
496-463: The age of 73 from a heart attack . He was previously married to Liliane Servais. In 2004 took place the first major museum retrospective of his work, an exhibit called "Le monde de Franquin"', in Paris' Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie . This exhibition was continued in 2006 in the city where he was born, Brussels , the latter was fully bilingual (French/Dutch). In 2005, a Walloon survey elected him as
527-411: The authors that continued the series Spirou et Fantasio after he left. Jean-Claude Fournier, Nic Broca , and especially Janry (Jean-Richard Geurts) showed in this series graphic styles that tried to mimic with varying degrees of success the features of Franquin's style. Other Franco-Belgian authors that show Franquin's influence were Dino Attanasio and Mittéï ( Jean Mariette ), both responsible for
558-403: The busy tramway conductors Franquin and his colleagues often encountered on their way to work. This animal has become part of Belgian and French popular culture and has spawned cartoons, merchandise, and since 1989 a comic book series of its own. The cartoons have broadened their appeal to English-speaking countries. By 1951, Franquin had found his style. His strip, that appeared every week on
589-553: The end of the war is often referred to as La bande des quatre (lit. "The Gang of Four"), and the graphical style they would develop together was later called the Marcinelle school , Marcinelle being an outskirt of the industrial city of Charleroi south of Brussels where Spirou's publisher Dupuis was then situated. Jijé passed the Spirou et Fantasio strip to Franquin, five pages into the making of Spirou et la maison préfabriquée , and from Spirou issue #427 released 20 June 1946,
620-416: The first page of Spirou , was a hit. Following Jijé's lead in the 1940s, Franquin coached a younger generation of comics artists in the 1950s, notably Jean Roba and Jidéhem , who both worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio . In 1955, following a contractual dispute with his publisher Dupuis, Franquin went for a short stint at rival Tintin magazine. This led to the creation of Modeste et Pompon ,
651-513: The idea for a new figure, Gaston Lagaffe (from the French la gaffe , meaning "the blunder"). Initially, a joke designed to fill up blank space in the magazine, the weekly strip, detailing the mishaps and madcap ideas and inventions of a terminally idle office boy working at the Spirou offices, took off and became one of Franquin's best-known creations. However, Franquin soon suffered a period of depression , which forced him to stop drawing Spirou for
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#1733093560825682-700: The king ( George III ), prime ministers and generals to account, and has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon. While never a professional cartoonist, Benjamin Franklin is credited with the first cartoon published in The Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754: Join, or Die , depicting the American colonies as segments of a snake. In the 19th century, professional cartoonists such as Thomas Nast , whose work appeared in Harper's Weekly , introduced other familiar American political symbols, such as
713-585: The literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice. Cartoonists may work in a variety of formats, including booklets , comic strips , comic books , editorial cartoons , graphic novels , manuals , gag cartoons , storyboards , posters , shirts , books , advertisements , greeting cards , magazines , newspapers , webcomics , and video game packaging . A cartoonist's discipline encompasses both authorial and drafting disciplines (see interdisciplinary arts ). The terms "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or "comic book artist" refer to
744-587: The next decade. Soon, Franquin was considered an undisputed master of the art form, on par with the likes of Hergé and his influence can be seen in the work of nearly every cartoonist hired by Spirou up until the end of the 1990s. Early comic fanzines from around 1970 featured Franquin's Monsters , individual drawings of imaginary beasts highlighting his graphical craftmanship. The last, and most radical, shift in Franquin's production happened in 1977, when he went through another nervous breakdown and began his Idées Noires strip (lit. "Dark Thoughts" ), first for
775-475: The picture-making portion of the discipline of cartooning (see illustrator ). While every "cartoonist" might be considered a "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist", not every "comics illustrator", "comics artist", or a "comic book artist" is a "cartoonist". Ambiguity might arise when illustrators and writers share each other's duties in authoring a work. The English satirist and editorial cartoonist William Hogarth , who emerged in
806-658: The school was forced to close down because of the war and Franquin was then hired by Compagnie belge d'actualités (CBA), a short-lived animation studio in Brussels . It is there he met some of his future colleagues: Maurice de Bevere ( Morris , creator of Lucky Luke ), Pierre Culliford ( Peyo , creator of the Smurfs ), and Eddy Paape . Three of them (minus Peyo) were hired by Dupuis in 1945, following CBA's demise. Peyo, still too young, would only follow them seven years later. Franquin started drawing covers and cartoons for Le Moustique ,
837-474: The series Modeste et Pompon after he left, Jidéhem (Jean De Mesmaeker), a usual collaborator of Franquin for Spirou et Fantasio and Gaston Lagaffe, Batem (Luc Collin), artist of the Marsupilami series, or Pierre Seron , who cloned Franquin's style in his series Les Petits Hommes . A most remarkable case is Franquin's influence on Francisco Ibáñez , possibly the most widely published Spanish author since
868-478: The strip while living in hotels, apartments and farmhouses. At its peak of popularity during the 1940s and 1950s, the strip ran in 350 newspapers. According to Johnson, he had been doing the strip solo for at least a decade before Willard's death in 1958: "They put my name on it then. I had been doing it about 10 years before that because Willard had heart attacks and strokes and all that stuff. The minute my name went on that thing and his name went off, 25 papers dropped
899-410: The strip. That shows you that, although I had been doing it ten years, the name means a lot." Societies and organizations Societies and organizations Yvan Delporte Yvan Delporte (24 June 1928 – 5 March 2007 ) was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics . He
930-461: The young Franquin held creative responsibility of the series. For the next twenty years, Franquin largely reinvented the strip, creating longer, more elaborate storylines and a large gallery of burlesque characters. Most notable among these is the Marsupilami , a fictional monkey-like creature. The inspiration for the Marsupilami's extremely long, prehensile tail came from imagining an appendage for
961-501: Was awarded the very first Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 1974. Many books by Franquin have been published, many of which are considered classics of the genre. They have been translated into many languages. Several books have been written about Franquin , such as Numa Sadoul 's Et Franquin créa la gaffe , an exhaustive interview with the artist covering his entire career. Franquin died in 1997 in Saint-Laurent-du-Var at