28 March, 2024
Spirou Tour Map (ill. Dupuis)

The Year of Spirou

There’s been a lot of things going on in Spirou world lately, so a lot of these first few posts will be catching up. I’ll start off with a belated announcement:

Spirou 75 Years! (ill. Dupuis)

Journal de Spirou 3911 cover (ill. Dupuis, Boucq)Obviously, the big thing is that this year is the 75th anniversary of Spirou as a character, comic and magazine. Dupuis (the publisher) is making a big deal out of it, and have declared 2013 the “Year of the Bellhop” (l’année groom). This involves a bunch of special publications, which I’ll cover in a later post, as well as special events throughout Belgium and France, TV shows and documentaries, and a new digital edition of the magazine, called Spirou Z.

One of the cooler concepts for the celebrations is the Spirou Tour, with a program of events that (inspired by the album Z is for Zorglub) forms a big S across Belgium, France and Switzerland. It’s like a big book signing tour for the whole magazine, with lots of different artists visiting. Each event is accompanied by a special issue of the magazine devoted to that town. The latest one was in Lille on 30 March. I’ll try to cover one of these events later this year.

Spirou Tour Map (ill. Dupuis)

Spirou Reporter

I grew up reading Spirou in Scandinavian translations. Now I'm learning French and trying to decode the originals.

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