by Once upon a time, “Spirou canon” was simple: All the stories and adventures took place in the same world, in the order they were published in the magazine. And that worked fine as long as only one artist or one team were making Spirou stories at the same time. But then came Nic & Cauvin vs. Tome & Janry, then came Yves Chaland, then came le Petit Spirou… and most of all, then came the one-shot albums, which are proving to have more than one shot in them.
And now you have lots of different Spirou versions living in lots of different universes, each taking what they want from the comic’s long history, and discarding what they don’t. It’s a mess, but in a good way. Here, for example, is a story that seems to draw on Émile Bravo’s version, but set in the modern day. Told by Lewis Trondheim and Hugo Piette, it appeared in Journal de Spirou #3725 (2009), with a sequel in this year’s anniversary issue.
“And now you have lots of different Spirou versions living in lots of different universes, each taking what they want from the comic’s long history, and discarding what they don’t. It’s a mess, but in a good way.”
This is, of course, the state Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse comics have been in since even before Carl Barks. 🙂