Publications update (Q2 2014)

2014 is looking good for Scandinavian Spirou fans, while a couple of new publications are moving down the pipeline in French. Let’s have a look at some recent and upcoming releases…

The many languages of a Leopard Woman

Schwartz & Yann’s La femme-léopard (“The Leopard Woman”) was released in Finnish (as “Leopardinainen”) by Egmont in May, and is expected in Danish (as “Leopardkvinden”) from Cobolt within the next few days. It is already available in French, Dutch (“De luipaardvrouw”) and Brussels-dialect (“Le fétichke du Kongo”, the only version of the title that hasn’t been translated literally), and a German edition (“Die Leopardenfrau”) is set to be released by Carlsen Comics at the end of August.

Zoom offers more intégrale details

Danish publisher Zoom announced earlier that it will pick back up the Spirou & Fantasio collected edition (intégrale) book series. The missing Fournier volume is set for release on 15. July, and Zoom’s Michael G. Nielsen has indicated that the series will continue at a hoped-for rate of 2 books per year, and that the series will be complete, including the Nic & Cauvin volume. However, Zoom is relying on co-printing their copies with the French edition, so the timing of the books depend on when Dupuis schedules a reprint.

Spirou and the Women or Spirou vs. the Women?

InediSpirou reports that Spirou et les femmes (“Spirou and the Women”), the previously reported one-shot proposal by Benoît Feroumont, is now moving forward. The script is finished and the drawings are in the exploratory sketch stage, and the album should be ready for publication in 2015 (although it may be delayed until 2016 because next year’s Spirou publication schedule is already full). The update also clarifies that this is not a love story, but one that deals with Spirou being faced with the kind of modern women that have not often been represented in the series.

The Quick Super heritage

After Vacances sans histoires (“An Uneventful Holiday”), the next short Franquin adventure to get a patrimonie (“heritage”) special edition with scans of original art pages, annotations and new coloring is the 16-page La Quick Super (“Super-Quick”) from 1955, in which Spirou and Fantasio investigate a gang of mysterious car thieves. It is scheduled for release on 3. October.

These Belgians may not be crazy

According to the Elouarnblade blog, Olivier Schwartz commented on Crazy Belgians, the sequel to Gringos Locos, his album with Yann about Jijé, Franquin and Morris’s trip through Mexico and the US. It is apparently still in the cards, but may not feature Jijé or Franquin, presumably because of the controversy following protests from family members after the first album. Franquin’s role in the story might anyway have been minor (he went home before the others), but as Crazy Belgians was meant to cover the important meeting of Jijé and Morris with René Goscinny in New York, it’s hard to see how that story can be told without Jijé.

Jijé’s Spirou pushed back to 2015

We also won’t see Jijé this year in a collected edition of his Spirou comics. The Jijé Spirou intégrale was originally announced for 2015, then reportedly pushed up to late this year, and now pushed back again.

Related posts:

Publications Update: November 2014 Publications Update: January–February 2016 Publications Update: Spring 2015 (Non-French) Publications update (February 2014) Publications Update: Early October 2014