19 March, 2024
Spirou & Fantasio #20 'Le Faiseur d'or' VO cover ("The Gold Maker"; ill. Fournier; Copyright (c) Dupuis and the artist; image from facebook.com)

Publications Update: March 2016

A short Spirou story already available online, an upcoming artist’s edition of Fournier’s albums, Zoom continues to offer very different books for Danes and Norwegians, new details on upcoming one-shots, and more!

New Spirou short now

Panel from 'Batguy', JdS #4068 (ill. Yoann & Vehlmann; Copyright (c) 2016 Dupuis and the artists; image from izneo.com)This week’s issue of the Journal de Spirou (#4068) includes, in addition to the second part of Fantasio se marie, a short Spirou story by Yoann & Vehlmann. In keeping with the theme of the issue, which is inspired by the Batman V Superman movie, the story has Spirou teaming up with “Batguy” (a.k.a. “Bruce Waynn”), last seen being held in captivity on the Marmalade Islands in Dans les griffes de la vipère (Spirou & Fantasio #53, “In the Clutches of the Viper”), but now back to dealing out justice on the streets of Potam. As recently reported, the story will be included in the upcoming album collecting Yoann & Vehlmann’s short Spirou stories. It can also be read in its entirety in Izneo’s preview of the issue.

It’s also worth mentioning that according to reports carried on a number of sites and forums, Yoann & Vehlmann’s contract has been extended yet again, this time to 2021. This could have something to do with the fact that La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”) has been topping the bestseller charts since its release.

Fournier artist’s editions

Spirou & Fantasio #20 'Le Faiseur d'or' VO cover ("The Gold Maker"; ill. Fournier; Copyright (c) Dupuis and the artist; image from facebook.com)Editions Black & White, which publishes deluxe comics releases and limited editions, is trying to put together “artist’s editions” (version originale, V.O.) of Fournier’s albums, starting with Le Faiseur d’or (Spirou & Fantasio #20, “The Gold Maker”). This, of course, is the album that Franquin helped with, drawing the Marsupilami and providing Fournier with advice and sketches. The publishers intend the books to be similar to the Franquin V.O. releases (from Marsu Productions), and are currently asking collectors to help them locate the original art pages to scan.

Zoom continues collected edition

Intégrale 14 cover (DK) (ill. Tome & Janry; (c) Zoom, Dupuis and the artists)In a Facebook update, the publisher Zoom has indicated the release dates for the next Danish volumes of the intégrale collected edition: vol. 14 (Tome & Janry 1984–1987) will come out 12. May, vol. 15 (Tome & Janry 1988–1991) in November, and in 2017 they will jump back to fill in the missing vol. 12 (Nic & Cauvin 1980–1983) before continuing with vol. 16 (Tome & Janry 1992–1996). It is likely that the books will also come out in Swedish through the Mooz imprint at around the same time.

Norwegian collected ed. still with gaps

'Sprint: Tome & Janry 1981–1983' NO cover (ill. Tome & Janry; Copyright (c) Outland, Zoom, Dupuis and the artists; image from outland.no)Zoom has also announced that the first volume in its decidedly inferior Norwegian collected edition (published in association with Outland) has been selling well, and that the second volume will soon go to press and the third is in preparation. The next book will, surprisingly, jump back to Fournier, collecting his first three albums: Le Faiseur d’or (Spirou & Fantasio #20, “The Gold Maker”; in Norwegian “Gullmakeren”), Du Glucose pour Noémie (#21, “Glucose for Noémie”; in Norwegian “Trianglen slår til”), and L’Abbaye truquée (#22, “The Rigged Abbey”; in Norwegian “Det mystiske klosteret”). The French collected edition (and the translations available e.g. in Danish) also include a number of shorter stories, including one – Le Champignon nippon (“The Japanese Mushroom”) – that is crucial to connect everything. Whether these will be included in this book is not clear (although most of them were in the original album editions, which gives some hope).

Then the third book will go back to Tome & Janry, and feature the albums L’Horloger de la comète (Spirou & Fantasio #36, “The Comet’s Watchmaker”; in Norwegian “Tidsmaskinen”), Le Réveil du Z (#37, “Awakening of the Z”; in Norwegian “Z vender tilbake”) and Spirou à New York (#39, “Spirou in New York”; in Norwegian “Sprint i New York”). Notably, this skips album #38, La Jeunesse de Spirou (“Spirou’s Youth”; in Norwegian “Den unge Sprint”), which collects short stories originally published in between the full-length adventures both in this volume and the first. While it initially looked like Zoom and Outland were just omitting the short stories not collected in album form, now they are leaving out a whole album. I would highly recommend Norwegian customers to seek out the Danish or Swedish editions instead.

The Marsu is angry at Robbedoes too

Spirou & Fantasio #55 "Robbedoes en Kwabbernoot: De Marsupilami is woest" cover NL ('La Colère du Marsupilami'; ill. Yoann & Vehlmann; Copyright (c) 2016 Dupuis and the artists; image from dupuis.com)Dutch and Flemish readers can look forward to La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”) in their language on 6. April, as Robbedoes en Kwabbernoot 55: De Marsupilami is woest.

Stripspeciaalzaak also reports that there is a 120-page special issue of the magazine Knack devoted to Franquin now available: Franquin: Meester van de lach (“Franquin: Master of Laughter”). This is a translation of the French Le géant du rire published with slight variations in various formats (as special issues of Le Vif/L’Express and of Lire, and then as a hardcover book). This Dutch-language edition has some new material, and will also be reissued as a hardcover book.

Upcoming one-shot update

The rush of one-shots has a number of sites taking stock of upcoming projects, and some new details have come to light, along with a lot of repetition that I won’t include.

"The Atomium that Zorglub Built", mockup cover of JdS #64 digest (ill. Fabrice Parme; Copyright (c) 2016 Klare Lijn International, Dupuis and the artist; image from klarelijninternational.midiblogs.com)First, Fabrice Parme, who did the one-shot Panique en Atlantique (“Panic in the Atlantic”) with Lewis Trondheim, is reportedly doing another one, working solo this time. (The image to the left isn’t directly related to the album, but a New Year’s card for Klare Lijn International.) Clearly, offering another album to those who’ve already done a “one-shot” is now standard practice; among the artists of the first six albums, the only one who hasn’t or isn’t yet doing another is Frank Le Gall.

The last we heard of Mystère de Venise (“Mystery in Venice”), the project by Arleston and Conrad, it had been canceled because Conrad was too busy with Asterix and Arleston couldn’t find a replacement artist he was happy with. Well, now he apparently has, although no name has yet been revealed. But this project may be back on, in a different form.

Spirou silhouette (ill. Tebo; Copyright (c) Dupuis and the artist; image from supertebo.com)For a while, people have noticed that the homepage of the artist Tebo includes among upcoming projects a Spirou silhouette, with the legend Ouverture Septembre 2016 (“Open September 2016”, as on an advent calendar). Now InediSpirou states definitively that this does concern another one-shot.

InediSpirou also indicates that the mysterious rediscovered Spirou adventure found by Christelle and Bertrand Pissavy-Yvernault in their research is a script from before the Franquin period, which narrows it down somewhat, and that it will indeed be illustrated by a modern artist.

And lastly for the one-shot updates, a BD Gest forum poster reports that in a conversation with Christian Durieux, Durieux said he was writing a Spirou one-shot and hoping to have it ready for the 80th anniversary (in 2018). There’s no official confirmation of that, though.

Reminder

Spirou & Fantasio 33 'Virus' EN (ill. Tome & Janry; Copyright (c) 2015-2016 by Cinebook, Dupuis and the artists; image from amazon.co.uk)Finally, a reminder that the English edition of Virus (Spirou & Fantasio #33) from Cinebook is due to be published in April (on 7. April according to Amazon, but 28. April on Cinebook’s own site.).

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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15 thoughts on “Publications Update: March 2016

  1. The reason for omitting La Jeunesse de Spirou in the norwegian publication, could also be that it i the current norwegian album publication is regarded as volume 1 in a separate parallell series (Den unge Sprint) and is as such not regarded as part of the main series (even though it originally was published as such in Norway as well). I however agree with you when it comes to the publication of the other shorter stories. Luckily the difference between the norwegian and danish language as small (at least in written form).

    1. No, you’re thinking of “Sprint & Co. 38: Sprints barndom” (“Spirou’s Childhood”; in French Le Petit Spirou 1: Dis bonjour à la dame !), which was originally published in Norwegian as a Spirou album (as were several other Petit Spirou albums) before the two series were fully split and it became “Lille Sprint” #1.

      La Jeunesse de Spirou/”Den unge Sprint” (which is album #33 in Norway) is not part of the Petit Spirou/”Lille Sprint” series, neither in French nor Norwegian. I understand the confusion, since the titles are similar and the cover has Spirou as a kid, looking a lot like Le Petit Spirou, but they are not the same. “Den unge Sprint” is not a “Lille Sprint” story.

      1. I believe the original Belgian edition followed the original publication in the Spirou magazine, and since La Jeunesse de Spirou consisted of several collected short stories, it was split up on two volumes, Maybe that has something to do with it. “La Jeunesse de Spirou” considered as several short stories, rather than a collected album…

      2. Ah. I remember re-reading this volume a while back, remembering it was different in content from the later “lille Sprint” series, but I thought it was just a sort of natural development, and that this was regarded as no. 1 in the norwegian series. Thanks for the update.

  2. First.
    Many thanks for running this great site!
    Have been following since it started, but never commented.
    It´s nice to check now and then for some update…especially for us who dont speak french:-)
    Your work and dedication is impressive!

    Second.
    I can´t stop thinking about all these upcoming one-shots (or 2-shots;-).
    For me, the development of the Spirou-universe, with this series beside the ordinary, is the most interesting.
    And it´s great to know that there are so many one-shots in the pipe for coming years!
    But, I find it a bit strange, when you think about that it have from the start 2006 been a bit slow pace with releases, with an actually pause between 2011-13…
    And now this “flood” of projects…around 10 with rumours if I use my fingers correct!?

    But, I´m not complaining, it´s all good!
    Good to see news about “Mystery in Venice” again…I was a bit irritated at Conrad there for a while…

    Kind regards/

  3. Thanks for including the Dutch/Flemish publications too, it’s nice. You made a small typo, it’s ‘Stripspeciaalzaak’, not ‘Stripspeecialzaak’.
    Yep, the album ‘Franquin: Meester van de lach’ is available now, I saw it in Antwerp in a kiosk today… (*casually brags about visiting Antwerp)

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