Spirou spring catch-up

Spirou Reporter was more or less out of commission for the last month, and unfortunately missed everything from April’s Fools Day to the one-year anniversary of the site, which would have been fun to mark. But hey, we’re back! Now for a little rundown of news from the last few weeks…

Spirou & Fantasio in Moscow

According to publisher Cinebook, Spirou & Fantasio in Moscow is officially out today. Online retailers don’t report it in stock yet (and Amazon only expects it to ship towards the end of the month), but hopefully it should only be a matter of a few days.

Origins of the S

Philippe Tomblaine’s long-awaited book of analysis and interviews, Spirou aux sources du S… (“Spirou: Origins of the S”), did hit Amazon today… and sold out almost immediately. That’s no reason not to order, as additional printings can be expected shortly.

Rob-Vel complete in German

A book you can get your hands on now is the German “Spirou Spezial” album #18: Notlandung auf Zigomus (“Emergency Landing on Zigomus”). This is the sixth Spirou Spezial collecting the early Journal de Spirou pages and strips, and brings the series up to the end of the Rob-Vel era. It even includes his one-off short story from 1970, 1938 Spirou 1. The next Spirou Spezial album will be the recent one-shot Die Leopardenfrau (“The Leopard Woman”) by Schwartz & Yann, but the series will no doubt go back to pick up with the Jijé era after that.

Journal Digital

Meanwhile, the modern version of the Journal has made the jump to digital, with the magazine now available as an iPad app (offered through Izneo, an e-comics partnership formed by the major European publishers). Unlike the fully tablet-based Spirou.Z, still under development, this is simply the paper version of the magazine delivered digitally. However, for avid fans who are able or willing to try reading French, but don’t live where the magazine is sold or offered for subscription, this could be a good way to get hold of it.

The return of Fournier?

Finally, according to a post on the BD Gest forums (via Spirou ami partout toujours), Fournier recently expressed interest in doing a Spirou one-shot. Reportedly, this would not be a matter of completing La maison dans la mousse (“The House in the Foam”), his unfinished album from when he left the series in 1980, but rather a new original story. Apparently stemming from just an offhand comment to a fan at a comics festival in Quebec, this is very far from a done deal, but an intriguing possibility nonetheless.