This year is the one-hundredth anniversary of Jijé, one of the most influential artists in the early years of the Journal de Spirou, creator of numerous classic comics, mentor to Franquin, and the first artist to take over Spirou after its creator, Rob-Vel (not counting assistants and fill-ins). So here’s a short comic about his life, created in 1980 by Yves Chaland, assisted by Serge Clerc and Denis Sire.
[Not a valid template](If you are confused about the correspondence between Jijé and Hergé on page 2, Jijé is drawing Hergé’s attention to the similarity between Tintin and Béccasine, an early French comic heroine created in 1905.)
The story is taken from Métal Hurlant #64. It might be considered a companion to Chaland’s later history of Spirou magazine, The Greatest Bellhop in the World. Also like the other story, it is not historically accurate in every detail; for example, according to most other sources it was Doisy who created the Amis de Spirou code of honor.
Again, apologies for the crappy viewer. If the images don’t appear, try reloading the page. And to see the scaled-down images in larger, readable format, try opening each image in a separate tab.
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This short story is apparently one of the main inspirations for Yann’s and Scwartz’ “Gringos Locos” series.