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Before you’ve even had a chance to get the super-special edition of the latest Spirou adventure, it’s time to get excited about the next next Spirou album… but sad about one character that will houba hop away again, and a one-shot that won’t be seen at all… Edit: And art for a new Spirou story with the Turbotraction!
First Spirou 55 details
InediSpirou has an exclusive scoop (reconveyed by Spirou Repeater – ahem, Reporter – in English after a half-week embargo) on some early details about the next Spirou album by Yoann & Vehlmann. The script is written and Yoann has started drawing, aiming to finish in time for magazine publication in October 2015. (SPOILERS) The details of the content are sparse at this point, but it will start out in the Spirou offices, where Gaston, Prunelle and Lebrac will appear, before the action moves to Champignac. Oh, and the album will feature Zantafio! Presumably as the main villain. (Zorglub, on the other hand, will not appear.) Since, as we already know, the story should finally reveal what happened to the Marsupilami, that opens up a lot of possible speculation…
Marsupilami MIA
Also revealed in that scoop is the fact that the Marsupilami is not in fact going to return to Spirou & Fantasio on a regular basis. Although Marsu Productions is now owned by the same company as Dupuis Publishing, it still exists as a separate entity and still controls the rights to the character, and it has been decided that although it can appear from time to time, it should not be fully “integrated” with the series. (To speculate, this might be in order to avoid any feeling of competition with the Marsupilami comic, which remains very popular with kids.) Yoann & Vehlmann are said to be disappointed, but we’ll have to wait and see how they handle the situation. The obvious solution would be to return the Marsupilami to the Count’s garden in Champignac, where it lived for most of Franquin’s run anyway. It might in fact be for the best, as the Marsupilami sometimes had a tendency to overshadow the title heroes.
Venice sunk
And talking about things we won’t get, the Conrad & Arleston one-shot Mystère de Venise (“Mystery in Venice”) has been officially canceled, as confirmed in an interview with Arleston in Casemate #76. With the success of Conrad’s Asterix album, Asterix and the Picts, he was quickly tapped for another one, and had to bow out of the Spirou project. Although Dupuis looked for an artist to replace him, Arleston eventually called the whole thing off. Oh well, maybe some other time.
No Sniper trifle
Dupuis has posted the cover and photos from the special edition (tirage luxe) of Le Groom de Sniper Alley (Spirou #54, “The Sniper Alley Bellhop”), which is now set for publication on 30. January. This deluxe version presents the pencils and inked pages side-by-side, as well as plenty of sketches.
New colors, new books?
The magazine Lire recently put out a special issue about Franquin (preview here). According to Le Petit Écho de Champignac, the magazine reports that Frédéric Jannin is currently recoloring Panade à Champignac (“Trouble in Champignac”) for another volume in Dupuis’ patrimonie (“heritage”) series of books. In fact, the publisher intends to recolor all of Franquin’s longer Spirou adventures. This might be connected with a separate revelation, that starting in 2016 there will be a new collected edition (intégrale) of the series, with editorial material by Christelle and Bertrand Pissavy–Yvernault. This will be literally right after the current collected edition is completed, so you might very well ask: Why? What’s the need for this? New colors might at least tempt some collectors to double up.
The Turbotraction drives again
The Spanish artist Pau, known to Spirou Reporter for this cover, posted on his blog that he’s doing a Spirou story for the Journal, which will evidently feature the Turbotraction I. Click over to his blog post for more pictures.
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I note some sketches there for De Mesmaeker.
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To be honest, I think having the Marsupilami as a side character instead of a constant companion is for the better. While I certainly never developed a hatred for the character under Franquin’s scenarios, the beast has all the trappings of a Mary Sue and of an invincible hero who developed new talents as the plot required them. This makes it, in my view, a very difficult character to use well, especially as a sidekick. That being said, toning the character down somewhat could prevent that from happening.
As for Conrad, he clearly was the one who carried that Asterix album as far as it went, as Ferri certainly did not add much. I can understand the publisher wanting to keep him because then, at least, the drawings are good. I can only guess the album’s great succes was because of the novelty value of new artists and the power of the name Asterix because the album itself certainly wasn’t impressive.
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Sounds good, really.
I was never a huge fan of Marsupilami. It works sometimes, but a lot of the time it’s either just sort of there, or stealing the show, and two animal sidekicks is a bit too much. I always thought the character worked better in its own comics at least in principle.
Also I’m looking forward to seeing how they handle Zantafio.
(Also I’m always happy for more Prunelle AND Lebrac!)
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It might be just as well to use both Marsupilami and Gaston relatively sparsely in the series, as they were very much Franquins invention and it might be a good idea for Yoann and Vehlmann not to be too dependent on the Franquin heritage. Using them more as a reference to the old histories might be a better choice.
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