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Following the rundown of French publications from the last few months, let’s see what’s going on in other languages. As you might imagine, it’s a lot, so let’s just get to it!
English: Tough Luck Vito, The Dictator and the Mushroom
Cinebook continues to alternate between Franquin and Tome & Janry albums. Their latest is Tome & Janry’s Tough Luck Vito (Spirou & Fantasio #43, Vito la déveine), available since early May. The next will be Franquin’s The Dictator and the Mushroom (Spirou & Fantasio #7, Le dictateur et le champignon), currently under preparation and scheduled for publication on 16. July. This will bring the number of Cinebook Spirou albums to 9 (and finally demonstrate why Franquin is so highly regarded), so it’s starting to be possible for English readers to really appreciate the series.
Danish: Le groom de Sniper Alley, La grosse tête, Tome & Janry intégrale, Idées noires
Le groom de Sniper Alley (Spirou & Fantasio #54, “The Sniper Alley Bellhop”) has been published in Danish by Cobolt as Splint & Co.: Piccoloen på Sniper Alley. The first printing was recalled for a while due to quality problems with the cover and spine, but a new printing should now be available.
Cobolt has also put out the one-shot La grosse tête (“The Big Head”) by Téhem, Makyo and Toldac in Danish as Det Glatte Ansigt.
Furthermore, the publisher Zoom just published Splint & Co. 1981-1983, the first Tome & Janry volume of the intégrale collected edition, this weekend, on 6. June. This means they’re skipping the Nic & Cauvin volume for now, but they intend to come back to it, publishing all the volumes at a hoped-for rate of two books per year. When Spirou Reporter first started, one of the first stories reported was that they’d canceled the series, leaving collectors with a missing middle Fournier volume, so this is quite a happy turnaround!
Finally, Cobolt’s recent publications also include a new edition of Franquin’s Idées noires (“Black Thoughts”, aka “Franquin’s Last Laugh”), under the Danish title Franquins Sorte Sider.
Swedish: Tome & Janry intégrale, Idées noires
Zoom haven’t just redoubled their Danish publication efforts. Through their Swedish offshoot, Mooz Förlag, they are bringing the intégrale collected edition back to Sweden (where it was abandoned by Egmont after the Franquin volumes), starting with the first Tome & Janry volume, Spirou 1981–1983 (already available). Hopefully they will continue to publish each book in both languages.
Cobolt also keep their toe in the Swedish market, having republished Idées noires in that language as well. In Swedish it is known as Franquins Svarta Idéer.
Norwegian: Le groom de Sniper Alley
Norway is the odd one out among the Scandinavian countries, as neither Zoom/Mooz nor Cobolt have challenged Egmont. For the time being, then, Norwegian readers will have to be satisfied with a Norwegian translation of Le groom de Sniper Alley, as Sprint: Skatten i Alexandria.
Finnish: Qui arrêtera Cyanure ?
Meanwhile, Finland is doing its own thing completely, with Finnish Egmont finally publishing Tome & Janry’s Qui arrêtera Cyanure ? (Spirou & Fantasio #35, “Who Will Stop Cyanida?”) from 1985. Piko ja Fantasio: Kuka pysäyttää Sinihapon? will come out 17. June, only 30 years late! A few of Fournier’s albums, as well as La jeunesse de Spirou (Spirou & Fantasio #38, “Spirou’s Childhood”), are still missing in Finnish translation.
Spanish: Nic & Cauvin intégrale, Alerte aux zorkons, La mauvaise tête
Dibbuks are taking on the Spirou catalog with verve. They have put out the Nic & Cauvin volume of the collected edition, and have as upcoming first in July the “heritage” edition (in black-and-white half-pages, annotated) of La mauvaise tête (Spirou & Fantasio #8, “Wrong-Headed”) as La máscara, and then in September Alerte aux zorkons (Spirou & Fantasio #54, “Zorkons Alert!”), under the title Spirou y Fantasio: La amenaza de los zorketes.
German & Dutch: La grosse tête
Finally, La grosse tête is now also available in Dutch from Dupuis, as Robbedoes door… 8: Pas Op, Robbedoes! (“Look Out, Spirou!” or maybe better: “Heads Up, Spirou!”). The German title will be Ein großer Kopf (“A Big Head”), but Carlsen only has it scheduled for December.
By the way, “Cyanida” for French “Cyanure” is based on the SNES game. I believe the name was translated differently for the TV show.
Also, for tags and headlines I use English if available, otherwise French. Though perhaps it would make more sense to do the headlines at least in the language of the publication…
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La grosse tête is in Dutch translated as ‘Pas op, Robbedoes!’ (which indeed means ‘Look out, Spirou!’) because La mauvaise tête is translated to ‘Pas op, Kwabbernoot!’, meaning ‘Look out, Fantasio!’. Why that is, no-one knows. But in my opinion the translators did a decent job with the Dutch version of La grosse tête.
The Danish album actually has a short note in the front explaining that the French title is a play on La mauvaise tête (which is called Kvik i knibe – “Fantasio in a Jam” – in Danish, somewhat similar to the Dutch title), and that for the present title (Det glatte ansigt – something like “The Honest Face”*) to make sense, you have to pretend the earlier album had been translated as Det falske ansigt (“The Fake Face”).
* Literally “The Smooth Face,” but it comes from an expression meaning without any guarantee other than a trustworthy appearance.
Oh, that’s interesting! Thanks for answering. I looked up the Danish title earlier and I noticed you have Fantasio in the title too, but I didn’t know that you had to pretend it was translated differently, haha.
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