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Tomorrow, 7. January, sees the release of the first issue of the magazine Groom (“Bellhop”). Since the initial reports, a lot more information has come to light about this new “cousin” of the Journal de Spirou, including an 8-page sample of the magazine, included as a supplement in this week’s issue of the Journal.
Most of the early speculation turned out to be accurate. Groom is a twice-annual magazine of 96 pages, produced by the team behind the Journal (led by editor-in-chief Damien Perez) and featuring original comics by the magazine’s regular contributors, such as Munuera, Neidhardt, Feroumont, Tome & Dan, Sti, and Libon as well as other creators, including Runberg, Dutreix, Lupano, Erre and Cruchaudet. It’s branded as a special issue of “Méga Spirou” (usually a “best-of” collection of the magazine put out for various holidays) and available wherever the Journal de Spirou is sold (including online, with free shipping for Journal subscribers).
The contributors will have a chance to stretch themselves and explore new subjects. The magazine is intended to have a focus on current events, as a way to inform young and old readers and help them understand what’s going on in the world, and much of the content is openly political or satirical. As part of the educational mission of the magazine, the website offers teaching guides for use in the classroom, focusing on the refugee crisis.
But perhaps the best way to introduce the magazine is with this Spirou “editorial” by Yoann & Vehlmann:
The Groom website offers more information, and access to an excerpt from the first issue.
Oh, and the first in-depth article about the magazine, posted by mistake back in early December and swiftly taken down, is finally online again (in French): http://branchesculture.com/2016/01/06/carnet-rose-la-famille-dupuis-sagrandit-et-spirou-accueille-un-cousin-groom/
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Is it me,or Yoann’s Spirou is getting even closer to Franquin’s while still being recognizable as its own? Thanx for the big scan, by the way.
Spirou launches spinoff magazine to deal with world events through Bande dessinée strips https://t.co/5bHPuahX63 https://t.co/wMM54rbpFx
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“As part of the educational mission of the magazine…” : rather ominous !… A step forward to (left-wing, of course) (im)”moral” dictature, beginning younger and younger ?…
As e.g. the [url=https://spiroureporter.net/tag/amis-de-spirou/]Code of Honor[/url] strips demonstrate, there’s nothing new about Dupuis using its comics to provide moral instruction. In fact, that was one of the [url=https://spiroureporter.net/2013/06/30/scanlation-sunday-the-greatest-bellhop-in-the-world/]original motivations[/url] for creating the Spirou magazine. (Sorry, I see the image viewer is currently a bit broken.)
Yes, many of comics stake out clear positions on sometimes contentious issues (compassion for refugees, support for Greece, concern about climate change…). You may agree or disagree with these views, but calling it a step towards dictatorship is hysterical.
Trying again: Is it me or Yoann’s Spirou is getting closer to Franquin’s in this installment?
Oh, the first comment came through fine, but I think it’s a difficult question to answer. There’s just so much variability (some might say inconsistency) in Yoann’s style that it’s hard to pin down specific trends. In three different panels you may get a “classical” Spirou strongly influenced by Franquin (or sometimes Janry), a moody scene with Yoann’s trademark scratchy hatching, and a loose, funny doodle that looks more like Bercovici. This page may be more coherent than that (it seems to depend a lot on what he’s drawing), but looking at the latest installments of [i]La Colère du Marsupilami[/i] I’m not sure I think he’s moving in a more traditional Marcinelle-school direction overall, or even towards a more stable style.
For example, compare this Gaston one-pager from 2010. To me that looks about as Franquinesque as this.
…ooops… my avatar didn’t show in the earlier comment and I didn’t see it show up, so I thought it had been lost in its way… hence the ‘trying again’ .
Certainly, Yoann’s characters tend to ‘mutate’ from panel to panel. It just seems to me that, at least in this page, he had settled for a more ‘cute’ approach on Spirou that reminds me of Franquin, or, as you rightly put it, of Janry’s version of Franquin’ style. Perhaps it is something occasional. Either way, he seems to be using a more careful line here, both in the characters and in the backgrounds, which I really enjoy. His pencils are usually full with energy, but his inking tended to become too sketchy for my taste in the last albums.
I would add Wasterlain to his lineage, btw.
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