by 
With several long-awaited one-shots finally coming out this year, Dupuis is lining up others to take their place in the queue. A post on the BD Gest’ Forums points to announcements by two new creators: Jean Dufaux and Christian Durieux (who had previously been rumored to be working on one). Dufaux is a writer and Durieux primarily an illustrator, but the two projects appear to be separate.
News of Dufaux’s one-shot comes from an interview with ActuaBD. Dufeaux tends to write comics for an older audience with realistic art, and the interview mainly deals with new albums in the fantasy series Lament of the Lost Moors (previously illustrated by Grzegorz Rosinsky, now with Béatrice Tillier… that’s “moors” as in the landscape, not the people, by the way) and in the modern werewolf series Meutes (“Wolf Packs”, with Olivier Boiscommun). However, he briefly gets onto a different topic:
Dufaux: […] I’m a rather slow writer.
ActuaBD: You are prolific, though… [Dufaux’s series include Crusade, Murena, Barracuda, Jessica Blandy, Djinn, Raptors, and many others. –SR]
Dufaux: Yes, but that’s because I work a lot. And I don’t have a pile of finished scripts in a drawer waiting to be published. Actually, I don’t have any pending! And when I’m preparing a project – which I’m doing right now, I’m working on a Spirou album – that takes time, because I have to think about how to approach the project; what are the themes I’ll be developing, etc. All that takes time. I have to reflect before I can write.
There is no information on who would draw the album.
The information about Durieux’s one-shot comes from issue #105 of the magazine dBD, which covers comics (as quoted in the forum post):
It’s planned for 2018! We’ll see Fantasio as a bellhop. Spirou and Fantasio are a kind of Laurel & Hardy-type bellhops, which I find really funny. Moreover, the story takes place in closed quarters inside an isolated palace, the Pacific Palace, which will probably provide the title for the story. This restricted setting enables me to create a tension and theatricality that I love. It’s a project I’ve had in mind for twenty-five years, which I’ve adapted to these characters, Spirou and Fantasio. Now I can’t imagine it without them.
Apparently the magazine also features a sample page, but it’s not yet been shared (other than to buyers of the magazine). Durieux’s series Oscar ran in the Journal from 2000 to 2008; his comics Benito Mambo and An Enchantment were recently published in English, and demonstrate the range of his style:
Helge Kvingedal liked this on Facebook.
Fu liked this on Facebook.
Kalle Id liked this on Facebook.
Ulises De López liked this on Facebook.
Frode Kahrs Ormberg liked this on Facebook.
Erwin Cavens liked this on Facebook.
Juan Antonio Ruiz liked this on Facebook.
Euro Comics Roundup liked this on Facebook.
Lutz Göllner liked this on Facebook.
You write: “With several long-awaited one-shots finally coming out this year, Dupuis is lining up others to take their place in the queue”.
Which stories are coming this year? I am particularly looking forward to new stories by Bravo + Schwartz and Yann. Was it one more, very long story by Schwartz/Yann or two normal length stories?
I was talking about Fantasio se marie and La Lumière de Bornéo – there’s also Al Severin’s Les 1000 et 1 métiers de Spirou, Fantasio & Spip that’s supposed to be coming out, but that’s a pretty recent announcement. On top of that we have La Colère du Marsupilami and a short-story album by Yoann & Vehlmann, for a total of five new Spirou albums in 2016. (It wouldn’t surprise me if 1001 métiers and/or the short-story collection slip to 2017, though.)
I believe Schwartz & Yann’s Le Maître des hosties noires is expected in 2017 (it might begin serialization in December), while there’s still no final word on when or how Bravo’s epic sequel will be released. Another one from Schwartz & Yann after that is rumored but has not been announced: there would almost certainly be a number of other one-shots first, quite probably including the ones in this article. So we would likely be talking 2019 at least.