Publications Update: September 2016

There were a few updates on the publications front last month as well. Stories by Frank and by Al, Munuera clarifies a question of genealogy, some fancy Fournier books, and good news + rumors from Norway…

The Journal takes two

The Journal de Spirou has offered its readers two new Spirou adventures this month. La Lumière de Bornéo, the 82-page one-shot by Frank Pé & Zidrou, finishes its 13-part serialization next week with issue #4095 (already available to subscribers). It’s perhaps the most ambitious and personal one-shot yet, with an ending that will no doubt confound many readers. A review may follow, but I believe it will take several read-throughs to figure out what it means and whether it works.

The week before, subscribers received as their bonus the Al Severin booklet Spirou, Fantasio… et Spip! dans: Coup de sang, the third episode of the upcoming book À Tous les coups, c’est Spirou! (“Whatever You Do, It’s Spirou!”). As usual the title is an untranslatable pun, but this time around Spirou and Fantasio head to the countryside to seek inspiration, since Fantasio has decided to become a painter… or maybe a poet. What follows is another ill-fated camping trip around Champignac, and Severin’s funniest and most satisfying yarn yet.

Munuera denies Zorglub’s first-born

Munuera clarified via posts to the official Spirou Forum (first via another member and then in person) that his upcoming one-shot La Fille de Zorglub (“Zorglub’s Daughter”) does not have anything to do with Zaoki, Zorglub’s daughter from the 2006 TV cartoon. In fact, it won’t really be a Spirou one-shot at all, because Spirou will barely appear: Zorglub is the main character of the story. (You may remember that last spring there was similarly talk of an album that would revolve around Zantafio.)

Fournier goes deluxe

As previously reported, Éditions Black & White is putting out a series of artist’s editions (in French: version originale or V.O.) of Fournier’s Spirou albums, starting with Le Faiseur d’or (Spirou & Fantasio #20, “The Gold Maker”). Their website now provides further details: the book will be released in November, and will contain the main adventure as well as the short stories Un Noël clandestin (“A Secret Christmas”) and Le Champignon Nippon (“The Japanese Mushroom”) in black and white, along with an interview with Fournier and a selection of previously unpublished sketches for the album by Fournier and Franquin.

Images from Stripspeciaalzaak

The book will be accompanied by a 88-page A4-format booklet with facsimiles of the original storyboards for Le Faiseur d’or and Un Noël clandestin, including 12 pages that were cut from the final adventure, and a very different version of the short story. There are also other extras. Each copy is signed by Fournier, and will set you back a whopping 175 EUR. (Thanks to Spirou, ami, partout, toujours for the update.)

Marsupilami rages on in Norway

After a long delay, La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”) has finally been officially released in Norway this week (copies of the album were distributed to some retail outlets months ago). The Norwegian title is Den rasende Spiralis (“The Raging Marsupilami”), and customers report that it may already be sold out from some stores. (Thanks to Mesterius for the tip.)

… to be followed by one-shots?

In the comments on a Norwegian comics blog, an Egmont employee also indicated that “we are also considering the alternative Spirou albums” (i.e. one-shots) for publication. Egmont already published two albums in the series back in 2006–2007, Les Géants pétrifiés (“The Petrified Giants”) by Yoann & Vehlmann and Le Tombeau des Champignac (“Tomb of the Champignacs”) by Tarrin & Yann, as Sprint Spesial (“Spirou Special”) #55, Steinkjempene and #57, Katakombene under Champignac. It would be great if they would pick it back up.

Zoom right on

Meanwhile in Denmark, Zoom has set a date for the publication of the next volume of the collected edition, vol. 15 (Tome & Janry 1988–1991). According to their newsletter, it will come out on 24. November.

Related posts:

Publications Update: Q4 2016 – Q1 2017 Publications Update: March 2016 Publications Update: June 2016 Publications Update: January–February 2016 Publications Update: November 2015