by 
The first installment of the Zorglub spin-off by Munuera ran in the Journal de Spirou a couple of weeks ago (in a special issue devoted to villains), and to give readers a sense of this new series, here is the first part of La Fille du Z (“Daughter of the Z”):
I think the apple (pomme) in André’s speech balloon on page 5 signifies that he’s passing out, but I’m not sure exactly what the link is.
Thanks very much.
Reads better than expected, maybe I’ll give it a try.
By the way, looks like Franquin in the first picture, on the right hand side.
Yeah I didn’t have any high hopes so this is better than expected but still…
I do like seeing Zorglub as a basically good person who screws up though, hopefully they don’t try to make him too much of a villain for villainy’s sake.
So far, I quite like this. That being said, this runs all sorts of risks of becoming very cliché. I hope they will steer clear of formula and hope they will not make Zandra a damsel in distress. With that in mind, the first comments on originality in media seem encouraging though it might also be cheap selfwareness. Surely, this is itself very much a spin-off?
The main thing here of course is Zorglub himself and I have to admit that this worried-dad-with-super-machinery seems to work quite well here. I do not see Zorglub as a real villain here, so far, and that is a good thing.
All in all, much better and more enjoyable than I feared but I am still a bit sceptical.
There’s an interview with Munuera on the page introducing the story where he talks about that self-aware joke about spin-offs (you can see it on [url=https://reader.izneo.com/read/0325141260237?exiturl=https://www.izneo.com/fr/jeunesse/magazine/journal-spirou-3970]Izneo[/url]). I was going to include it in the post, but I had already missed the Sunday deadline, so I decided to leave it out. He basically says that for better or worse, this trend has become a genre in itself, with its own challenges.
He also mentions in the interview for one of the next installments that in creating this story, he had a clear idea of the readers he hopes will enjoy it, and also the type of reader that will probably hate it. I suspect many [i]Spirou Reporter[/i] readers will be naturally skeptical at least, so the fact that everyone so far has said it is better than they expected must be a pretty good sign!
From what I have read, in this story Zorglub is back in villain mode similar to in [i]Z comme Zorglub[/i]: whether or not he is [i]evil[/i], he definitely does a number of bad things (like stealing military secrets and selling them on the black market). Personally I think it might be best to read it almost like a one-shot, without worrying too much about consistency with the complete character biography as established in Spirou. The important thing is whether it works on its own terms, and in my opinion it works quite well.
Wow! Munuera doing a Z spinn off is just perfect! Paris sous-seine is one of mine all time favoirite albums. I hope to see a Zorglub album in swedish soon!
Thank you for translating the pages to give a glimpse of the tone of the book to non-french speakers!
Hope you will enjoy the story as much as I did writing and drawing it.
Thank [i]you[/i]! I am very glad you approve, and I hope my amateur translation is adequate. It was fun to translate, with good dialogue and jokes (I love the Ctrl-Z gag, and that Zorglub doesn’t have a clue what the experimental z-ray he has built might do). 😀
I’m enjoying the story a lot so far (I’ve read the first three parts) – I am curious and slightly worried about the upcoming twist regarding Zandra’s origin. Congratulations on the series! It’s great that you have a chance to return to the Spirou universe, since I know your run on the main series was a not entirely pleasant experience. My impression is that not having to follow the “format” of a Spirou & Fantasio adventure has given you a lot more freedom to tell the story in a way that works for you. It feels like a much happier fit all around, and I think it will be a success.
The apple icon refers to the french “tomber dans les pommes”, to pass out. .-)
Great news regarding this series: It will be released in Danish by the publisher Cobolt! 🙂 The news can be read at the bottom of this recent news update from the Danish comics festival Art Bubble: http://art-bubble.dk/2018/09/nyheder-paa-art-bubble/ Looking forward to reading the whole thing in a physical format. 🙂