Publications update (week 43/2013)

Not a whole lot on the publications front this week. Well, lots of small things, but hardly anything major. Still, read on if you want to know what’s been happening…

First, if you missed the ActuaBD interview with Émile Bravo about his continuation of Journal d’un ingénu, have a look over at that article.

Les Robinsons du Rail (“The Railway Robinsons”) has finally come out, after years of delays. This picture book, written by Yvan Delporte and illustrated by Franquin and Jidéhem, was originally adapted from a radio play, which unfortunately has not survived. It features Spirou, Fantasio and Gaston, as the latter two get stuck on a runaway nuclear train. This edition features illustrations restored and recolored by Jannin (same as in the German edition Robinson auf Scheinen that came out a while ago).

On 23. October, La Maison de L’Image at the Seed Factory in Brussels hosted an exhibition of Spirou fanart. This involved the printing of an exclusive catalog available to participants. I mention this mainly because I’d really like to have one! So if anyone knows where to get one, please contact Spirou Reporter.

Egmont Finland posted a picture on Facebook that appears to show a print test of the upcoming Piko ja Fantasio: Zorbul-Tarinat (“Spirou & Fantasio: The Story of Zorglub”). The photo shows it to be the Spirou intégrale vol. 7, Le mythe Zorglub, as previously suspected. If the auto-translation is correct, the book should be expected in November.

According to a post on BD Gest, Dupuis responded to a request for an update on Spirou.Z, the digital magazine that was supposed to be launched this month, with a statement saying they want to make the magazine not just a true digital reading experience, but a “digital rendezvous” (whatever that might mean): “So we are engaging in discussions with authors, reading comic submissions, testing ideas for games, and coming up with video clips, in order to launch the new Spirou.Z in the upcoming months.” That sounds an awful lot like an admission that it will be delayed.

Sketch for Fantasio's home (ill. Yoann; photo by maxibon via InediSpirou) — Study for Fantasio’s home, sketched by Yoann. Photo posted to InediSpirou by maxibon.

Finally, there’s also been some more talk over on InediSpirou about Yoann & Vehlmann’s Spirou #54. Yoann gave a lengthy interview (audio only, unfortunately) to the radio station JetFM, revealing a few more details about the album. At this point, more information about the contents really only amounts to spoilers, so I would recommend steering clear.