by Daan Jippes is perhaps best known as a chameleon of an artist, able to create uncanny imitations of Carl Barks (he’s often been called on to restore, redraw or draw new Duck comics from Barks’ scripts) as well as Uderzo and other artists in the Franco-Belgian “bignose” tradition (including this Franquin pastiche). His original works should not be forgotten, however, particularly Twee voor Thee (“Two for Tea”, 1972) and his adaptations of the Havank detective mysteries in recent years.
Still, given his outstanding ability to straddle American and European comic traditions, it’s only natural that a lot of his commissioned illustrations should seek to combine these influences, as in these pieces:
And here’s an earlier variation on the same theme that was actually commissioned by Spirou Reporter (before this site existed):
Two sets of prints, with different colors, have been made of this piece:
It might also be interesting to have a look at Jippes’ first sketch version, expressing a slightly different idea (Spirou and Donald having swapped uniforms, and Fantasio and Scrooge their clothes as well):
Hope to see more Spirou art (crossover or standalone) from Danier in the future! (Acknowledgment: This post was inspired by this blog post.)
Those scenes must be taking place somewhere in the ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’-universe. Surely, at least Spirou must exist in that universe (even if its creator might not even have heard of him!)?
Truly, Jippes is one of the greats in illustrating in different styles (and I’m somewhat proud that we happen to be from the same country). While it would seem like being very difficult to please, I am somewhat disappointed that none of the images included Uderzo characters from Jippes’s hand. I mean, the combination of Spirou and Astérix in some fashion seems way overdue (though I might have missed such instances) and certainly adding Disney into that mix would be a novelty.
Speaking of Uderzo, is it right that he is the only one left of the generation of Franco-Belgian comic artist greats from the 50’s/60’s? Also, Spirou Reporter, do you have an opinion on Astérix in general and Uderzo in particular? How about on Carl Barks and the comic Duck-universe?
There’s not a ton of Asterix/Spirou crossover fanart, no. You have a few pieces that gather all the major Franco-Belgian characters together, but very few (none come to mind) that are just from those two comics.
I have enormous respect for Uderzo as an artist (less so as a writer). He’s definitely one of the greats, and in contrast with many others whose skills deteriorated sadly in their later years, he’s still a tremendous illustrator and designer (to the extent his health allows). His character designs for the Picts album are clearly superior to Conrad’s versions, for example.
I’m also a huge Barks fan, and I see a lot of similarities between his ducks and Franquin’s Spirou & Fantasio. That’s part of the reason why I commissioned the piece above.
Having lost Giraud, there aren’t a lot of the old greats left, no. Jidéhem is still alive, along with a number of other assistants who debuted in their own right in the late sixties (Derib, Walthéry, Dany, Seron, De Gieter, Leloup, etc.) and who should probably be considered to belong to the next generation. Among your countrymen, Lodewijk debuted surprisingly early.
This -related- piece was commissioned for Stephane Steeman (which sounds made up, but should be a real name) the old director of the Belgian Tintin fan club, IIRC. It contains most of the major Franco-Belgian characters of the time, but for some reason no Spirou and Fantasio. I believe Fournier was the artist at that time.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/smurfs/images/3/3c/The_whole_belgium_comics.jpg
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Thank you for your reaction!
I would say it is common knowledge that Uderzo’s writing skills are nowhere near as good as his illustrations and designs, in which fields he has few equals (though I would consider the later Franquin and Janry as such). That being said, I think some of his Astérix scenarios (‘The Black Gold’ and ‘Asterix and Son’) were actually quite good. Still, he should have found himself another Goscinny to work with though I can understand the possible emotional reasons for him not doing that. I hope Conrad and Ferri will be good successors for Asterix, though their first album I can not consider good by a long stretch.
Barks I think was not quite on Uderzo’s or Franquin’s level as an illustrator but he was certainly pretty good himself. I consider his greatest strength to have been characterisation of comic book characters, heart for his creations and writing scenarios. He was certainly an all-rounder. I would say his more-or-less successor Don Rosa was a close second to Barks himself even if he was not particularly creative, deciding to stick to Bark’s work and characters in the Duckburg universe rather than seriously expanding on them (by choice, I’m sure).
I am pleased to find out that you know of Lodewijk. How acquainted are you with the Dutch comic scene in general? I suspect you might like works like ‘Gilles de Geus’ or ‘De Generaal’ if you are not familiar with them already, for example.
Breaking in on the discussion. Having looked up Lambiek, primarily, there seems to be a lot of good draftsmen from the Netherlands, although my limited Dutch makes it hard to give proper judgement on the scene. Marten Toonder draws like a god. And I like the styles of artists like Fred Julsing and Dick Matena. And Joost Swarte, of course.
Also, Thé Tjong-Khing seems like an interesting guy, as well as Peter Pontiac.
Interestingly, although there has been a lot of cross-pollination between the French and the Walloon scene, there seems to have been very little between the Dutch and the Flemish…
Generally, I find Uderzo’s earlier stories better than the later, although the period between new albums got proportionately longer by time…
The last ones mostly left me flabbergasted…
Own one 🙂
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Jippes is a genius
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tu peux dessiner l ons shot par spirou ?
Land sakes, Daan Jippes is *so* good at drawing the “Spirou” cast. You’d swear this was actual 1950’s Franquin.