Publications Update: June 2016

Finally an update! A new one-shot by Hanco Kolk, an anthology album and more on the Yoann & Vehlmann short-story album, drawbacks to a Swedish collected edition volume, the next Spirou album in English, and more… (UPDATE: And the Marsupilami rages in Norway, too!)

Dupuis has a hankering for Hanco

In early May, the comics magazine Stripschrift revealed that Dupuis has offered Dutch artist Hanco Kolk a chance to make a Spirou one-shot – the first non-Franco-Belgian to do so. Kolk, a veteran comics artist of some fame, was a friend of and greatly influenced by Yves Chaland, and is a particular fan of Franquin’s Bravo les Brothers. He is working on the script and hoping to start drawing by fall. According to a forum post, the adventure will take place in Rotterdam. The Comics Journal has a feature on him and his career where he mentions the project: “I was really proud they asked me.”

In the 1980s, Kolk worked on the series Ernst Vrolijk & Dick Hout, which was published in Robbedoes, the Dutch/Flemish version of the Journal de Spirou. That comic, and the later Gilles de Geus, adopted a relatively traditional Marcinelle-school look. However, in more recent years Kolk’s art has often moved away from mainstream styles (either realistic or comedic) towards much greater stylization and abstract minimalism. (“I made a vow concerning style – never repeat yourself.”) This could be a very different Spirou look; will be interesting to see! (via Stripspeciaalzaak)

A Frank update

Before that, the next one-shot in line is La Lumière de Bornéo (“The Light from Borneo”) by Frank Pé & Zidrou. For a little while there was a rumor that the title, originally announced as L’Okapi Blanc (“The White Okapi”), would end up being Le Cercle de lumière (“The Circle of Light”), but that didn’t stick. The serialization of the adventure will begin in the summer issue of the Journal de Spirou (#4082–4083), due out 6. July, while the album has been pushed back slightly, to November. A few more samples from the album, as well as both the magazine and (provisional) album covers, have also been leaked:

Spirou anthology

According to Dupuis’ spokesperson, the short Spirou stories by various authors that have been published in the Journal over the years are going to be collected in an anthology album. The list of stories to choose from is long, so the album will most probably contain only a selection, unless it greatly exceeds normal album length. No timeframe for the publication has been indicated.

Spirou speaks Polish

Last month, a Spirou album was published in Polish for the first time. Taurus Media are starting off with Sprycjan i Fantazjusz: Australijska przygoda (Spirou & Fantasio #34, Adventure Down Under) by Tome & Janry, with Sprycjan i Fantazjusz: W Moskwie (Spirou & Fantasio #42, Spirou in Moscow) coming next, later this year.

Wrong Head on the horizon

The next English album from Cinebook, following Tome &  Janry’s Virus (Spirou & Fantasio #33), will be The Wrong Head, or La Mauvaise tête (Spirou & Fantasio #8) by Franquin. Amazon has it listed for publication 6. October. This of course is a classic and often-referenced album, most recently in the one-shot La Grosse tête (“The Big Head”) by Makyo, Toldac & Téhem.

Mynd you, Mooz books kan be pretti nasti

Mooz, the Swedish branch of the publisher Zoom, put out a Swedish edition of vol. 14 of the Spirou collected edition (Tome & Janry 1984–1987) three weeks ago. It corresponds to the Danish and ultimately the French versions of the same book. At the same time they also put out a book collecting Fournier’s first three albums, under the title Spirou 1969–1972. However, while the title and cover matches the French intégrale (vol. 9), the contents do not. Articles and extras have been omitted, reducing it to just the albums themselves and a short introductory article. In fact, it appears to just be the Norwegian edition that Spirou Reporter has criticized before under a different cover. It is also worth noting that on the Swedish Serieforum, the quality of the translation has been much debated, pointing to numerous mistakes and untranslated Danish text.

Chaland en Castellano

A little while back, Dibbuks added – somewhat unexpectedly – a Spanish edition of Spirou par Y. Chaland (“Spirou by Y. Chaland”) to its publishing schedule. As previously discussed, this book collects the Spirou strips by Yves Chaland that ran in the Journal (as well as some of his other contributions), but is primarily a biography of the artist, with focus on how his career intersected with Spirou. In Spanish the title is Spirou por Y. Chaland, and it is set to come out in July.

Dutch and German on schedule

This week saw the release of Feroumont’s Fantasio se marie (“Fantasio Gets Married”) in Dutch, as Kwabbernoot gaat trouwen. German-speaker have to wait until 29. November for the album, published as Fantasio heiratet by Carlsen. Carlsen did recently publish La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”), under the title Der Zorn des Marsupilamis. At the same time they’re plugging along with the collected edition (Gesamtausgabe), with vol. 5 coming out 28. June followed by vol. 6 on 20. December.

Yoann & Vehlmann’s next two

We’ve talked previously about the next two Spirou albums from Yoann & Vehlmann: first a collection of their shorter stories, supposed to be out by this Christmas, followed by a full-length adventure that follows on from the ending of La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”).

This week’s issue of the Journal (#4080) features another story for the collection: “Supergroom” (8 pages). Inspired by his meeting with Batguy, Spirou decides to don a mask and a souped-up Fantacopter and become a costumed hero. Full of gags, it’s been getting praise even from many of the people who don’t usually like Yoann & Vehlmann’s stories.

There was some uncertainty about whether the short-story collection would be published in the main series, as album #56 (the way Tome & Janry’s La Jeunesse de Spirou was), or as an out-of-numeration special album (an hors-série album in French), of which there are four to date. Now according to a BD Gest Forum poster, it’s leaning towards the hors-série option, although nothing has been finally decided.

Meanwhile, InediSpirou provides a couple of details about the next full-length adventure (SPOILERS): It will be set in Hollywood during the filming of a WWII movie (hence the reference to Nazis in the ending of “Wrath of the Marsupilami”), and will feature the return of the movie star Blythe Prejlowieky from La Face Cachée du Z (Spirou & Fantasio #52, “The Dark Side of the Z”).

Covers delayed

Finally, the book Toutes les couvertures des recueils du Journal du Spirou par Franquin, collecting Franquin’s covers for the Journal digests, has been postponed. It was set to be published on 22. March, but now has no specific publication date. However, Dupuis still insist that it will come out some time in 2016.

Wrath of the Marsupilami hits Norway

The Norwegian album version of La Colère du Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio #55, “Wrath of the Marsupilami”), in Norwegian as Den rasende Spiralis, is listed for sale on Tronsmo’s online store and has been entered in the MineTegneserier database, but is yet to be spotted “in the wild”. Fans puzzled by Egmont’s release strategy of not announcing the album, not making it available in most stores and not selling it through their own online store might want to check out this podcast.

Related posts:

Publications Update: Q4 2016 – Q1 2017 Publications Update: January–February 2016 Publications Update: Spring 2015 (Non-French) Publications Update: May 2017 Publications Update: September 2016