by 
And we’re back!
There has been a ton of news to report since the last update, but let’s start with the most recent. Earlier this week, Vehlmann created quite a stir with a comment he posted on Instagram, alongside the picture above:
I’m back to our next (and last) #Spirou adventure, in which our hero “feels a bit blah” – as shown in this beautiful pencil sketch by #Yoann. #longlivevacation
And in a follow-up comment about the duo having been attached to the series for 10 years:
10 years too much, according to the naysayers! Don’t worry, Yoann and I already have an idea for another project together!
Online comment sections promptly exploded with reactions, retrospectives on the Yoann & Vehlmann run, and speculations about the future of the series, until Yoann posted a response on the BD Gest’ forum:
Ha ha! good morning friends (and others!)
Don’t worry! We’re going to redynamite… uh, redynamize, our Spirou! We still have many years ahead of us on the series!
Cheerio, xoxo!
So, what should we think? We should probably see Vehlmann’s comments in light of recent interviews. Interviewed for an article in Les Inrockuptibles, we can read:
To Fabien Vehlmann, there is one very particular objective for the Spirou series: “We need to find a new readership … Currently, a kid isn’t going to spontaneously look for a Spirou album in the bookstore. We’re currently discussing this with Dupuish Publishing: we’re trying to figure out how to – not reboot the series, but relaunch it, so that it has a chance to attract an audience that doesn’t know it.” The writer anticipates changing the structure of the albums, drawing inspiration from TV shows: “Without saying too much, instead of telling one story throughout a whole album, we’ll divide each adventure into chapters, and each chapter will almost be like a short story… It will be like having episodes within a season. You’ll start to see that in the magazine in May.” [May has previously been mentioned as the date of the magazine serialisation of Yoann & Vehhlmann’s next Spirou album, Spirou #56.]
Yoann was earlier quoted as saying they are planning to put the main series on hold to concentrate on Supergroom, which will follow an American comic format.
Whatever we make of all this, it seems clear that the creators and publisher have concluded that the approach to the series in the last few albums is not quite working, and that some radical change is in the works – with or without this team. One change coming sooner than might have been expected is the new visual direction of the series (as seen in the various excerpts from the upcoming Spirou #56 album posted to Instagram and Facebook), in which Yoann is distancing himself from the Franquin-inspired look and bringing it much closer to the duo’s original one-shot, Les Géants pétrifiés (“The Petrified Giants”):
The perceived need for a change is no doubt influenced by sales figures, but what strikes Spirou Reporter as more worrying is the impression that the constant negativity from a small group of vocal detractors is getting to Yoann & Vehlmann. From the interview in Les Inrockuptibles:
If you want to ruin a weekend, the best way is to go and read comics forums. With Spirou, you often feel like an imposter or usurper. The golden age was the Franquin period, the bestselling period was that of Tome & Janry, and it’s really difficult to please different readerships: small kids who don’t know the series at all, older kids who might have seen it in the magazine, and the reactionary fandom for whom nothing is ever good enough. You’re like a politician who has to appeal to both left-wingers and right-wingers in a single speech… as well as the centrists. That runs the risk of turning into wishy-washy double-talk. But as an author you can’t be too diplomatic, you have to be a sort of radical…
The negative tone on certain forums is draining just as a fan, so it’s easy to understand that it would be very demoralizing for the creators targeted. While people have a right to their opinions and there’s certainly legitimate criticisms to be made of Yoann & Vehlmann’s albums, the Internet has a tendency to create a toxic dynamic where the most extreme reactions are magnified and repeated ad nauseam, with people piling on and creating the impression of a consensus when it’s really only an echo chamber.
Welcome back! And I hope the creators aren’t getting too beaten down by the trolls on the internet. I also think a lot of fans don’t appreciate just how much work goes into one of these books. It’s insane. That, at the very least, deserves a modicum of respect.
I haven’t read any of their stories yet. I don’t think any have been translated. But I do love the art a lot. Can’t wait to read something in a longer form…
Soy una fan mexicana.
Yo he leido a Vehlmann y Yoann, creo que han hecho un buen trabajo, se nota el esfuerzo y dedicación que han puesto en Spirou et Fantasio. Consideró que lo que ocurre es que muchos no toman en cuenta que Tome y Janry no siempre tuvieron la aceptación de los lectores, si prestamos atención, en “¿Quién detendra a Cianuro?”, hay un niño que no sabe quien es Spirou ni menos se acuerda correctamente de su nombre, representando justamente que los niños en ese momento pasaban por algo similar.
Yo no estoy de acuerdo conque Spirou use el uniforme, pero entiendo que es una problematica que Vehlmann ideo para reflejar como le han secuestrado a travez de los contratos que Spirou firmo (eso es brillante), por lo cual yo lo que quiero ver es como Vehlmann planea hacer que Spirou se libere y recupere su identidad. Yo creo que esta ha sido una etapa muy buena y dinamica, el dibujo de Yoann es magnifico, incluso es coherente el supuesto distanciamiento entre Spirou y Fantasio, porque todo es culpa de las actuales responsabilidades de Fantasio, cualquiera sabe que el trabajo dependiendo de que tan exigente sea, inevitablemente afecta nuestras relaciones con nuestros seres queridos.
Deseo de corazón que no se retiren Vehlmann y Yoann de Spirou et Fantasio, porque estudiando las pistas en la imagen del listado de titulos, todavía están lejos de los que seguramente quieren desarrollar, yo tengo grandes expectativas sobre la proxima aventura.
I like Yoann and Vehlmanns work, but if they should quit, I hope Fabrice Tarrin will take over as painter. I really liked his paiting style in his one-shot album.
By the way, any new on new albums in the ordinary or the extraordinary series?
Oh no… I really like Yoann and Vehlmann’s output so far, and I’d hate to see them leave. But I’m also not on board with changing up the series to this degree. For one thing, I don’t believe it will have the positive effect on sales that they’re hoping for, and I fear the spirit of the comic will diminish in the proccess. I hope I’m wrong.
Welcome back, from me too. I wasn’t sure you’d gone back to reporting, when I decided to check back today.
It is great that you are back! And Spirou & Fantasio will always servive in some sort of way!
While i am personally not the biggest fan of Yoann and Vehlman’s albums (not “compared to the previous writers” just in general) I don’t think they’re as bad as some of their detractors th ink. however, retooling the serie as they’re planning to is not going to help redynamize the sales either, it might even be the oposite (loosing long-time readers while failing to attract a new readership). The problem is’nt with the format, it is elswere. And this is something that pose a problem to Franco-Belgian comic in general.
Ask yourself why Astérix, or why mangas keep thriving and the answer will appear.
By the way, looking at the pictures, I noticed a nazi flag in one of them. Does this mean that they will make a (last?) longer story, after all? In the end of La Colère du Marsupilami it was told that the next story include nazis. I hope the mentioned picture is just a sketch. What is Spirou saying there? Something about Emile Bravo? Are these pictures just tests that are not mean to be parts of a new story, or will there be a new longer story? this is a bit confusing… What is Spirou saying in the other picture?
Seems to be mostly stupid in-jokes. as far as I can make out.
-“And in the moat, we have 6 metres long alligators, trained to kill.”
-“Finally something that isn’t exactly like Émile Bravo.”
-“I can’t stand it any longer with this permanent contradiction between my ecological convictions and my globalized lifestyle, so here it goes.”
(Or “environmental convictions”, possibly.)