Spirou

Spirou magazine is without a doubt one of the most important Belgian comics magazines, along with Tintin. While Tintin was famous for its serious, realistic stories, Spirou stood out for its humor and freshness. Unlike its contemporaries, it is probably the only Belgian magazine from the mid-20th century that is still around, although only a glimpse of its original beauty. In 1936, printing house Jean Dupuis decided to boost its profits by starting a new juvenile comics magazine. Nineteen-year-old Charles Dupuis was put in charge of the project. The French artist Robert Velter (Rob-Vel) was assigned to develop the main character, which became the young bellboy, 'Spirou'. The first issue appeared on 21 April 1938. A couple weeks later the magazine got a Dutch equivalent, called Robbedoes.

Most of the early comics were of American origin, such as 'Superman' by Siegel and Shuster, 'Red Ryder' by Fred Harman and 'Brick Bradford' by William Ritt and Clarence Gray.

One of the most productive artists became Joseph Gillain, also known as Jijé, who took on most of the artwork during World War II. He continued Velter's 'Spirou' stories, as well as some of the American comics, the import of which was banned during the War. Gillain also started a detective series of his own, 'Jean Valhardi', which was written by editor-in-chief Jean Doisy. Jijé took over the 'Spirou' comic completely later on, adding the character of Fantasio. In 1943, the German Propaganda Abteilung wanted to assign a German administrator to the publishing house, which Dupuis refused. A publication stop was decreed by the oppressor in September 1943.

Spirou came back stronger than ever with the liberation of Belgium in October 1944. In the special album Almanach Spirou 1944, all the original series returned. In late 1946, the Almanach Spirou 1947 appeared, where a new team of young artists was launched. Disciples of Jijé took over some of the old series, like André Franquin ('Spirou et Fantasio'), Eddy Paape ('Jean Valhardi'), Victor Hubinon ('Blondin et Cirage') and Will ('Tif et Tondu'). Only Morris took on a series of his own, the famous cowboy 'Lucky Luke'.

With this new team of talented artists, the magazine went into its heyday, the 1950s. Several wonderful series appeared during this period, such as 'Johan et Pirlouit' (by Peyo), 'Gil Jourdan' (by Maurice Tillieux) and Franquin's version of 'Spirou et Fantasio', which produced many classic comics. Jean-Michel Charlier became the main writer of realistic comics, and put out the aviation series 'Buck Danny' with Vic Hubinon, 'Le Patrouille des Castors' with MiTacq and 'Marc Dacier' with Paape.

Spirou also started an educational historical series, 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', written at first by Charlier and later Octave Joly. Many artists made their first steps in the comics field in this series, such as Hermann, Jean Graton, Dino Attanasio, Liliane & Fred Funcken and Derib. Jijé took over 'Valhardi' from Paape again and started the western series 'Jerry Spring'. Sirius drew his historical series about the 'Timour' family and Marcel Remacle took on his 'Vieux Nick'.

Another productive artist for this section was Noël Bissot who drew a series of untitled stories featuring many memorable characters. Other artists who produced many micro-stories were Hubuc, Louis Salvérius, Paul Dubar and Mike.

The magazine continued its successful formula throughout nearly all of the 1960s. New series were launched, such as 'Benoît Brisefer' by Peyo, 'Sophie' by Jidéhem, 'Sibylline' by Raymond Macherot and 'Marc Lebut' by Francis and Tillieux. 1968 is often called the magazine's "disaster year". Delporte quit his job as editor-in-chief, Franquin handed over 'Spirou et Fantasio' to Jean-Claude Fournier, and popular artists like Morris, Jijé and Paape left the magazine to work elsewhere. In the 1970s, Peyo's assistants started series of their own, such as François Walthéry ('Natacha'), Gos ('Le Scrameustache'), Lucien De Gieter ('Papyrus'), Marc Wasterlain ('Docteur Poche') and Roger Leloup ('Yoko Tsuno'). Other famous series during this period became 'Les Petits-Hommes' (by Pierre Seron), 'Jess Long' (by Arthur Piroton and Tillieux), 'Archie Cash' (by Malik and Jean-Marie Brouyère) and 'Isabelle' (by Will).

In 1967, Raoul Cauvin joined the magazine and he soon became the main writer of humorous comics. In the following decades, he wrote series for such artists as Louis Salverius and Willy Lambil ('Les Tuniques Bleues', 1968), Berck ('Sammy', 1970), Mazel ('Les Jungles Perdues', 1975), Daniel Kox ('L'Agent 212', 1975) and Jacques Sandron ('Godaille et Godasse', 1975).

New talent was discovered in the 'Carte Blance' section, which meant the debut of Philippe Bercovici, Yann, Luc Warnant and Alain Dodier. In 1977 Delporte returned with a new, more adult, section: Le Trombone Illustré. There, Franquin started his black humor comics 'Idées Noires', Frédéric Jannin took on 'Germain et Nous' and Enki Bilal, Claire Bretécher, F'Murr and Gotlib made their appearance. Fournier quit 'Spirou et Fantasio' in 1979 and after some stories by Yves Chaland and Nic Broca, Tome and Janry became the new authors of the title series. They soon became very popular, since their work was more reminiscent of Franquin.

In the 1980s, artists like Hermann, Stéphane Colman, Marc Michetz, André Geerts, Griffo and Philippe Berthet joined the magazine. The Dutch Robbedoes somewhat separated from the French version, which meant the introduction of Dutch and Flemish artists to the magazine, like Ikke with 'Biebel', Gerrit Stapel with 'Huon de Neveling', Toon van Driel with 'Felis Leo', Pjotr & Eric Meynen with 'Tommy Gun en Marion Lee' and Peter de Smet with 'Morgenster en Durandel'. Only Gerrit de Jager and Luc Cromheecke made it to the French Spirou with respectively 'Roel en zijn Beestenboel' ('Aristote et ses Potes') and 'Tom Carbon'.

The experiment was cancelled in the late 1980s, when Robbedoes became more or less a translation of Spirou again. The 1980s also brought new French series, such as 'Pierre Tombal' (by Marc Hardy and Cauvin), 'Les Femmes en Blanc' (by Bercovici and Cauvin), 'Toupet' (by Albert Blesteau and Christian Godard), 'Jerôme K. Jerôme Bloche' (by Alain Dodier and Makyo), 'Jojo' (by André Geerts) and 'Cédric' (by Laudec and Cauvin). Malik gave up his hard-boiled 'Archie Cash', and took on the more humorous 'Cupidon'.

The magazine also provided space for more grown-up comics, such as 'Munro' by Griffo and later Taymans, 'Soda', by Warnant, Gazzotti and Tome, 'Théodore Poussin' by Frank Le Gall, and work by Antonio Cossu. Tome and Janry exploited the possibilities of the 'Spirou' comic by starting a parodying spin-off, 'Le Petit Spirou'. In the late 1990s they even rebuilt 'Spirou et Fantasio' to a more realistic, 'Soda'-like comic.

Spirou changed its focus to just children in the early 1990s and the grown-up comics were dropped. After some final efforts by old veterans like Franquin, Will, Macherot and Remacle, the magazine was almost completely handed over to new talent. New humorous artists were introduced, like Clarke ('Mélusine'), Olis ('Garage Isidore'), Serge Ernst ('Les Zappeurs'), Stuf ('Passe Moi l'Ciel!'), Midam ('Kid Paddle'), Baron Brumaire, E411, Jean-Michel Thiriet, Lewis Trondheim and Blatte. François Gilson joined Raoul Cauvin as a versatile writer of humorous comics. Older artists took on new series, such as Mazel ('Les Paparazzi'), Bédu ('Les Psy') and Fournier ('Les Crannibales').

Throughout the years, Spirou magazine has been a breeding ground for talented comics artists. Today, the magazine still stands as one of the leading juvenile comics magazines. In the 60 years of its run, the focus has always been on the humour and it has provided the comics field with numerous legendary series, such as 'Lucky Luke', 'Les Schtroumpfs' and 'Gaston Lagaffe'. Only the future will tell if Spirou magazine will last 100 years. The Dutch Robbedoes ceased publication in September, 2005.