The Post-Spirou and Fantasio: Before and After

Unlike you think this is an institution, the characters of Spirou and Fantasio were comes from the direct head of Jean Dupuis, on a much primitive time than it is almost one century later. This been like the official Adventures of Tintin's rival, especially throughout the Golden era of the comics business: The late-1940s to the late-1960s.

The last "official" series' book to me date of a very strange year for Dupuis all around: 1998. The 46th book, Machine qui rêve, was ultimately make the hero of this series the #1 enemy to kill! A very oft-putting end to what will be otherwise a character's icon that spread faith and optimism in all the world.

After Tome and Janry have quit with this for good, newer artists have tried to found their feets with the Groom and his reporter companion. (Are they gays?) Sadly, all I've seen from them were mere fanfictions comes to life. The Manga style to these characters didn't fit well and that have lasted too long than it needed. Since 2011, Dupuis tried its hand to rebooted the past of the franchise by redone it from scratch. Something tells me that they didn't predicted the kind of criticism the Marcinelle book editors going to dealt by...

Then, goes this: Abitan, Guerrive and Schwartz took the reigns of the series after the Yoann and Vhelmann's rebooted designs will be history. This appear a very interesting time for the pair... and a frightening one as well. Much like a throwback of the original characters that comes from Jean Dupuis, it results to a franchise that most of all, celebrate the dark past of the leads while wondered themselves of their existence and importance on the life of many people. All that was pretty fun, but sadly, Spirou is NOT Tintin! Because Hergé was pretty vile about letting his assistants trying to redesigned the characters he have made. He assured himself to be a sort of genius. Like André Franquin finally, but to a bigger extent. Franquin, Fournier and Tome/Janry are the three eras of the Groom whom I have grow up with and that I claims it at legit stories. The rest after it are just fillers and fanfictions for sells more books.

The cover itself seems more a re-creation from a past that have apparently never happened. The story set... in 1958 on a Bruxelles Universal Expo. Spirou was on a deep coma and forgotten forever. He knows the future wasn't like the one he actually dreaming. It could also be a character study, of the impact and legacy Dupuis have bequeathed to the rest of the world. But unfortunately, Dupuis is ironically on a deep artistic coma since too long now and that the whole public have enough of them too even with some needed-change. Unless you're a fan of Kid Paddle or Dad, don't bother to support this huge edition house.

Looking of the way the character was updated and updated lots of times for many decades, the pointless spin-offs that was about or the way Dupuis became another corporation that only own fans from Belgium and older nostalgics (Curse them!), Jean Dupuis and his brothers would certainly return themselves to their respective graves. Hergé, passed away already for 41 years now, can be lucky enough to not seen his own creations with such of careless upgrading and form of revisionnism.