Gaston is a Belgian gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. The series focuses on the everyday life of Gaston Lagaffe, a lazy and accident-prone office junior who works at Spirou's office in Brussels. Gaston is very popular in large parts of Europe and has been translated into over a dozen languages, but except for a few pages by Fantagraphics in the early 1990s, there was no English translation until Cinebook began publishing English language editions of Gaston books in July, 2017.
André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are Gaston and Marsupilami. He also produced the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period seen by many as the series' golden age.
Marsupilami is a comic book character and fictional animal species created by André Franquin. Its first appearance was in the 31 January 1952 issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. Since then it appeared regularly in the popular Belgian comics series Spirou & Fantasio, as a pet of the main characters, until Franquin stopped working on the series; the character's final appearance in the series during Franquin's lifetime was in 1970.
Spirou & Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comics. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like The Adventures of Tintin, Lucky Luke, and Asterix. It has been written and drawn by a succession of artists.
Seccotine is a recurring character from the Spirou et Fantasio comics, and the first major female character of the series, a strong-willed reporter. She was created by André Franquin, and made her first appearance in La turbotraction serialised in 1953 and published in the album La corne de rhinocéros in 1955.
Le Petit Spirou is a popular Belgian comic strip created by Tome and Janry in 1987. The series developed from La jeunesse de Spirou (1987), a Spirou & Fantasio album in which Tome and Janry set to imagine Spirou's youth. It was developed into a spin-off series shortly afterwards and the authors have focused on it ever since the controversy created after their final Spirou et Fantasio album, Machine qui rêve (1998). New albums are among the bestselling French-language comics, with 330,000 copies for the latest one.
Jean-Claude Fournier, known simply as Fournier, is a French cartoonist best known as the comic book artist who handled Spirou et Fantasio in the years 1969-1979.
Spirou et les héritiers, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fourth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and a great leap in the expansion of the Spirou universe. After serial publication in Spirou magazine, it was released as a complete hardcover album in 1952.
Le nid des Marsupilamis, written and drawn by Franquin, is the twelfth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The title story, and another, La foire aux gangsters, were serialised in Spirou magazine before the release in a hardcover album in 1960.
QRN sur Bretzelburg, written by Franquin and Greg, drawn by Franquin with assistance by Jidéhem, is the eighteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The story was initially serialised in Spirou magazine under the name QRM sur Bretzelburg over an unusually long period, before a delayed hardcover album release in 1966.
Le faiseur d'or, written and drawn by Fournier, is the twentieth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the first to follow the Spirou retirement of André Franquin. The story was initially serialised in Spirou magazine, before publication grouped with Un Noël clandestin and Le champignon nippon in a hardcover album in 1970.
Panade à Champignac is the nineteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The story, written and drawn by Franquin, was serialised along with Bravo les Brothers in Spirou magazine before publication as a hardcover album in 1969.
Les voleurs du Marsupilami, published in English as The Marsupilami Thieves, is the fifth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, written and drawn by Franquin. The story is a continuation from where the previous album, Spirou et les héritiers, left off. After serial publication in Spirou magazine, the story was released as a complete hardcover album in 1954.
Capturez un Marsupilami!, written and drawn by André Franquin, is a comic album containing the adventures and short gags of the Marsupilami. Although not collected in one album until 2002, the contents are the earliest works of the original artist, from publications in Risque Tout and Spirou magazine, and therefore given the number 0 in the series of Marsupilami albums.
Marsu Productions, or simply Marsu, is a publishing house and licensing and merchandising company located in Monaco, managing Franco-Belgian comics characters and copyright concerns, chiefly from the comics universe of André Franquin. The name Marsu refers to one of Franquin's best known characters, the Marsupilami, but the company also handles the character universes of Gaston Lagaffe, Le Petit Noël, Les Monstres, as well as François Walthéry's Natacha and Le P'tit bout d'chique, and Léonid et Spoutnika by Yann and Philippe Bercovici among others.
Noël, or Le Petit Noël, is the main character of an eponymous Belgian comics series, and a secondary character of Spirou et Fantasio. His name means "Christmas" in French. The series Noël was created in 1957 by André Franquin and Jidéhem and published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou, while Franquin created the following work alone or together with Will.
Luc Collin, best known by the pen name Batem is a Belgian comics artist best known as the artist successor of André Franquin of the series Marsupilami.
Marcel Denis was a French-speaking Belgian comics creator. He was the creator of the series Hultrasson and Les Frères Clips in Spirou magazine. He also made two episodes of Tif et Tondu. He was a part of the so-called Marcinelle School, influenced by Jijé and André Franquin.
Spip is a fictional Eurasian red squirrel and a main character in the Belgian comic strip Spirou et Fantasio. He is Spirou's pet and was the first recurring supporting character in the series.
