By Yann & Batem; created by Franquin, coloured by Leonardo and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-026-5 (Album PB/Digital edition)
One of Europe’s most popular and evergreen comic stars is an eccentrically irascible, loyally unpredictable, super-strong, rubber-limbed yellow-&-black ball of explosive energy with a seemingly infinite elastic tail. The mighty manic Marsupilami is a wonder of nature and icon of European entertainment invention who originally spun-off from another immortal comedy adventure strip…
In 1946 Joseph “Jije” Gillain was crafting the eponymous keystone strip for flagship publication Le Journal de Spirou when he abruptly handed off the entire kit and caboodle to his assistant André Franquin. The apprentice gradually shifted format from short complete gags to pioneer longer adventure serials, and began introducing a wide and engaging cast of new characters.
For 1952’s Spirou et les heritiers, he devised a beguiling and boisterous South American critter and tossed him like an elastic-arsed grenade into the mix. Thereafter – until his resignation from the feature – Franquin frequently included the bombastic little beast in Spirou’s increasingly exotic escapades…
The Marsupilami returned over and over again: a phenomenally popular magical animal who inevitably grew into a solo star of screen, toy store, console games and albums all his own.
In 1955 a contractual spat with Dupuis resulted in Franquin signing up with publishing rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin: collaborating with René Goscinny and old pal Peyo and concocting raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. However, Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and returned to Le Journal de Spirou. In 1957, he unleashed Gaston Lagaffe, whilst still legally obligated to carry on his Tintin strip work too and, in 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem formally began assisting him, but after ten more years the artist had reached his Spirou limit. In 1969 Franquin quit for good, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him…
Plagued by bouts of depression, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. Moreover, having learned his lessons about publishers, Franquin retained all rights to Marsupilami and in the late 1980’s began publishing his own adventures of the rambunctious miracle-worker…
Tapping old comrade Greg as scripter and inviting commercial artist/illustrator Luc Collin (pen-name “Batem”), he launched his new raucous comedy feature. The first of these was La Queue du Marsupilami, released in 1987 (translated by Cinebook as The Marsupilami’s Tale) by Franquin’s own Marsu Productions. Ultimately, his collaborators monopolised the art duties, and in recent years, crass commercialism triumphed again. Since 2016 the universes of Marsupilami and Spirou have reconnected, allowing the old gang to act out in shared stories again…
Fordlandia was released in November 1989: the sixth of 33 solo albums (not including all-Franquin short-story collection/volume #0 Capturez un Marsupilami), a gripping comedy action romp, bigging up the fantasy element and capitalising on both weird-but-true history and a growing cast of regular players…
Blessed with a talent for mischief, the Marsupilami is a deviously adaptive anthropoid regarded as one of the rarest animals on Earth. It inhabits the rain forests of Palombia, speaking a language uniquely its own, and has a reputation for causing trouble and instigating chaos. The species is rare and is fanatically dedicated to its young. Sometimes that extends to associates of different species…
The tale is set in the timeless but increasingly fragile teeming life-web of the Palombian rainforest, as it endures its latest environmental disaster. The current grandiose folly of the humans from Palombian capital city Chiquito is a huge dam that has dried up the Amazonian tributary of the once inaccessible Rio Huaytoonarro.
El Presidente’s pride & joy – dubbed “Huetnomor” – has triggered a domino effect for all who depend upon the river waters, from the ubiquitous piranha and crocodiles infesting it to the savage Havoca folk exploiting it, and the lost and broken degenerates of many nations hiding along its length…
Normally such projects would have failed from human malfeasance or due to the interference of the mighty Marsupilami and his extended clan, but our golden wonder is currently preoccupied by a mystery: the disappearance of his adored mate Marsupilamie …and even rival primate Mars the Black …
A creature of great empathy and primordial sensitivity, the bereft beast quickly deduces they have been taken by an old enemy: vile hunter Bring M. Backalive…
Left alone to care for their three cubs, Marsupilami’s vengeful screams alert jungle-dwelling white kids Sarah and Bip, who have been raising themselves in the green hell – with a little oversight from the Marsupilami patriarch they call “Marsu”. The human youngsters soon save the babies from drugged darts and – as enraged papa goes after the abductors – set off on a parallel investigation which takes then to disreputable shanty town and den of thieves Leyofdasaus…
It’s a canny move, as the rogues and scoundrels squatting and rotting there are currently being beguiled by a deadly glamour queen also looking for Backalive. A serial millionaire marrier, “Gringa” Rosanna Roquette is tracking down a couple of old spouses whilst ostensibly seeking the location of 20th century lost city Fordlandia.
If you’ve never heard of the place I strongly urge you to crank up your search engine of choice right now…
Also converging on the tatty township and the craven hunter is animal trainer Noah, currently helping Mars’ beastly bride Venus find her missing mate. Soon he and she are working with Sarah and Bip to save all the stolen Marsupilamis.
Marsu’s search has been plagued by misfortune. He too is closing in on Backalive and his former flunky (dissolute riverboat captain Bombonera) but cannot stop Roquette and the shabby captain teaming up and heading for the fabled missing metropolis…
Fortune finally shifts the good guys’ way when Marsu links up with Sarah, Bip, Noah and Venus. By dubious means, they then secure their own steamboat from an outcast who used to work in Fordlandia. After many more trials and tribulations, they finally confront the tawdry trapper and consequently uncover a bizarre and deranged plot by one of Rosanna’s former husbands…
Croesus Gummyfeather is convinced the world will soon suffer a second biblical flood and has been paying Backalive to gather two of every animal to stock his fabulous flying ark, and the inevitable confrontation between all aggrieved parties occurs just as the cloud-wracked heavens open…
And, as the deluge kicks off a climactic clash, back at Huetnomor, the engineers and architects wish they hadn’t skimped and grafted and cut so many corners when building the massive – but apparently soluble – hydro-megalith…
Combining astute political commentary with high octane blockbuster action and outrageous comedy antics, this tale is a superbly smart fantasy and masterfully madcap rollercoaster of hairsbreadth escapes, close shaves and sardonic character assassinations, packed to the whiskers with wit and hilarity.
These eccentric exploits of the garrulous golden monkeys are moodily macabre, furiously funny and pithily pertinent, offering engagingly riotous romps and devastating debacles for wide-eyed kids of every age all over the world.
© Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 1991 by Franquin, Yann & Batem. All rights reserved. English translation © 2021 Cinebook Ltd.