By Godi & Zidrou, coloured by Véronique Grobet & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-26-7 (Album PB/Digital edition)
School stories and strips of every tone about juvenile fools, devils and rebels are a lynchpin of modern western entertainment and an even larger staple of Japanese comics – where the scenario has spawned its own wild and vibrant subgenres. However, would Dennis the Menace (ours and theirs), Komi Can’t Communicate, Winker Watson, Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Power Pack, Cédric or any of the rest be improved or just different if they were created by former teachers rather than ex-kids or current parents?
It’s no surprise the form is evergreen: schooling (and tragically, sometimes, a lack of it) takes up a huge amount of children’s attention no matter how impoverished or privileged they are, and their fictions will naturally address their issues and interests. It’s fascinating to see just how much school stories revolve around humour, but always with huge helpings of drama, terror, romance and an occasional dash of action…
One of the most popular European strips employing those eternal but basic themes and methodology began in the last fraction of the 20th century, courtesy of scripter Zidrou (Benoît Drousie) and illustrator Godi.
Drousie is Belgian, born in 1962 and for six years a school teacher prior to changing careers in 1990 to write comics like those he probably used to confiscate in class. Other mainstream successes in a range of genres include Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, African Trilogy, Shi, Léonardo, a superb revival of Ric Hochet, and many more. However, his most celebrated and beloved stories are the Les Beaux Étés sequence (digitally available in English as Glorious Summers) and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Spanish artist Jordi Lafebre.
Zidrou began his comics career with what he knew best: stories about and for kids, including Crannibales, Tamara, Margot et Oscar Pluche and, most significantly, a feature about a (and please forgive the charged term) school dunce: L’Elève Ducobu…
Godi is a Belgian National Treasure, born Bernard Godisiabois in Etterbeek in December 1951. After studying Plastic Arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels he became an assistant to comics legend Eddy Paape in 1970, working on the strip Tommy Banco for Le Journal de Tintin whilst freelancing as an illustrator for numerous comics and magazines. He became a Tintin regular three years later, primarily limning C. Blareau’s Comte Lombardi, but also working on gag strip Red Rétro by Vicq, with whom he also produced Cap’tain Anblus McManus and Le Triangle des Bermudes for Le Journal de Spirou in the early 1980s. He also soloed on Diogène Terrier (1981-1983) for Casterman.
Godi then moved into advertising cartoons and television, cocreating with Nic Broca the animated TV series Ovide. He only returned to comics in 1991, collaborating with newcomer Zidrou on L’Elève Ducobu for magazine Tremplin. The strip launched in September 1992 before transferring to Le Journal de Mickey, and collected albums began in 1997 – 27 so far in French and Dutch, with separate editions for Turkish and Indonesian readers.
When not immortalising modern school days for future generations, Godi latterly diversified, co-creating (1995 with Zidrou) comedy feature Suivez le Guide and game page Démon du Jeu with scripter Janssens.
The series has spawned a live action movie franchise and a dozen pocket books plus all the usual attendant merchandise paraphernalia. English-speakers’ introduction to the series (5 volumes thus far) came courtesy of Cinebook with 2006’s initial release King of the Dunces which was in fact the 5th European collection L’élève Ducobu – Le roi des cancres.
The unbeatable format is loads of short – most often single page – gag strips just like you’d see in The Beano, featuring a revolving cast who are all well established by this point, but also fairly one-dimensional and easy to get a handle on.
Our star is a well-meaning, good natured but terminally lazy young oaf who doesn’t get on with school. He’s sharp, inventive, imaginative, inquisitive, personable and just not academical at all. We might today put him on a spectrum or diagnose a disorder like ADHD, but at heart he’s just not interested and can always find better – or at least more interesting – things to do…
Dad is a civil servant and Mum left home when Ducoboo was a baby, but then there’s a lot of that about. Leonie Gratin – from whom he constantly copies answers to the interminable tests – only has a mum. As this collection shows the seniors do not get on when it comes to matters of child-rearing, and Madame Gratin believes that stupidity is hereditary and passed on through the male line…
Ducoboo and his class colleagues attend Saint Potache School and are mostly taught and tested by ferocious, impatient, mushroom-mad Mr Latouche. He’s something of humourless martinet, and thanks to him, Ducoboo has spent so much time in the corner with a dunce cap on his head that he’s struck up a friendship with the biology skeleton. He (she? they) answers to Neness and is always ready with a theory or suggestion for fun and frolics…
As L’élève Ducobu – Au Coin! this volume was first released in 1998: the second riotous compilation which begins with the start of a new term and traces a year in the life of all concerned. On view are always relevant riffs on being late and missing class; roll calls and registers; times tales and dictation woes; imaginative ways for Ducoboo to copy answers; writing lines and ways to hack the system; the ultimate futility of bad boys actually working and still being called a cheat and always, always cheating, copying and guessing answers…
Escape – either physically or via various dreams and daydreams – is mixed with actual and frequently surreal human interactions like Leonie bringing ferocious hound Growler to class to guard her test answers or even entombing herself in a concrete blockhouse during exams to keep the arch copier at bay in weekly single instalments. These are counterpoised by extended sequences.
One such is inspired by the boy’s greatest wish come true: contracting an illness that keeps him at home and bedbound. The fool has developed Acute Duncitis, but his sweet relief is short lived as Latouche and gloating Leonie delight in bringing work and punishment assignments home for him to not do…
Christmas comes and goes as do the first snowfalls before another extended run of gags focussing on the class and its weedy teacher enduring mass swimming lessons, where – amidst the usual hijinks and low comedy – a little romance is forestalled by our idiot getting between Latouche and burly, buxom lifeguard Miss Katherina…
Just like your educational memories, days and daftness rapidly pass and as the holidays unleash the youngsters the teachers confront the prospect of weeks of idleness with typical stoic ingenuity…
Wry, witty and whimsical whilst deftly recycling constant and adored childhood themes, Ducuboo is an up-tempo, upbeat addition to the genre every parent or pupil can appreciate and enjoy. If your kids aren’t back from school quite yet, why not anticipate keeping them occupied when that happens with In the Corner! and thank your lucky stars that there are kids far more demanding than yours…?
© Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard) 1998 by Godi & Zidrou. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.