{"id":31083,"date":"2024-12-13T18:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T18:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31083"},"modified":"2024-12-13T18:59:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T18:59:02","slug":"gomer-goof-volume-11-goof-off-at-the-gomer-corral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/12\/13\/gomer-goof-volume-11-goof-off-at-the-gomer-corral\/","title":{"rendered":"Gomer Goof volume 11: Goof-Off at the Gomer Corral"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Franquin<\/strong>, translated by Jerome Saincantin<\/strong> (Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-80044-128-6 (PB Album\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Little Euro-Sparkle for Any Occasion \u20269\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd<\/sup> 1924, Andr\u00e9 Franquin began his astonishing comics career in a golden age of European cartooning. As assistant to Joseph \u201cJij\u00e9\u201d Gillain on the strip Spirou<\/strong>, he inherited sole control of the keynote feature in 1946, and went on to create countless unforgettable new characters like Fantasio<\/strong> and The Marsupilami<\/strong>. Over two decades Franquin made the strip purely his, expanding Spirou & Fantasio<\/strong>\u2019s scope and horizons, as they became globetrotting journalists who visited exotic places, exposed crimes, explored the incredible and clashed with bizarre, exotic arch-enemies. Throughout, Fantasio remained a full-fledged – albeit entirely fictional – reporter for Le Journal de<\/strong> Spirou<\/strong>, popping back to base between assignments. Sadly, ensconced there was an arrogant, accident-prone office junior tasked with minor jobs and general dogs-bodying. This was Gaston Lagaffe<\/strong>; Franquin\u2019s other immortal – or peut-\u00eatre<\/em> unkillable? – conception\u2026<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a hoary tradition of comics personalising fictitiously back-office creatives and the arcane processes they indulge in, whether it\u2019s Marvel\u2019s Bullpen or DC Thomson\u2019s lugubrious Editor and underlings at The<\/strong> Beano <\/strong>and Dandy<\/strong>; it\u2019s a truly international practise. Somehow though, after debuting in LJdS<\/strong> #985 (February 28th<\/sup> 1957), the affable dimwit grew – like one of his monstrous projects – beyond control, becoming one of the most popular and ubiquitous components of the comic, whether guesting in Spirou\u2019s adventures or his own strips\/faux reports on the editorial pages he was supposed to paste up. Initial cameos in Spirou yarns or occasional asides on text pages featured well-meaning foul-up and ostensible gofer Gaston lurking and lounging amidst a crowd of diligent toilers: a workshy slacker employed as a general assistant at LJdS<\/strong>\u2019s head office. The scruffy bit-player eventually and inevitably stumbled into his own star feature\u2026<\/p>\n

In terms of schtick and delivery, older readers will recognise favourite beats and elements of well-intentioned helpfulness wedded to irrepressible self-delusion as seen in Benny Hill<\/strong> or Jacques Tati<\/strong> vehicles and recognise recurring riffs from Only Fools and Horses <\/strong>and Mr Bean<\/strong>. It\u2019s blunt-force slapstick, paralysing puns, fantastic ingenuity and inspired invention, compiled to mug smugness, puncture pomposity, lampoon the status quoi?<\/em> (that there\u2019s British punning, see?) and ensure no good deed goes noticed, rewarded or unpunished\u2026<\/p>\n

As previously stated, Gaston\/Gomer can be seen (if you\u2019re quick) toiling at Spirou<\/strong>\u2019s editorial offices: initially reporting to Fantasio, but latterly complicating the lives of office manager L\u00e9on Prunelle<\/em> and other harassed and bewildered staffers, all whilst effectively ignoring any tasks he\u2019s paid to actually handle. These include page paste-up, posting packages, filing, clean-up, collecting stuff inbound from off-site and editing readers\u2019 letters (the real reason fans\u2019 requests and suggestions are never acknowledged or answered)\u2026
\n\"\"
\nGomer is lazy, hyperkinetic, opinionated, ever-ravenous, impetuous, underfed, forgetful and eternally hungry: a passionate sports fan and animal lover whose most manic moments all stem from cutting work corners, stashing or consuming contraband nosh in the office or inventing the Next Big Thing. It leads to constant clashes with colleagues and draws in notionally unaffiliated bystanders like increasingly manic traffic cop Longsnoot<\/em> and fireman Captain Morwater<\/em>, plus ordinary passers-by who should know by now to keep away from this street. Through it all, the obtuse office oaf remains affable, easy-going and incorrigible. Only three questions matter: why everyone keeps giving him one last chance, what does gentle, lovelorn Miss Jeanne<\/em> see in the self-opinionated idiot, and will perpetually-outraged capitalist financier De Mesmaeker<\/em> ever get his perennial, pestiferous contracts signed?<\/p>\n

In 1979, after a long pause while the auteur dealt with his mental health issues, Gaston – Lagaffe m\u00e9rite des baffes <\/strong>became the 13th<\/sup> collected album and in 2023 was Cinebook\u2019s 11th<\/sup> translated compilation. As Goof-off at the Gomer Corral<\/strong>, it offers single page bursts and half-page gags in non-stop all-Franquin jabs and japes. From this point on the frequency of Gaston collections reduced by 50%\u2026<\/p>\n

A brighter spotlight falls upon Longsnoot (AKA Joseph Longtarin<\/em> in European editions) too, a protracted war of nerves across future volumes as Gomer increasingly clashed with forces of authority, and revealed here via many car-based clashes and a cold war involving parking meters culminating in the Goof\u2019s invention of mobile dummy replicas of the despised coin collectors.<\/p>\n

As always, forward looking Gomer is blind to the problems his antiquated automobile causes, despite numerous attempts to soup up, cleanse, modify and mollify the motorised atrocity he calls his. The decrepit, dilapidated Fiat 509 is more in need of assisted execution than his many well-meant engineering interventions, as seen in its brief conversion to natural gas fuel, petrol-powered gassifiers, onboard coal-burners and addition of crash bags years ahead of anything produced by hitmen or torturers. With travel so important, it\u2019s no wonder he also finds time to similarly improve his motor bike with augmented horns and lethally heated seats…
\n\"\"
\nWork gets tougher as a succession of nightmares plague Gomer even as unanswered mail piles up, making more trouble for Prunelle and in-house staff artist Yves<\/em> (occasionally \u201cYvon<\/em>\u201d) Lebrac<\/em> who often act as unwilling, inadvertent beta testers for our well-meaning, overly-helpful, know-it-all office hindrance. This time the poor saps are at ground zero for numerous moments of projectile madness after Gomer improves the pedal bin lid springs…\u00a0 Devoted to his inhouse menagerie (Cheese<\/em> the mouse, goldfish Bubelle<\/em>, an adopted feral cat and a black-headed gull) our loving lad adds doors and passages and even teaches them all to blow gum bubbles. It doesn\u2019t take long, but the clean-up sure does… almost as long as training a troupe of snails to perform a nightclub act…
\n\"\"
\nAlthough there\u2019s less opportunity to invent interesting foodstuffs, Gomer has leisure enough to augment office traffic, filing and even automate suitcase usage, but his greatest triumph this time round is renovating the office reference library, creating a thing of architectural wonder and lethal imprecision…<\/p>\n

At least lovely Miss Jeanne and forever faithful pal Jules-from-Smith\u2019s-across-the-street<\/em> are able to appreciate the efforts made to improve the world, even if it seems at the cost of a few paltry lives and much municipal and private property…
\n\"\"
\nFar better enjoyed than pr\u00e9cised or spoken of, these strips allowed Franquin to flex whimsical muscles, subversively sneak in satirical support for their environmental beliefs, pacifism and animal rights and remain sublime examples of all-ages comedy: wholesome, barbed, daft and incrementally funnier with every re-reading. Why haven\u2019t you got your Goof on yet?<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it time you started Goofing around?
\n\u00a9 Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 2009 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation \u00a9 2023 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Franquin, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-80044-128-6 (PB Album\/Digital edition) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Little Euro-Sparkle for Any Occasion \u20269\/10 This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924, Andr\u00e9 Franquin began his astonishing comics career in a golden age of European cartooning. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Gomer Goof volume 11: Goof-Off at the Gomer Corral”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[357,280,113,255,63,102,346,125,328,111,210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andre-franquin","category-animal-antics","category-comedy","category-environmentalism","category-european-classics","category-fantasy","category-gomer-goof","category-humour","category-music","category-satirepolitics","category-sport"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-85l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31089,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31083\/revisions\/31089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}