{"id":32001,"date":"2025-02-13T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T09:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32001"},"modified":"2025-02-11T18:29:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T18:29:34","slug":"quick-under-full-sail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/02\/13\/quick-under-full-sail\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick & Flupke: Fasten Your Seatbelts & Under Full Sail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Herg\u00e9<\/strong>, translated by David Radzinowicz<\/strong> (Egmont UK)
\nISBN: 978-1-4052-4742-9 (PB Album Seatbelts)\u00a0 978-1-4052-4743-6 (HB\/Sail)<\/p>\n

These books include Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Georges Prosper Remi – known to all as Herg\u00e9 – created a genuine masterpiece of graphic literature with his tales of a plucky boy reporter and his entourage of iconic associates. Singly, and later with assistants including Edgar P. Jacobs, Bob de Moor and other supreme stylists of the select Herg\u00e9 Studio, he crafted 23 splendid volumes (originally produced in brief instalments for newspaper periodicals) which have since grown beyond their popular culture roots and attained the status of High Art.<\/p>\n

Globally renowned for the magnificent Tintin<\/strong> adventures, Herg\u00e9 also did much to return comics to the arena of mass entertainment, a position largely lost after once television, video-recording and computer games became household standards. However, the bold boy and his opinionated dog were by not his only landmark. In the years before the junior journalist finally assured him immortality Remi was a prodigious jobbing cartoonist, generating a minor pantheon of topical strips and features such as Tim the Squirrel in the Far West<\/strong>, The Amiable Mr. Mops<\/strong>, Tom and Millie<\/strong> and Popol Out West<\/strong>. Among the best of the rest were the tales of Jo and Zette<\/em> Legrand<\/em> and their chimpanzee companion Jocko<\/em> – in much the same wholesome action vein as Tintin – and episodic, all-ages shenanigans of a pair of mischievous ragamuffins in pre-WWII Belgium.<\/p>\n

In 2005 Egmont translated three escapades of Jo, Zette and Jocko <\/strong>into English – although many more are just sitting fallow out there, all foreign and unreadable to potential fans too lazy to learn French or any of a dozen other civilised languages. In 2009 the publisher tried again with two collections of the Master\u2019s second most successful creation: Quick et Flupke, gamins de Bruxelles<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

These rambunctiously subversive, trouble-making working-class rapscallions and scallywags were precursors and thematic contemporaries of such beloved British boy acts as The Bash Street Kids<\/strong>, Winker Watson<\/strong>, Roger the Dodger<\/strong> et al, and literally hundreds of continental strips, and for more than a decade (from January 1930 to May 1940) rivalled untouchable Tintin <\/strong>in popularity. They undoubtedly acted as a rehearsal room for the humorous graphic and slapstick elements which became so much a part of future Tintin tales.<\/p>\n

Just over a decade ago Egmont had a brief stab at reviving the likely lads and it was only the general public\u2019s deplorable lack of taste and good sense which stopped the kids from taking off again…<\/p>\n

On leaving school in 1925, Herg\u00e9 began working for Catholic newspaper Le XXe Si\u00e8cle<\/em><\/strong>, falling under the influence of its Svengali-like editor Abbot Norbert Wallez. Remi produced his first strip series The Adventures of Totor <\/em>for Boy Scouts of Belgium<\/strong> monthly magazine the following year, and by 1928 was in charge of producing the paper\u2019s children\u2019s weekly supplement Le Petit Vingti\u00e9me<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He was unhappily illustrating L’Extraordinaire Aventure de Flup, N\u00e9nesse, Poussette et Cochonnet<\/em> (<\/em>The Extraordinary Adventures of Flup, N\u00e9nesse, Poussette and Cochonette) – written by the staff sports reporter – when Abbot Wallez beseeched him to create a new adventure serial. Perhaps a young reporter who would travel the world, doing good whilst displaying solid Catholic values and virtues?<\/p>\n

Having recently discovered the word balloon in imported newspaper strips, Remi decided to incorporate that innovation into his own work. He designed a strip both modern and action-packed – and heavily anti-communist. From January 10th<\/sup> 1929, weekly episodes of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets<\/strong> appeared in Le Petit Vingti\u00e9me<\/em><\/strong>, running until May 8th<\/sup> 1930. Around this time he also developed weekly 2-page gag strips starring two working-class rascals on the streets of Brussels. They played pranks, got into good-natured trouble and even ventured into the heady realms of slapstick and surrealism: the sort of antics any reader of Dennis the Menace<\/strong> (ours, not the Americans\u2019) would find fascinatingly familiar.<\/p>\n

Officially the strip launched on January 23rd<\/sup>, but it only featured one half of the duo and was not truly complete until the partnership was formed with the introduction of Flupke three weeks later. Thus it\u2019s joyeux anniversaire<\/em> today lads, or Gelukkige verjaardag<\/em> if you\u2019re feeling a little Flemish…<\/p>\n

Originally a black-&-white fixture in Le Petit Vingti\u00e9me<\/em><\/strong>, the lads larked about for more than a decade until the war and mounting pressures of producing Tintin<\/strong> meant Herg\u00e9 had to let them go. They were only rediscovered in 1985, when their collected adventures ran to a dozen best-selling albums – so there\u2019s still plenty left out there to be translated into English…<\/p>\n

Fasten Your Seat Belts<\/strong> contains a sublimely riotous celebration of childish high spirits, beginning with hosepipe pranks in \u2018The Big Clean\u2019<\/em>, before a rare good deed leads to strife with \u2018A Poor Defenceless Woman\u2019<\/em> and a day \u2018At the Seaside\u2019<\/em> results in another round of fisticuffs. After that, their archfoe the policeman succumbs to the irresistible temptations of a handy catapult in \u2018Everyone Gets a Turn\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Quick<\/em> – the tall one in the beret – learns to his cost \u2018How Music Calms the Nerves\u2019 <\/em>and discovers the drawback of \u2018Pacifism\u2019<\/em>, whilst portly Flupke<\/em> tries tennis and finds himself far from \u2018Unbeatable\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

\u2018Advertising\u2019<\/em> proves to be a dangerous game and an annoying insect meets its end in \u2018Instructions for Use\u2019<\/em>, whilst \u2018Quick the Clock Repairer\u2019<\/em> fall far short of his billing, and \u2018Football\u2019<\/em> becomes just another reason for friends to fall out. Although unwelcome \u2018At the Car Showroom\u2019<\/em>, some Eskimos (you\u2019re going to have to suspend some modern sensitivities every now and again, remember) seem happy to share in \u2018A Weird Story\u2019<\/em> whist Herg\u00e9 himself turns up in \u2018A Serious Turn of Events\u2019<\/em>, even as the kids are disastrously \u2018At Odds\u2019<\/em> over a funny smell in their proximity. Soon after, \u2018Quick the Music Lover\u2019<\/em> deftly deals with an annoying neighbour, Flupke goes Christmas skiing in \u2018That\u2019s How It Is\u2019<\/em> and another good turn goes bad in \u2018All Innocence\u2019<\/em>, before a sibling spat is sorted through \u2018Children\u2019s Rights\u2019<\/em> before Quick cocks up cuisine despite possessing \u2018The Recipe\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

A handy \u2018Yo-yo\u2019<\/em> causes traffic chaos and a milk run goes spectacularly awry in a buttery \u2018Metamorphosis\u2019 prior to this breezy blast from the past concluding with a cleverly appealing \u2018Tale Without a Tail\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Regrettably hard to find now (and long past time for a digital edition if not paper reissue), this book and the simple, perfect gags it contains show another side to the supreme artistry of Herg\u00e9 – and no connoisseur of comics can consider life complete without a well-thumbed copy of their own…<\/p>\n

Exactly the same holds true for sequel volume Quick & Flupke: Under Full Sail<\/strong>. <\/em>Once upon a time in Belgium and many other places, the escapades of two mischievous scallywags rivalled the irresistibly indomitable adventurer Tintin<\/strong> in popularity. It wasn\u2019t that big a deal for Herg\u00e9 and his publishers as Quick & Flupke<\/strong> was being produced by a studio team in concurrently with the dashing boy reporter. The gag strip became a test lab for humorous graphic elements, so much a part of the future world classic that the little terrors often cameoed in the major magazine vehicle\u2026<\/p>\n

Running from January 10th<\/sup> 1929 to May 8th<\/sup> 1930, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets<\/strong> appeared in weekly instalments in Le Petit Vingti\u00e9me<\/strong>, generating a huge spike in sales. Editor Wallez allowed Herg\u00e9 to hire Eug\u00e8ne Van Nyverseel and Paul \u201cJam\u201d Jamin as art assistants and naturally wanted to see a return in terms of more product. According to Remi\u2019s later recollections\u00a0 he returned from a brief, well-earned vacation to find his staff had played an office prank by announcing that he was about to launch a second weekly strip…<\/p>\n

Briefly flummoxed, Remi rapidly concocted a strip starring a little rascal over the next few days, based largely on his own childhood and French film Les Deux Gosses<\/em><\/strong> (The Two Kids<\/strong>). The impertinent pair (or at least one of them) premiered in the January 23rd<\/sup> 1930 issue of Le Petit Vingti\u00e9me<\/strong>. The feature became Quick & Flupke<\/strong> three weeks later when a pint-sized partner in peril appeared, initially answering to \u201cSuske\u201d before evolving into Flupke (which is Flemish for \u201clittle Phillip\u201d)…<\/p>\n

Unleashed weekly in 2-page monochrome exploits, two working class Brussels louts played pranks, made mischief and ventured into heady realms of slapstick and surrealism in yarns any reader of Bart Simpson<\/strong> would find fascinatingly familiar. Readers everywhere loved them and the strip became immensely successful, but Herg\u00e9 paid it little heed, frequently only beginning each week\u2019s episode a day or even hours before press time. The fare was rapid-fire, pun-packed, stand-alone and often fourth-wall breaking which – as eny fule kno – never gets old.<\/p>\n

Despite being increasingly sidelined after Herg\u00e9 devised The Adventures of<\/strong> Jo, Zette and Jocko<\/strong> for C\u0153urs-Vaillants<\/em><\/strong> at the end of 1935 – so Happy 90th<\/sup> to them, too! – our likely lads larked about for ten years, increasingly becoming an artefact of the assistants (and latterly artist Johan de Moor) until the global war and the pressure of producing Tintin<\/strong> meant they had to go.<\/p>\n

Unimpeachable urchins Quick & Flupke were rediscovered in 1985, and – after a brief TV incarnation – returned to print where their remastered, collected escapades ran to12 full-colour albums in Europe and India until 1991. As English translations, we only ever saw a couple of volumes like this oversized (221 x 295 mm) hardcover compendium: delighting us with nearly two dozen sparkling romps for laughter-starved lovers of classic comics comedy.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, now we\u2019ve got a burgeoning digital reading base, they will all be available for folk too lazy to learn French (or Dutch or German or…) as digital editions. These lost classics are long-overdue for rediscovery and are perfect light reading for kids of all ages.
\n\u00a9 Herg\u00e9 – Exclusivity Editions Casterman 1986, 1991. All Rights Reserved. English translation \u00a9 2009 Egmont UK Limited. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Herg\u00e9, translated by David Radzinowicz (Egmont UK) ISBN: 978-1-4052-4742-9 (PB Album Seatbelts)\u00a0 978-1-4052-4743-6 (HB\/Sail) These books include Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Georges Prosper Remi – known to all as Herg\u00e9 – created a genuine masterpiece of graphic literature with his tales of a plucky boy reporter and his entourage of iconic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Quick & Flupke: Fasten Your Seatbelts & Under Full Sail”<\/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":[191,113,63,125,97,127,296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-european-classics","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages","category-nostalgia","category-school-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8k9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001","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=32001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32004,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001\/revisions\/32004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}