{"id":34667,"date":"2026-01-03T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T09:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34667"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:06:14","slug":"die-laughing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/01\/03\/die-laughing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Die Laughing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Andre Franquin<\/strong>, translated by Jenna Allen<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-68396-091-1 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

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

Like so much in Franco-Belgian comics, it all starts with Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong>. The momentous magazine debuted on April 2nd <\/sup>1938, with its engaging and eponymous lead strip created by Rob-Vel (Fran\u00e7oise Robert Velter). In 1943 publishing giant Dupuis purchased all rights to the comic and its titular star, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain\/Jij\u00e9 took the helm. In 1946 Jij\u00e9\u2019s assistant assumed the creative reins, gradually sidelining previously preferred gag vignettes in favour of extended adventure serials. He introduced a broad, engaging cast of regulars: adding to the mix phenomenally popular rare beast and animal marvel Marsupilami<\/strong> (first seen in Spirou et les h\u00e9ritiers <\/em><\/strong>in 1952 and eventually a spin-off star of screen, plush toy store, console games and albums in his own right).<\/p>\n

The auteur continued crafting increasingly fantastic tales and absorbing Spirou sagas until his resignation in 1969. Throughout that period the creator was deeply involved in the production of the weekly Spirou comic and increasingly beset by depression and other mental health issues.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd<\/sup> 1924. Drawing from an early age, the lad began formal art training at \u00c9cole Saint-Luc in 1943 but only until the war forced the school\u2019s closure a year later. He then found work at Compagnie Belge d\u2019Animation in Brussels where he met Maurice de B\u00e9v\u00e8re (Lucky Luke<\/strong> creator Morris<\/em>), Pierre Culliford (Peyo, creator of The Smurfs <\/strong>and Benny Breakiron<\/strong>) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi<\/em><\/strong>, Luc Orient<\/em><\/strong>). In 1945 all but Peyo signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist\/illustrator. He produced covers for Le Moustique<\/em><\/strong> and scouting magazine Plein Jeu<\/em><\/strong>. During those early days, Franquin and Morris were being tutored by Jij\u00e9, who was the main illustrator at Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong>. He turned the youngsters – and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite (AKA Will <\/em>of Tif et Tondu<\/em><\/strong>, Isabelle<\/em><\/strong>, Le jardin des d\u00e9sirs<\/em><\/strong>) – into a smoothly functioning creative bullpen known as La bande des quatre<\/em> or \u201cGang of Four\u201d. They later reshaped and revolutionised Belgian comics with their prolific and engaging \u201cMarcinelle school\u201d style of graphic storytelling…<\/p>\n

Jij\u00e9 handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison<\/em><\/strong> pr\u00e9fabriqu\u00e9e<\/strong> <\/em>(Spirou<\/em> <\/strong>#427, June 20th<\/sup> 1946). The kid ran with it for the next two decades; enlarging the scope and horizons of the feature until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade\/rival Fantasio<\/em> or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics the Count of Champignac<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Spirou & Fantasio<\/em><\/strong> became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies. However, throughout all that time Fantasio was still a full-fledged reporter for Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong> and had to pop into the office all the time. While there he conceived another landmark icon, a comedic foil\/meta-real alter ego who was an accident-prone, big-headed junior in charge of minor jobs and dogs-bodying. He was Gaston Lagaffe<\/em><\/strong> and through him Franquin expressed his unruly dissident opinions and tendencies…<\/p>\n

Gaston – who debuted in #985 (February 28th<\/sup> 1957) – grew to be one of the comic\u2019s most popular and perennial components. In terms of entertainment schtick and delivery, older readers will certainly recognise beats of Jacques Tati; timeless elements of well-meaning self-delusion British readers will recognise from Some Mothers Do Have \u2018Em <\/strong>or Mr Bean<\/strong>. It\u2019s primal slapstick, paralysing puns, pomposity lampooned and no good deed going noticed, rewarded or unpunished…<\/p>\n

In a splendid example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own band of apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle<\/em><\/strong>, Boule et Bill\/<\/em>Billy and Buddy<\/strong>); Jid\u00e9hem (Sophie<\/em><\/strong>, Starter<\/em><\/strong>, Gaston Lagaffe<\/em><\/strong>) & Greg (Comanche<\/strong>, Bruno Brazil<\/em><\/strong>, Bernard Prince<\/em><\/strong>, Zig et Puce<\/em><\/strong>, Achille Talon<\/em><\/strong>), all co-workers with him on Spirou et Fantasio<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>In 1955, a contractual spat with Dupuis saw Franquin briefly enlist with rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin<\/em><\/strong>, where he collaborated with Ren\u00e9 Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst creating the fashion\/lifestyle domestic comedy gag strip Modeste et Pompon<\/em><\/strong>. Franquin almost immediately patched things up with Dupuis and returned to Spirou, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe<\/em><\/strong> (known in Britain these days as Gomer Goof<\/strong>) in 1957, but was still obliged to carry on his Casterman commitments too…<\/p>\n

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jid\u00e9hem assisted Franquin, but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him.<\/p>\n

Later creations include fantasy series Isabelle<\/em><\/strong>, illustration sequence Monsters<\/strong> and this arcane convergence of bleak gallows humour, adult conceptual nihilism and impassioned social and ideological frustration lensed through bitter comedy. If you\u2019re aware of the later work of Spike Milligan, you\u2019ll know what I mean. The strip and original series title Id\u00e9es Noires<\/em><\/strong> has become linguistic common currency in French-speaking countries, as a term for gloomy or negative thoughts: dark ideas daily obsessing people in crisis expunged and expressed through strident manic humour…<\/p>\n

It began as Franquin recuperated from a heart attack in 1975. Id\u00e9es Noires<\/em><\/strong> was part of an insert comic – Le Trombone illustr\u00e9 <\/em><\/strong>– he & Yvan Delporte produced for weekly Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong> beginning in 1977 with the March 17th<\/sup> issue. After 30 mini-issues, and with the global situation looking increasingly fraught, a revitalised Franquin took the strip to mature reader magazine Fluide Glacial<\/em><\/strong> where it ran until 1983.Plagued throughout his life by depression, Franquin passed away on January 5th<\/sup> 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. In 2018, Fantagraphics gathered and translated the strips, releasing them as Die Laughing<\/strong>.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

As seen in Cynthia Rose\u2019s erudite and informative Introduction – \u2018Liberty, Audacity, Hilarity: Andr\u00e9 Franquin\u2019<\/em> – the peripatetic feature gave the troubled genius room to address his allegiances with issues of environmentalism, animal cruelty, political duplicity and plain old human insanity, and strike back with the best weapons in his arsenal: sarcasm, mockery and despairing outrage.<\/p>\n

To further demarcate the material from past works, the images were delivered in scratchy, shocking lines and solid blacks, with elements reversed out. It\u2019s a world of silhouettes, deep shadows and brooding forward spaces and middle-grounds, with no extraneous detail: all delivered in eerie evocative, expressionist monochrome, rather than the shining, substantial Disney-inspired colour of Spirou and Marsupilami.<\/p>\n

This compilation consists of half and full page shorts plus some longer strips lampooning and spearing smug pomposity, business greed, military-industrial chicanery and ruthlessness, planetary abuse such as inflicted by oil companies and the global arms race. There are many mordant observations on sport, war for profit, the death penalty (still the guillotine, for Pete\u2019s sake!), alien abduction, the rat race; sheer random surreal absurdism, all skewered by a sense of cosmic justice acknowledged, if not satisfied…
\n\"\"
\nA constant theme returned to with merciless regularity is bloodsports and the kind of arsehole who finds fun and feels magnified by pointless slaughter. Especially singled out are those French traditionalists (think of whatever the French have instead of our steadfast \u201cGammon\u201d crowd) who simply must slaughter songbirds in their thousands every year as they migrate to and from Europe…<\/p>\n

Franquin was a master of comedy in all its aspects from whimsically light to trenchantly black-edged. Come see how and why…
\n\"\"
\nDie Laughing \u00a9 2018 by Fantagraphics Books, Inc. Comics \u00a9 Editions Audie\/Franquin Estate. All rights reserved. Introduction \u00a9 2018 by Cynthis Rose. Afterword \u00a9 2018 Gotlib Estate. All other images and text \u00a9 2018 their respective copyright holders. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1911 DC writer\/editor Murray Boltinoff<\/strong> was born, and in 1977 the newspaper strip Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> by Stan Lee <\/strong>& John Romita Sr.<\/strong> began.<\/p>\n

In 2005 we lost one of the true greats as Will Eisner<\/strong> finally put down his pens. As always, there are many places other than us to go learn more and read stuff. Do that then, yes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andre Franquin, translated by Jenna Allen (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-68396-091-1 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. Like so much in Franco-Belgian comics, it all starts with Le Journal de Spirou. The momentous magazine debuted on April 2nd 1938, with … <\/p>\n

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