Gaston (comic)

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Comic
title Gaston
Original title Gaston
Charleroi - station Janson - Gaston - 01.jpg
Cartoon in a station of the Charleroi light rail
country Belgium
author André Franquin
Jidéhem
Illustrator André Franquin
publishing company Dupuis
magazine Spirou
First publication 1957-1997
expenditure 20th

Gaston is the eponymous main character of a comic series from Spirou magazine . It was drawn by André Franquin from February 1957 until his death in 1997. Until 1967 the draftsman Jidéhem worked as a co-author on the series. In the French-language original, the figure's full name is Gaston Lagaffe . La gaffe means “the carver”, “the clumsiness”, “the slip” or “the derailment” in German.

content

Wall painting in Angoulême : Gaston playing the gaffophone and his boss Demel

Gaston is an office messenger in the editorial office of the (real existing) publishing house Dupuis , in the German edition of the Kauka publishing house and the Carlsen publishing house . He is actually supposed to edit the readers' mail, but instead mostly only attracts attention through his unusual, mostly unsuccessful experiments and handicrafts and his laziness and sleepiness. He is portrayed as a lovable slob and a misunderstood genius. In his spare time he likes to play musical instruments, including guitar, trombone and the absurdly loud "Gaffophone" (German: "Gastophon" or "Brontosaurophone") that he invented.

His superiors (up to Sketch No. 480 Fantasio, then Demel) try constantly, but mostly unsuccessfully, to control Gaston and get him to work. A common running gag is that they keep trying to get the businessman Bruchmüller to sign contracts, but Gaston always knows how to prevent this unintentionally through a mishap. Even when their efforts seem to have been crowned with success, Gaston repeatedly throws them inadvertently through their plans.

Gaston is also very fond of animals and has several pets in the course of the stories: a cat, a black-headed gull named Har-Har, a goldfish named Blubblub and a family of mice that live in a file folder. Other animals that appear over time are a hedgehog, a cow he won in a raffle, a lobster he rescued from the cooking pot in a restaurant, his aunt's parrot and a turtle. All of these animals cause a stir and chaos in the editorial office. He also has a preference for plants, especially cacti, which also causes some gags.

A frequent antagonist of Gaston is Sergeant Knüsel, a police officer who is only out to hand out parking tickets to Gaston, mostly for wrong-way parking. Sometimes Gaston is left behind, but Knüsel is mostly the loser.

Another regular source of comedy is Gaston's car, a Fiat 509 that is in very bad shape and keeps breaking down or endangering the occupants and the surrounding area. Nevertheless, Gaston loves his car, regularly repairs it, often equips it with new, self-made extras and often uses it as the basis for his inventions and experiments.

Characters

Gaston's car ( Fiat 509 ) at the 2009 Brussels Motor Show

If several names are to be listed for a figure, the first name is the current one, all others from older translations.

  • Gaston / Jo-Jo (originally Gaston Lagaffe ) is the main character of the series. He works as an editorial messenger at the publishing house and is actually supposed to edit the readers' mail, but instead mostly spends his working hours playing games, making handicrafts and cooking experiments or sleeps.
  • Fantasio / Pit (also Fantasio in the original ) works as an editor at the publishing house and is Gaston's superior who supervises him and tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to get him to work. After Sketch No. 480 he dropped out of the series (internal reason that he was now in the field), but then appeared in a few individual sketches (most recently Sketch 551).
  • Demel / Günter (in the original: Léon Prunelle ) replaces Fantasio as editor-in-chief in Sketch No. 481 and thus takes on the task of supervising Gaston. He is nervous, hysterical and choleric, especially when things get hectic in the editorial office, and almost always annoyed by Gaston's laziness and experiments. When he's excited, he often utters his catchphrase “Rogntüdü”. (first appearance Sketch No. 207)
  • Peter Bruchmüller ( Aimé De Mesmaeker ) is a corpulent, choleric, arrogant businessman who keeps dropping by the publisher to sign contracts, which Gaston always inadvertently prevents. (first appearance Sketch No. 109)
  • Fräulein Trudel / Hanni ( Mademoiselle Jeanne ) is a naive, young employee who is in love with Gaston and who is the only person in the series who always admires and adores him. (first appearance Sketch No. 224)
  • Krause ( Yves Lebrac ) works as a draftsman at the publishing house. He is also sometimes annoyed by Gaston and a frequent victim of his mishaps, but is generally much more positive towards him than Demel and occasionally appears as his friend and supporter. (first appearance Sketch No. 207)
  • Mr. Bolte ( Joseph Boulier ) is the publisher's accountant. He is very strict and humorless and does his work very precisely, but he is repeatedly disturbed by Gaston in his work or destroyed by Gaston. (first appearance Sketch No. 195)
  • Sergeant Knüsel ( Joseph Longtarin ) is a mean, strict policeman who tries again and again to give Gaston tickets for wrong parking or for the poor condition of his car. (first appearance Sketch No. 191)
  • Alfons von Gegenüber ( Jules-de-chez-Smith-en-face ) is a friend of Gaston's who has his office right across the street. Like Gaston, he is very lazy and keen to experiment, and the two of them prefer to spend their time playing all sorts of absurd games instead of working. (first physical appearance Sketch No. 458)
  • Felix Pannemann / Knoop / Berti ( Bertrand Labévue ) is Gaston's cousin who is prone to depression (a reference to Franquin , who suffered from depression for a long time). (first appearance Sketch No. 347)
  • Mr. Carlsen ( Monsieur Dupuis ) is the head of the publishing house, who only appears either by phone or from whom you can only see the legs, but never the entire body or face (first physical appearance in Sketch No. 207)
  • Pruegel and Schlaeger / Kühne and Tatlich (Ducran & Lapoigne) are two burly, choleric men who run a bridge construction company in the office of a neighboring company and are occasionally affected by Gaston's mishaps. (first appearance Sketch No. 297)
  • Elfenfinger-Freddie ( Freddy-les-doigts-de-fée ) is a professional burglar with 20 years of experience, but always fails at Carlsen-Verlag indirectly through Gaston. However, the staff see him as a fellow sufferer of Gaston's actions and never call the police. (first appearance Sketch No. 497)

Release history

Gaston Lagaffe first appeared in Spirou magazine on February 28, 1957 . When he first appeared, he just stood around, confusing the staff. He later appeared in individual scenes in the series Spirou and Fantasio, only to get its own series. The individual strips were first half-page, later full-page.

After Franquin's death in 1997, no more strips were published because Franquin had decreed that no other draftsman could take over his characters and that the rights to his characters remained with his family. After the rights to Gaston and Marsupilami went to the Dupuis publishing house in 2014 , Gaston, drawn by Yoann and others , has appeared in comic stories again.

In Germany

In Germany, the Gaston comics were first printed from 1968 to 1978 by Kauka Verlag in Fix and Foxi . Gaston's name there was Jo-Jo , and he was thought to stutter badly. In other respects, too, the translation turned out to be very revealing, as was customary with Kauka at the time (see also: Siggi and Babarras ), that was the name of Fantasio Pit, Demel became Günter, Fräulein Trudel Hanni etc., and the dialogues and gags became very free and partly translated meaning changing.

From 1981, Gaston was published by Carlsen Verlag (temporarily in the Semic division), this time with the correct translation. In addition to volumes in album format, the Carlsen Pocket series also published paperbacks. The disadvantage of this publication was the complete mess in the chronology. This problem was finally resolved with the new edition of Collected Disasters from 1993. The last edition of this edition appeared in 2001.

From July 2008 to August 2010 Carlsen Verlag re-published the individual volumes on a monthly basis. The translation was revised again in order to bring it closer to the original and to standardize the names, which were partly mixed up in the series. In addition, the content has been revised again. For example, some skits that were only shown in newly drawn versions in previous editions have now been restored in the original versions; the additional material, some of which was never published in Germany, was placed in the correct chronological order, the coloring revised and the lettering standardized.

In January 2006, the FAZ series Klassiker der Comic-Literatur published an issue dedicated to Gaston, which mainly offered half-pages with a new translation that was very closely related to the original.

At the end of 2015, a complete edition was published for the first time under the name The Whole Gaston , which summarizes all the gags in five volumes in a slipcase and also offers some additional material and background information about the comic series, some of which were never published in Germany before.

In Germany, the softcover series from 2008 will expire in 2019 and a new hardcover series will appear instead, in which the coloring and lettering (the latter at the request of Franquin's heirs) have been revised. The chronology is corrected once more and another volume is added through additional material.

Volumes

German-language editions

  • Gaston 2 volumes (Carlsen, 1981)
  • Gaston 10 volumes with purple cover (Carlsen / Semic, 1982–1984)
  • Gaston 16 volumes with yellow spines (Carlsen, 1985–1993)
  • Carlsen Pocket Vol. 1, 14, 24, 28, 33 (Carlsen 1990–1991)
  • Gaston - Gesammelte Katastrophen 19 volumes, hardcover with red spine (Carlsen, 1993–2001)
  • Gaston - Gesammelte Katastrophen 19 volumes, softcover with yellow spines (Carlsen, 1998–2001)
  • Gaston - FAZ Comic-Klassiker, Volume 18 paperback (FAZ, 2005)
  • 40 Years of Carlsen Comics: Gaston Anniversary Special Edition (Carlsen, 2007)
  • Gaston - Gesammelte Katastrophen - new edition (also Gaston New Look ) 19 volumes, softcover with yellow and red spine (Carlsen, 2008-2018)
  • The whole Gaston - complete edition of all Gaston pages - new edition 5 volumes, hardcover bound in a slipcase (Carlsen, 2015)
  • Gaston - New edition 22 volumes, hardcover (Carlsen, 2019)

French-language editions

Volumes 1 to 5 were published between 1960 and 1967 in the “Italian format” (wider than high). Its contents were republished in A4 size hardcover volumes R1 to R4 in the 1970s . The letter R means anthology (fr: recueil). Volume R5 did not initially exist, volumes 6 to 14 followed.

Volume 6 was created for the first time in A4 format, in which the older episodes should also be republished. The contents of volumes 1 to 5 could only be used to fill three large-format books, which were given the numbers R1 to R3. Volume R4 contains previously unpublished stories, “the best live from the editorial team”. New volumes were added later:

  • R5: Le lourd passé de Lagaffe, 1986
  • 1: Les archives de la gaffe, 2009
  • 2: Gaffes à gogo, 2009
  • 4: Gala de gaffes, 2009
  • 6: Gare aux gaffes, 2009
  • 8 (new): Rafales de gaffes, 2009
  • 11 (new): Le repos du gaffeur, 2009
  • 18: Gaffes en pagaille, 2013
  • 19: Faites gaffe à Lagaffe, 2013
  • Page 2: Le génie de Lagaffe, 2012
  • P.4: Roulez, Lagaffe !, 2014

Film adaptations

In 1981 a film called Fais gaffe à la gaffe! Was released . He leaned against Gaston, but since Franquin had little sympathy for the project, he gave permission to use some gags from the comics, but not the names and appearance of the characters, which consequently had different names and looked different . That's why the whole thing didn't have much to do with the comics and flopped with audiences and critics. Gaston (who was simply called G. in the film) was played by Roger Mirmont , Prunus (the counterpart to Prunelle / Demel) by Daniel Prévost .

In 2009, France 3 published an animated series that brought the original comic drawings to life using Flash animation (it was not possible to make new drawings due to a lack of copyrights). Each episode was seven minutes long, contained five animated comic strips, and had an overall theme.

In 2018, a new live -action film by Gaston was released , which premiered in France on April 4. The director is Pierre-François Martin-Laval , and Théo Fernandez can be seen in the title role as Gaston .

Awards

The comic series has been awarded many prizes, including the special prize for an outstanding life's work from the Erlangen International Comic Salon .

→ see also: The 100 books of the century by Le Monde (98th place)

Others

Gaston mural in Brussels

Gaston refuses to pay for parking and has a militant dislike of parking meters . As a gift to the population on Gaston's 50th birthday, the city council allowed free parking in all of Brussels on February 28, 2007.

At the East Side Gallery in Berlin, a painting of Gaston Lagaffe breaking through the Berlin Wall was a popular photo opportunity for eighteen years . It was not part of the official artwork of this open air gallery and disappeared after 2008.

In Brussels there is a large statue of Gaston in front of the Belgian Comic Strip Center , and there is also a wall painting by Gaston in the "Rue Gaston Lagaffe" (Dutch: Guust Flater Straat), also named after him.

Yann has been drawing the Gastoon series since 2011, which is about Gaston's nephew.

On the cover of Spirou special issue No. 1482 B from September 1966 (a special issue for students that appeared alongside the regular No. 1482), Gaston's student ID was shown. From the same it emerged that the office boy was born on June 24th - an allusion to Delporte , who was born on that day and was involved in Gaston's development.

A similar comic series is the series Tom Tiger & Co , created by the Spaniard Francisco Ibáñez (known for Clever & Smart ) , which is also about a chaotic office messenger (albeit in a newspaper office) who gives his colleagues and superiors with unsuccessful ideas and mishaps brings to white heat.

  • Gaston Lagaffe breaks through the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery , 1991

  • Gaston statue in front of the Belgian Comic Strip Center

  • “Rue Gaston Lagaffe” (Dutch: Guust Flater Straat) in Brussels

Web links

Commons : Gaston  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lagaffe fait des automobilist heureux at toutenbd.com, accessed on February 22, 2016
  2. ↑ Spirou and Fantasio, Volume 52 (The Page of Sniper Alley), published February 2015
  3. ↑ yo-yo - Kaukapedia. Retrieved January 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Andre Franquin: The whole Gaston. Five volumes in a slipcase . ( perlentaucher.de [accessed on September 16, 2017]).
  5. ^ Gaston Lagaffe - Site officiel. Retrieved January 25, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Lagaffe mérite des baffes , Dupuis, 1979, ISBN 2-8001-0658-1 , p. 48
  7. ^ Gaston Lagaffe prend vie au cinéma . ( gastonlagaffe.com [accessed January 25, 2018]).
  8. ↑ actu.fr: AU CINEMA. "Gaston Lagaffe", an adaptation de la célèbre BD créée par André Franquin (article from April 15, 2018 with film trailer) and Le Parisien: “Gaston Lagaffe” tient ses promesses (article from April 3/6, 2018) both accessed on 3rd September 2018
  9. ↑ La guerre des parcmètres at gastonlagaffe.com, accessed on February 22, 2016