Spirou (magazine)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Current logo
In the 50s and early 60s that was the logo of the most famous comic magazine in Belgium at the time: Des Spiroumagazin
Spirou logo from the 1950s

Spirou magazine (originally Journal de Spirou ) is a weekly Belgian comic magazine. It has been published by Les Éditions Dupuis since 1938 . The name is from the Walloon derived from the word for squirrel also rogue , rascal means. It appears every Wednesday .

For decades, Spirou magazine was, alongside Tintin, the most important Belgian comic magazine and played a key role in the development of Franco-Belgian comics since the middle of the 20th century. While all other important Franco-Belgian comic magazines of the 1950s and 1960s have since disappeared from the market, Spirou still exists today after more than 70 years. However, the magazine has largely lost its former status.

history

In 1936, the publisher Jean Dupuis decided to launch a comic magazine for a young audience. The model was the comic magazine Le journal de Mickey , which had been very successful with the publication of American comic stories since 1934. Dupuis commissioned his sons Paul and Charles to carry out this project.

The first issue appeared on April 21, 1938 , and after just a few months, on October 27, 1938 , an offshoot of the magazine in Flemish appeared under the name Robbedoes . Initially, based on the concept of Le journal de Mickey , mainly translated versions of American comics such as Superman , Red Ryder or Brick Bradford were published , but there were also in-house productions from the start. On behalf of the editors, the French artist Robert Velter (Rob-Vel) created the young bellboy Spirou as the eponymous title hero of the magazine . In addition to Spirou , the series Tif et Tondu ( Harry and Platte ) by Fernand Dineur , which was continued by various illustrators and copywriters until the 1990s and was regularly featured in the magazine, started in the first issue .

Due to the supply problems during the Second World War , the American comics were gradually replaced by French and Belgian productions in the early 1940s. In September 1943, Dupuis had to discontinue the magazine at the urging of the German occupiers. In December 1943, however, the editors were able to publish a 160-page 1944 almanac . Immediately after the liberation of Belgium by the Allies (September 1944), Spirou reported back to the readership on October 5, 1944 with a 20-page special edition. With the first regular edition appearing on October 12, 1944, the weekly publication was resumed.

After the Second World War, the magazine - together with Tintin - became a talent factory for young French and Belgian cartoonists. Many of today's internationally recognized comic book creators began their careers at Spirou . The representatives of the so-called École Marcinelle , namely Jijé , André Franquin , Morris , Willy Maltaite , Peyo , Eddy Paape , Maurice Tillieux , Jean Roba , Derib , Victor Hubinon and many others should be mentioned here.

As early as the beginning of the 1950s, Spirou had contributions made exclusively for the magazine. In addition to comics and gag strips, games, quizzes and puzzle pages were an integral part of the magazine. Text contributions were also made on factual topics (sports, cars, stamps, etc.), short novels and editorial contributions.

The first editor of the magazine was - alongside the publisher's son Charles Dupuis - Jean Doisy . In 1955 Yvan Delporte was his successor. Charles Dupuis also withdrew from the magazine in the following years in order to be able to concentrate exclusively on the album publication of the comic series in the publishing house Dupuis, which was quickly gaining in importance. Under Delporte, who remained editor until 1968, the magazine experienced its heyday. The gradual decline began under his successors (Thierry Martens, Alain de Kuyssche, Philippe Vandooren, Patrick Pinchart, Thierry Tinlot and Olivier Van Vaerenbergh). Since the mid-1980s, Spirou had to contend with the steadily decreasing interest of its main target group (young readers between the ages of 9 and 16) in weekly comic magazines. In contrast to the decades-long competitor Tintin , it has been able to hold its own in the market to the present. However, the weekly circulation of Spirou has dropped to around 100,000 copies.

As a result of the development described, the Flemish edition Robbedoes had to be discontinued in September 2005 after more than 3500 numbers.

Magazine data

The magazine appeared weekly from the start. At first it had 16 pages. During the Second World War, the size was temporarily reduced to only 8 pages. From 1944 Spirou grew gradually again. In 2007 the magazine had a length of 68 pages. In 2015 it usually consists of 52 pages, special editions are around twice as big. Over the years Spirou has also gone through some format changes. The initial large format of 40 cm by 28 cm was also reduced to 20 cm × 28 cm during the war. This more compact size has been kept with minor changes. The current editions have a format of 20.5 cm × 28.5 cm.

Over the years Spirou has also changed its name several times:

  • In 1938 the magazine was launched under the title le Journal de Spirou .
  • In 1947 the name was shortened to Spirou .
  • 1988 renamed Spirou Magaziiiine (with 4 "i")
  • 1993 again shortened to Spirou
  • In 2006 the name of the magazine was changed to Spirou Hebdo (from French 'Hebdomadaire', to German weekly magazine )
  • In 2008 the name Spirou was taken up again with the special edition for the 70th anniversary (No. 3653 of April 16, 2008) .

Important issues (chronicle)

Nelson by Christophe Bertschy , from No. 3398 from 2003 published

During the German occupation, instead of 403, only 325 editions were published. However, it was numbered again after weeks and thus, for example, the real 4000th edition is the edition with number 4078.

  • April 21, 1938 (number 1): The first number by Spirou in the format of 28 cm by 40 cm. Only half of the 16 pages are in color.
  • December 1, 1943 (Almanach 1940): 160-page special issue after the regular magazine (temporarily) had ceased its publication at the insistence of the German occupation forces.
  • December 7, 1946 (Almanac 1947): Franquin's first Spirou story ( The Tank ); first Lucky Luke ( Arizona 1880 ); first Valhardi ( Sur le rail ) drawn by Eddy Paape . This historic album is a sought-after collector's item.
  • January 2, 1947 (number 455): First Buck Danny based on a scenario by Jean-Michel Charlier , drawn by Victor Hubinon.
  • January 31, 1952 (number 720): Marsupilami first appeared in a Spirou and Fantasio story.
  • September 11, 1952 (number 752): First Johann and Pfiffikus von Peyo.
  • March 4, 1954 (number 829): Jijé's first Jerry Spring .
  • September 20, 1956 (number 962): First adventure of Gil Jourdan ( Jeff Jordan ), drawn and written by Maurice Tillieux.
  • February 28, 1957 (number 985): First appearance of Franquin's Gaston Lagaffe .
  • June 13, 1957 (number 1000): For the anniversary number, Franquin had drawn a thousand heads from Spirou (and one from Gaston), a job that had cost him three months.
  • March 13, 1958 (number 1039): First adventure of Black Beard the Pirate by Marcel Remacle .
  • July 2nd, 1959 (number 1107): The Smurfs first appeared outside of Johann and Pfiffikus .
  • December 24, 1959 (number 1132): Boule et Bill by Jean Roba.
  • April 12, 1961 (number 1204): Convict Bobo first appeared by Paul Deliège and Maurice Rosy .
  • February 26, 1970 (number 1663): Natascha's first adventure by François Walthéry .
  • September 24, 1970 (number 1693): Roger Leloup presents Yoko Tsuno .
  • August 12, 1978 (number 2000)
  • October 27, 1983 (number 2376): First appearance of Jojo by Paul Geerts
  • October 11, 1995 (number 3000)
  • April 22, 1998 (number 3132): Anniversary edition for the 60th birthday of the magazine. The anniversary number was dated April 22, 2038 and celebrated the 100th anniversary of the magazine.
  • April 16, 2008 (number 3653): Anniversary edition for the 70th anniversary
  • December 10, 2014 (number 4000)
  • June 8, 2016 (number 4078): Actual 4000 issue

Series (selection)

Mural depicting Gaston Lagaffe in Louvain-la-Neuve ( Belgium ).

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

2000s

Web links

Commons : Spirou (magazine)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Le journal de Spirou en 2008 , annual history on BDoubliees.com, accessed on April 25, 2016