 Le Moustique dated December 7th, 1947; the caption says « Well well! You didn't expect this sudden frost, did you? » |
Then Charles Dupuis met André in autumn 45 in a café in Brussels (we will see later that these cafés, and particularly a famous one in the Fossé-aux-Loups street, were the favorite places of the Dupuis team for years!) and asked him right away to take up the Spirou series, which was then made by Jijé, the magazine's "factotum" and a reference in the job. Therefore Dupuis sent Franquin to Jijé to receive advice, as he apparently did for every beginning drawer he hired 1. André quickly started to make illustrations for Le Moustique, as did Morris, with the first drawings published November 18th, 1945, and for Spirou, in the November 22nd issue. Until 1959 in Le Moustique, there was a succession of humorous drawings, ads for the Dupuis publications, and many covers like the one on the left. |
This is his first illustration published in Spirou (the one on November 22nd, 1945). It is a realistic drawing for "L'aile rouge" ("The red wing"), the series by Xavier Snoeck, aka Yves Legros.
And this drawing, an advert for the 1946 Spirou calendar, is the first time a drawing of Spirou by Franquin appears, in December 1945.
He didn't limit himself to simple drawings. As planned by Dupuis, he started the adventures of Spirou very quickly, from spring 1946. Jijé sort of put him to the test by asking him abruptly to make a full story for the Almanach Spirou 1947 (1947 Spirou Yearbook): it was…
("The tank").
That yearbook also helped to launch the careers of Morris (who published his first Lucky Luke in it) and Paape (who took back the Jean Valhardi series by Gillain). It was a success for these three beginners! They worked in a small studio in the Fossé-aux-Loups street (opposite the famous café), that Dupuis had rented for them. But they had to leave it when Franquin set an ashtray on fire, which left a terrible smell in the studio that could not be ventilated because of a blocked window… Franquin adds that the house was destroyed soon after: « It's probably the only thing they found to get rid of the stench. »2
Anyway, "Le tank" was very popular with the readers, the editor and Gillain, so he immediately decided to give Spirou to Franquin, full-time. So immediately that he left for Italy in May 1946, in the middle of the story he was making, leaving Franquin to finish it! This story is called "Spirou et la maison préfabriquée" ("Spirou and the prefabricated house"): the beginning is drawn by Gillain, and the end by Franquin, from the fourth image of the fourth page, and that without the difference being noticeable, at least in the beginning.
But if we compare the characters in the beginning and the end…
The test was a success, then. The young could take over with panache! The group parted: Paape, who was married, didn't follow his fellows Franquin and Morris who spent the whole winter 46-47 on the Belgian coast, in La Panne, in a villa they rented together 3. According to André, this "retreat" allowed the two young drawers to get a first maturity and to stand back from their job and the beginning of their career 4.
Even though Jijé could now have all the time for his projects 5, he certainly didn't lose interest in his pupils. After a few short Spirou stories (that were never published in albums 6), Franquin had started a new big adventure, "L'héritage" ("The heritage"), and had one of his numerous times of doubt and questioning. He talked about it to his mentor Jijé, who reassured him and asked him to go and work at his place in Waterloo, with Morris who was also there.
It was not only to work, but also to live with Gillain! Until then, Franquin still lived at his parents' (we are at the beginning of 1947). Jijé, his wife and their three children, who also housed Willy Maltaite, aka Will 7, made some space to accomodate these two other young drawers. And the four friends started to draw together, creating what Franquin later called "the Waterloo Studio" 8, in Jijé's improvised studio which in the evening was his bedroom again, while the three beginners shared two rooms under the roof.
The first Spirou pages drawn by Franquin at Jijé's are in the first third of "L'héritage". André remembers it is those coming after the part with Spip and the rat talking 9. About that story, it can be noticed that there is a very violent fight in the end. Spirou appears as a hard hitter 10, and he even seems to like it, even though he never uses any other weapon than his fists. But his opponent uses a full gear, and he even shoots point-blank on Spirou (bad, luckily). It is particularly interesting because six years later, in "La corne de rhinocéros" ("The rhinoceros horn"), the guns used by the brigands have disappeared, erased by the editor's censorship 11, even though no bullet is fired.
The current version, dating from 1975, is a strange mix: the guns censored in 1953 were put back in some places but not everywhere, as seen in the two squares aboves.
| The short gag-story "Spirou à la plage" ("Spirou on the beach") and the following adventure "Radar le robot" ("Radar the robot") were entirely made at Gillain's. Besides his influence is clearly seen in them. He took part in the scenario and even in the drawing: this idea with the rope at the end of page 33 of Radar le robot is from him, and these two squares are even drawn by him, not by Franquin 12. |  |
That was normal for those drawers living under the same roof. The atmosphere was more than friendly, it was familial. An exemple of collaboration: Franquin took part in the scenario of Will's first story 13, "Le mystère du Bambochal" ("The Bambochal mystery"), which Dupuis refused, by the way! Everyone was looking at the others' work, and didn't hesitate to intervene or criticize, but also to ask for help or advice, especially from the "senior" Jijé. That enthusiasm sometimes had unexpected consequences, when a drawer from outside the "gang of the 4" came and asked for advice: he was given the same treatment, and could leave disheartened by so many friendly but uncompromising comments 14!
Those happy times lasted more than a year, from the beginning of 1947 to mid-1948. But that was during the Cold War: Europe, cornered between two superpowers, could fear a third world war with consequences even more tragic than those of WW2. Jijé especially, the leader of the group, was worried enough to consider settling down in America. He didn't admit it at the time, but that was his real reason for leaving. Morris had only one idea: get back to his previous job in cartoons by working for Walt Disney in Los Angeles. Franquin didn't have any special plan: his friends were leaving, so he just followed them (Will was too young and short of money, and had to stay, against his will).
And so the three drawers took the boat for New-York, where they stayed for a while, at least a month and a half: Jijé had bought a car (a used Hudson 15) but he had to get a local driving license, and he had failed the first oral exam 16. But the three friends had to carry on with working, so they mailed to Belgium the sheets they had drawn. For Franquin, it was during "Spirou sur le ring" ("Spirou on the ring"), the adventure made after "Radar le robot" and its following "Les plans du robot" ("The robot's plans"). They actually carried on like that during their whole stay in America.
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Which didn't happen only in New York! Once Jijé was free to drive, the gang crossed the USA until Los Angeles. Where Morris learnt that Disney had just sacked a third of its workers… his plans of cartoons in the USA fell a bit short, but as Franquin says, so much the better: « thanks to Walt Disney's problems, Lucky Luke could continue! »17 But that was where Gillain wanted to settle down with his family, who had come with him (and whom you can see on another picture). While waiting for their residents papers, they decided to go down to Mexico. The Gillain family settled in Tijuana in September 1948, Franquin and Morris arrived a month later. Eventually nobody talked about settling in California anymore… The group stayed in Tijuana until Christmas, then left again, for Mexico City. The two "youngs" rent a room in the city, while the big family found a home at about 40 miles from there, in Cuernavaca, which is traditionally a holiday resort for the capital's inhabitants. On the picture on the left, you can see the three friends in Mexico City's streets: Jijé on the left, Morris always very smart, and Franquin casually dressed. |
How important was that trip for Franquin? He likes to say he didn't get anything out of it and he went there for nothing 18, because he was too young and immature… He still admits it gave him the opportunity to keep in touch with the American comics of the times, notably Mad with its black and white graphic audacities: first influence for the Idées Noires (Black Ideas) thirty years later?
Anyway, André was the first one to go back to Belgium. He was reunited with Will who, remember, was the only one from the "gang of the 4" not able to take part in the trip. Will had left the family home (he was juste 21, 4 years younger than Franquin) to settle in a boarding house in Brussels: André thought he was too old to go back to his parents', and moved in as well, to reconstitute a small studio for two, until 1950. There he finishes "Spirou chez les pygmées", makes "Les chapeaux noirs" ("The black hats") and "Mystère à la frontière" ("Mystery at the border").
| He married Liliane in 1950, and set up house. He then started the first "true" adventure of Spirou, "Il y a un sorcier à Champignac" ("There is a wizard in Champignac")! |
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First "true" adventure, because first "big" adventure: 56 pages, by the way a format far more generous than the 44 usual pages for an album, which is today's standardised length, for edition purposes. And far more than the adventures Franquin had made until then. A story written by Jijé's brother, Henri Gillain, under the name of Jean Darc: the first time André used a scenario from outside 19, which was more of a saga, that he had to shorten and adapt to comics.
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In the middle, in black, Gustave Labarbe, Champignac's mayor (literally his name means "a bore"). Between him and Fantasio, Duplumier ("pencil case"), the town hall's clerk. |
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The farmer Gustave, with a kid from the village. |
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Spirou and Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas, count of Champignac (in the English version 20, we only know one first name, Ambrose). He is more simply called "Mr. Champignac" or "count" by his friends (like Spirou) or "Ambrose" by his former fellow students (like Zorglub). |
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The story had great success with the readers of Spirou: it established Franquin as the author of Spirou for good. Even if Jijé kept drawing adventures of the same character in the magazine 22 at the same time, Franquin showed the dimension he could give him by taking him out of his little stories. At last he offered the magazine Spirou the figurehead it deserved, and more than a title role, a series which sets the tone of the whole magazine: a caricature, funny style, but working with a seriously built scenario. No reader can disagree with that.
The richness of the characters, of the scenery, of the situations, has been confirmed by the next adventures of the same kind: "Spirou et les héritiers" ("Spirou and the heirs"), "Les voleurs du marsupilami" ("The marsupilami stealers"), "Spirou et la Turbotraction" ("Spirou and the Turbotraction" which was renamed "La corne de rhinocéros" during the publication), "Le dictateur et le champignon" ("The dictator and the mushroom"), "La mauvaise tête" ("The bad head") et "Le repaire de la murène" ("The moray den"). Each of these episodes in the years 1951-1955 was the opportunity to improve and enrich Spirou's world, in which the series lived during the next 15 years till the end. A few examples… first in "Spirou et les héritiers":
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Zantafio, the more or less evil cousin of Fantasio. I say "more or less" because Franquin hesitated about the real nastiness of the character. In the album, he endangers Fantasio's life, but saves it later in the jungle. Eventually he'll get definitely bad 23! |
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"Spirou et les héritiers" includes a capital event: the first appearance of what remained as the most popular creation of Franquin (together with Gaston Lagaffe), the brilliant marsupilami 26, an extraordinary animal, the main physical particular sign of which is its 7-metre, incredibly agile and strong tail. During the next episodes, we'll discover its capabilities bit by bit: it is amphibious, can talk like a parrot, can move under the ground like a mole… |  |
 | In "La corne de rhinocéros", we get to know Seccotine, a reporter of the Moustique newspaper, like Fantasio. Her name is the one of a once famous glue brand (a way to say that sometimes she sticks like glue!). A little bit a rival, but first of all a precious help for our heroes. Another main character and an innovation in 1952: a pretty girl! |
André created "Les voleurs du marsupilami" from an idea of Geo Salmon, and "Le dictateur et le champignon" from an idea of Maurice Rosy. In both cases, his story starts from the idea of the person, but quickly finds its own path, André's path… and the end has nothing to do with the initial scenario anymore.
While talking about collaborations in this period, let's mention that Franquin "directed" an album of Tif and Tondu by Will, La main blanche (The white hand) 28 (1954-55). This director job, placing the characters in the squares, deciding their expressions and their movements, was very important for Franquin. He made it again later, among others for Isabelle, again drawn by Will, or for the adventures of the marsupilami drawn by Batem.
 (La main blanche, page 14) |  (Un empire de dix arpents, A ten-acre empire, page 4) |  (L'or de Boavista, The gold of Boavista, page 37) |
Now we are in 1955. Franquin, although he won't admit it, has become the star of the Spirou magazine, and even of Dupuis Publishing, thanks to the albums sales which begin to grow (at these times, unlike today, the sales figures of the comics magazines were much bigger than the ones of the albums). In 8 years, he turned the small-scale, modest character created by Rob-Vel and carried on by Jijé into a cinemascope adventure hero, a fearless globetrotter with a funny and efficient environment. Thanks to Spirou, and even more thanks to the unique way his world, his environment has been fleshed out, Franquin managed to get recognized as one of the major comics author.
Now we are in 1955… he's 31, the age of Jijé as he was sent to him as a beginner by Charles Dupuis, to receive advice. He has nothing to prove anymore to anyone… except to himself.
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