Gaston (comics)

"Gaston" is a comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the comic strip magazine, "Spirou". The series focuses on the every-day life of Gaston Lagaffe, a lazy and accident-prone (his surname means "the blunder") office junior. It is very popular in large parts of Europe (especially in Belgium and France), but except for a few pages by Fantagraphics in the early 90s (as "Gomer Goof"), there is no published English translation.

"Gaston Lagaffe" goes by different names in various languages, such as "Guust Flater" in Dutch, "Tomás el Gafe" in Spanish, "Sergi Grapes" in Catalan, "Gastón Sequivoc" en Argentina (in "Billiken" magazine), "Gastono Lafuŝ" in Esperanto, "Viggo" in Norwegian, "Vakse Viggo" in Danish, "Viggó Viðutan" in Icelandic, "Niilo Pielinen" in Finnish, "Gaša Šeprtlja" in Serbian, "Şapşal Gazi" in Turkish and simply "Gaston" in Swedish as well as in German and Greek. In German he was also called (very briefly during a syndication) "Jo-Jo".

Since the 1980s Gaston also appears on a wide variety of merchandise.

Publication history

André Franquin who was then in charge of "Spirou et Fantasio", the primary series of "Le journal de Spirou", first introduced the character Gaston in issue n°985, published February 28, , with mysterious blue footprints in the margins of the magazine.

For the "Spirou" issue N°1000 cover, Franquin drew 999 heads of Spirou, and one of Gaston, and the first "Gaston" full-page gag was featured in a bonus supplement. [ [http://perso.orange.fr/InediSpirou/1000part1.jpgPlate1 of Spirou n°1000 cover] ] [ [http://perso.orange.fr/InediSpirou/1000part2.jpgPlate2 of Spirou n°1000 cover] ] [ [http://perso.orange.fr/InediSpirou/milletonnerre0001.jpgGaston-Spirou n°1000 supplement Gaston gag n°1] ]

In context of the fictive story evolving at the magazine offices, the man behind the footprints, Gaston, finally turned up for a memorable job interview, telling the bemused Spirou that he didn't remember with whom or for what he had been called. Fantasio, functioning as the magazine's opinionated face of signed editorials, subsequently announced in a formal communiqué that Gaston would be the first "Hero-without-a-job". Gaston's blunders continued during a stressful and frustrating period for Fantasio, pushing him to go on a 4 week strike and eventually a vacation, initiating the story "Vacances sans histoires".
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"Gaston n°2"
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"Gaston n°3"
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"Gaston n°4"
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"Gaston n°5"
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"Gaston n°6"
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"Gaston n°7"
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"Gaston n°8"
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"Gaston n°9"
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"Gaston n°10"
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"Gaston n°11"
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"Gaston n°12"
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"Gaston n°13"
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"Gaston n°14"
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"Gaston n°15"
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"Gaston n°16"
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"Gaston n°17"
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"Gaston n°18"
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"Gaston n°19"

Other publications

*"Biographie d'un gaffeur" (1965) Franquin & Jidéhem, Gag de poche n°26
*"La fantastica Fiat 509 di Gaston Lagaffe" (1977)
*"Gaston et le Marsupilami" (1978, ISBN 2-8001-0637-9)
*"Les Robinsons du rail" (1981, ISBN 2-903403-05-8) An illustrated story album (not a comic) featuring Gaston, Spirou and Fantasio
*"Fou du Bus" (1987, ISBN 2-906452-01-7) Advert album commissioned by the Union of Public Transportations
*"Rempile et désopile" (1989) Advertising gags for Philips, only printed in 2500 editions
*"Le facteur est mon ami" (1992) Advertising for the Belgian Post
*"Gaston 50" (2007, ISBN 2-354260-00-8) Edition for Gaston's 50th birthday with unpublished work

"Gaston" film

In 1981, a live-action French film based on "Gaston Lagaffe", called "Fais gaffe à la gaffe!" directed by Paul Boujenah and starring Roger Mirmont was released to disappointing reception.Fact|date=July 2007 (It also features future Sopranos star Lorraine Bracco.)

Franquin, uncomfortable with the prospect of the adaptation of "Gaston", had given permission for the elements and jokes from his work to be used, but not the actual characters. As a result, the characters' names were all changed, making the film appear more like an imitation than a proper adaptation.

ee also

*Belgian comics
*Franco-Belgian comics

ources

* [http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/auteurs2/franquin.htm Franquin publications in "Le Journal de Spirou"] BDoubliées fr_icon
* [http://www.gastonlagaffe.com/sitefr/dossiers/index4.php?page=0000 "Gaston" appearances in "Le Journal de Spirou"] gastonlagaffe.com fr_icon
*cite book | last =Sadoul | first =Numa | coauthors =André Franquin | title = Et Franquin créa la gaffe | publisher =Distri B.D. | date =1986| id =2-87178-000-5;Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.gastonlagaffe.com/sitefr/index.php Gaston Lagaffe official site] fr_icon
* [http://www.franquin.com/index2.php Franquin official site] fr_icon
* [http://www.franquin.org/forum/ The Franquin forum] fr_icon
* [http://www.ifarm.nl/guust/links.html Gaston Lagaffe Links]