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, 1957.

His arrival was carefully orchestrated with a teasing campaign over several months, based on ideas by Franquin, Yvan Delporte and Jidéhem, 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.

The material was always drawn by Franquin himself rather than under licence, and has been reprinted in books.

As some of the earliest material had been damaged, restoration work was done by Studio Léonardo, with the results approved by Franquin.

André Franquin ( 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997 ) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1947 to 1969, during a period seen by many as the series ' golden age.

Franquin was born in Etterbeek in 1924.

A year later however, the school was forced to close down because of the war and Franquin was then hired by CBA, a short-lived animation studio in Brussels.

Soon, Franquin was considered an undisputed master of the art form, on par with the likes of Hergé ( who on interview said he thought Franquin an artist while he was just a cartoonist, and his influence can be seen in the work of nearly every cartoonist hired by Spirou up until the end of the 1990s.

Proof of his popular and critical appeal, Franquin was awarded the very first Grand Prix de la ville d ' Angoulême in 1974.

However, 2004 saw the first major museum retrospective of his work, an exhibit called " Le monde de Franquin "', in Paris ' Cité des Sciences et de l ' Industrie this exhibition was continued in 2006 in the city where he was born, Brussels, the latter was fully bilingual ( French / Dutch ).

Within this group, Franquin ’ s influence was uncontested, especially among the authors that continued the series Spirou et Fantasio after he left.

As well as the Marsupilami who lived with Spirou and Fantasio in many of the strips drawn by Franquin, there was another who still inhabited the wild Palombian jungle along with a mate and children.

In 2002, an album # 0 was published, consisting of short stories featuring the Marsupilami, drawn by Franquin before 1987.

The original Marsupilami stories by Franquin never encountered a gorilla or elephant, since these species are native to Africa, while the marsupilami in the comic was said to come from South America ( However, in the album " Le dictateur et le champignon ", the Marsupilami escapes from his cell on a boat with a gorilla ).

In 1946 and 1947, the team was joined by some of the main contributors to Spirou for the next decades, with André Franquin, Victor Hubinon, Jean-Michel Charlier, Morris and Eddy Paape.

One notable exception was André Franquin, who in 1955, after a dispute with its editor, moved from the more popular Spirou to Tintin.

The dispute was quickly settled, but Franquin had signed an agreement with Tintin for five years.

Although he started drawing at an early age, Franquin got his first actual drawing lessons at École Saint-Luc in 1943.

In 1952, Franquin introduced Peyo to Le Journal de Spirou, a children's comics magazine published by Dupuis which first appeared in Belgium in 1938.

Zorglub is a fictional character in the Belgian comic strip Spirou et Fantasio, created by Greg and André Franquin, and first appeared in the serialised story Z comme Zorglub in Spirou in 1959, later published in the diptych albums " Z comme Zorglub " ( 1961 ) and " L ' ombre du Z " ( 1962 ).

Marsupilami is a fictional comic book species created by André Franquin, first published on 31 January 1952 in the magazine Spirou.

The first stories were written by Franquin ( of Gaston Lagaffe fame ), Delporte ( editor of Spirou and writer of many comics ) and Macherot ( creator of Sybilline ).

He was created by André Franquin and first appeared in Spirou et les héritiers ( 1952 ).

Fluide Glacial launched the career of a number of unknown or little-known cartoonists, most of whom were influenced by Gotlib in the first place: Edika, Goossens, Binet, Thiriet, Dupuy & Berberian, Lelong … Belgian veteran André Franquin also contributed his Idées Noires strip.

Following Jijé's lead in the 1940s, Franquin coached a younger generation of cartoonists in the 1950s, notably Jean Roba, Jidéhem and Greg, who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio.

Hergé expressed in several occasions his admiration for Franquin ’ s work: “ Compared to him, I ’ m but a poor draftsman ”.

Franquin ’ s shadow is even more obvious in the work of Ramón María Casanyes, a disciple and ghost collaborator of Ibáñez, especially in some of his solo Works such as the short-lived “ Tito, Homo Sapiens 2000 ”, where the Franco-Belgian descent is unquestionable.

Among the people who studied there were Bob de Moor, Jacques Martin, Roger Leloup, and Edgar P. Jacobs, all of whom exhibit the easily recognizable Belgian clean line style, often opposed to the " Marcinelle school "- style, mostly proposed by authors from the Spirou magazine, such as Franquin, Peyo and Morris.

The artists working in this style for Spirou, including Franquin, Morris, Jean Roba and Peyo, are often grouped as the Marcinelle school.

He also had a few young cartoonists living with him in Waterloo, thus creating the so-called " School of Marcinelle ": this included André Franquin, Morris, and Will.

* Les maléfices de l ' oncle Hermès ( Dupuis, 1978 ), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will

* L ' astragale de Cassiopée ( Dupuis, 1979 ), story by Macherot, Franquin and Yvan Delporte, art by Will

* Franquin publications dans Le Journal de Spirou BDoubliées

Belgium has numerous well-known cartoonists, such as Hergé ( The Adventures of Tintin ), Peyo ( The Smurfs ), Franquin ( Spirou et Fantasio, Marsupilami, Gaston ), Willy Vandersteen ( Spike and Suzy ), Morris ( Lucky Luke ), Edgar P. Jacobs ( Blake and Mortimer ), Jef Nys ( Jommeke ) and Marc Sleen ( Nero ).

During this time, Morris and Franquin were coached by Joseph Gillain ( Jijé ), who had transformed a section of his house into a work space for the two young cartoonists and Will.

Other Franco-Belgian authors that show Franquin ’ s influence were Dino Attanasio and Mittéï ( Jean Mariette ), both responsible for the series Modeste et Pompon after he left, Jidéhem ( Jean De Mesmaeker ), a usual collaborator of Franquin for Spirou et Fantasio and Gaston Lagaffe, Batem ( Luc Collin ), artist of the Marsupilami series, or Pierre Seron, who cloned Franquin ’ s style in his series Les Petites Hommes.

Peyo began work, fresh from his coursework at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, at the Compagnie Belge d ' Animation ( CBA ), a small Belgian animation studio, where he met a few of his future colleagues and co-celebrities, like André Franquin, Morris and Eddy Paape.

* André Franquin: Spirou et Fantasio ( 1946 – 1969 ), Gaston Lagaffe ( 1957 – 1991 )

* Noël ( comics ), a character and comics series by André Franquin

Other series created by Macherot for Spirou include Pantoufle ( with René Goscinny ), Mirliton ( with Raoul Cauvin ), and as scenarist on Mulligan with Yvan Delporte and Isabelle, with Delporte and André Franquin.