The commercial project staged by some in the run-up to Christmas angers yet another: Isabelle Franquin, the daughter of André Franquin, creator of Gaston Lagaffe, who appears in a highly controversial new comic album less than a month after the return of this comic character album, rebels continues to oppose this resurrection, which contradicts his father's wishes during his lifetime.
In a rare interview granted to Le Devoir, the protector of the moral rights of the Belgian designer's work even denounces a “submissive drawing” that was put on the market without much critical spirit and that also highlights the character trait of the likeable blooper Born in 1957 by his father as a new “absurd” inscription of the figure in a gift that does not belong to him. “Gaston is the witness of his era, the Trente Glorieuses, of which he remains the reference today,” says Isabelle Franquin. He had to stay where he was and where he came from. »
However, the publisher Dupuis, with the support of the Quebec cartoonist Marc Delafontaine, known as Delaf, decided not to respect the wishes of the creator, who wanted his character not to outlive him. Worse, with great fanfare, on November 22nd they released a 22nd album of his adventures entitled The Return of Lagaffe, a project denounced by André Franquin's daughter since she found out about it in December 2021. It was made possible by the intervention of an arbitrator last May who ruled in favor of Dupuis, the owner of the editorial rights to the work.
The album was presented as a tribute to the master of Franco-Belgian comics, who died in 1997 at the age of 73, although for Isabelle Franquin it is above all a blatant lack of respect.
“Marc Delafontaine transformed a free form of writing, a personal drawing, into a mechanical typeface that is the complete opposite of creation.” Her own writing runs the risk of being lost in this editorial adventure, says André Franquin's daughter, who was born two years ago Years of being exposed to this resurrection project that she could not imagine. My father's wishes for his hero were known to his family and the entire professional group. It had been stated several times in the press in his final years. It was impossible for me not to know and accept what I had in front of me. »
She adds: “The publisher sees no problem with this.” He is even satisfied with the “bluffing” result of his replacement product. He has the recipe: with IT, the patience of Marc Delafontaine and commercial persistence, the publisher has just transformed the character of Gaston and his universe into a product. That André Franquin rebelled against submissive copyists throughout his career and in interviews [de son oeuvre et de celle des autres] don't bother anyone. That Gaston Lagaffe is André Franquin's “the thing”, a character close to him, as he has often said, and that he has developed as if he were a real living character, obviously does not matter to the protagonists of this recreation. »
“In view of the fait accompli”
In the pages of Le Devoir a few days ago, designer Marc Delafontaine said that he had taken the time to think before embarking on this adventure, but without hesitating too long. “I was a big fan of Gaston,” he said. It was my favorite series when I was little. I made posters because I couldn't find any in stores. I even spent Halloween dressed as Gaston. And when we [m’a] Free [de reprendre le personnage]I had the impression that I was entering a parallel world and telling myself that it couldn't exist, something like that. I was amazed and stunned. »
Isabelle Franquin would also have preferred if “the thing” had simply not “existed” and regretted that the records of this 22nd and controversial album, printed in a print run of 800,000 copies, came to light at a discretion that was in contradiction to the contractual obligations. She forces the publisher to inform her every six months about “any project related to Gaston Lagaffe”, she assures. “Marc Delafontaine says that he “never wanted to hide anything from anyone,” but he was extraordinarily discreet about his work on the Gaston Lagaffe cover, some of which he could have shown me at an intermediate stage.” And without having to waiting for an “album intention that is as complete as possible” which, according to André Franquin’s daughter, gives the impression of wanting to “present them with a fait accompli”.
The day after the release of an album that benefited from extensive media coverage, several fans of the character began to dream of a return of their childhood hero, now sealed for the next few years. But for Isabelle Franquin, this editorial project should above all be at the center of a serious, necessary and too often avoided reflection in the media on all those resurrections of universes and characters that awaken an audience's nostalgia for baser purposes.
“We have talked a lot about the revivals of Asterix, Boule & Bill or Lucky Luke on the occasion of the “resurrection” forced on Gaston Lagaffe, without, however, understanding that these revivals were approved and in certain cases even initiated by the creators of these series themselves, she said. Which is far from the case with Gaston. »
She continues: “To continue work that has gained public support is to believe that the recipe for Proust's Madeleine is accessible to everyone and that the joy of contact with a creation is renewable.” But that is an argument without to take into account the fragility of creation. Few creators manage to give others a work that makes them vibrate, laugh, cry and think and that accompanies us in the moments of our lives, sometimes giving them meaning. We cannot let people believe that it is enough to press a button, to apply a formula, for the miracle to happen again. »
She then names films like “Blow-Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni, “La grande vadrouille” by Gérard Oury, both from 1966, or “Les enfants du paradis” by Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert from 1945, whose publication was a “Remakes” would be a shame, she says. “We also do not want a sequel to L'écume des jours by Boris Vian”, unique and unique works, anchored in their time, just like the last original page by Gaston Lagaffe, published on June 25, 1991 in the magazine Spirou number 2776. You is the one that closes the last chapter of a saga whose continuation would be “pointless” and “irrelevant,” she concludes.