Gaston Lagaffe

Gaston is a comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

created in 1957 by the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

cartoonist André Franquin

André Franquin

André Franquin 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's beginnings:Franquin was...

in the comic strip magazine, Spirou

Spirou (magazine)

Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...

. 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 and countries: Guust Flater in Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, Tomás el Gafe in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Sergi Grapes in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

, Gastão Dabronca in some Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

translations, Gastón Sequivoc in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Gastono Lafuŝ in Esperanto

Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

, Viggo in Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

, Vakse Viggo in Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

, Viggó Viðutan in Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

, Niilo Pielinen in Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

, Gaša Šeprtlja in Serbian

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

, Şapşal Gazi in Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

and simply Gaston in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

as well as in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

and Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. In German he was also called (very briefly during a syndication) Jo-Jo.

Since the 1980s Gaston has appeared on a wide variety of merchandise.

Publication history

André Franquin who was then in charge of Spirou et Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comic strips. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like Tintin and Asterix...

, the primary series of Le journal de Spirou, first introduced the character Gaston in issue n°985, published February 28, 1957. The initial purpose was to fill up empty spaces in the magazine and offer a (comically artificial) glimpse of life behind-the-scenes at the paper. His arrival was carefully orchestrated with a teasing campaign over several months, based on ideas by Franquin, Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...

and Jidéhem

Jidéhem

Jean De Mesmaeker known by the pseudonym Jidéhem, is a Belgian comics artist in the Marcinelle school tradition. A creator of his own series Sophie, and Ginger, and noted for his work with Starter and Uhu-man, he is perhaps best known for his collaborations and assistance to the work of André...

, with mysterious blue footprints in the margins of the magazine.

For the Spirou issue N°1000 cover, Franquin drew 999 heads of Spirou

Spirou (character)

Spirou is the main character of the Spirou et Fantasio and Le Petit Spirou comic strips. The character was originally created by Robert Velter for the launch of Le Journal de Spirou in 1938....

, and one of Gaston, and the first Gaston full-page gag was featured in a bonus supplement.

In the 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

Spirou

Spirou may refer to:In comics:* Spirou , the eponymous main character of the comics series Spirou et Fantasio and Le Petit Spirou* Spirou , originally Le Journal de Spirou, Belgian weekly serial comics magazine...

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

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

and eventually a vacation, initiating the story Vacances sans histoires.

From Spirou issue n°1025, the single-panel gags were replaced with Gaston strips running at the bottom of the editor's pages, signed by both Jidéhem and Franquin. These ran until 1959 when Gaston acquired a weekly half-page, which lasted until the mid-60s when the Gaston Lagaffe gags grew to full-page.

Spirou et Fantasio appearances

Gaston's first cameo

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

in a Spirou et Fantasio adventure took place in Spirou issue n°1014 (19 September 1957) as he graced two frames of Le voyageur du Mésozoïque

Le voyageur du Mésozoïque

Le voyageur du Mésozoïque, written by Franquin and Greg, drawn by Franquin with assistance by Jidéhem, is the thirteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series...

(French: "The Traveller from the Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

Era"). He is first seen "on the streets of the capital" riding a bicycle while reading a newspaper, obliviously littering papers, and then appears two frames later, bruised and dazed, dragging his deformed bike, having ridden into the middle of ongoing traffic.

His second cameo occurred in the early panels of the story Vacances sans histoires (fr: "Quiet Holidays") (later included in the album Le gorille a bonne mine

Le gorille a bonne mine

Le gorille a bonne mine, written and drawn by Franquin, is the eleventh album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The title story and Vacances sans histoires , were serialised in Spirou, before the hardcover album release in 1959.The title literally means roughly The Gorilla's in Good Shape, but the...

) which was published between November 1957 and January 1958. Gaston appears at the start of the story when, cycling and lighting a cigarette at the same time, he runs past a red light and very nearly gets hit by Spirou and Fantasio's Turbot I sportscar. Towards the end, he is again cycling, this time down the wrong way of a one-way street, when he actually gets hit by the new Turbot II. More surprised than anything else, stretched out on the front of the car, he simply tells Spirou and Fantasio that they are requested back at the Spirou offices.

Gaston was given a larger part in the following adventure, La Foire aux gangsters ("The Gangster's Fair", included in the book Le nid des Marsupilamis

Le nid des Marsupilamis

Le nid des Marsupilamis, written and drawn by Franquin, is the twelfth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The title story, and another, La foire aux gangsters, were serialised in Spirou, before the release in a hardcover album in 1960....

). Here, Gaston hinders Spirou's investigation into a baby's kidnapping. Spirou's search leads him to a fairground and Gaston, who just happens to be there, keeps approaching him. When Spirou, desperate to keep a low profile, whispers to Gaston that they "don't know each other", he keeps insisting that they do or else suggesting that it is Spirou who looks like someone he knows. When Spirou recovers the baby, the kidnappers approach Gaston, who they know was previously talking to Spirou, and he, quite innocently, offers to show them the way to Spirou's house for what he thinks will be a pleasant social evening. Fortunately for Spirou and the little victim, Gaston keeps getting his directions wrong and he and the gangsters end up in a dead-end, surrounded by police and in jail. In the final frame (of the book version) Gaston is released from prison, to the scornful glances of the passing public.

In 1961, Franquin and Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...

wrote a radio serial "Les Robinsons du rail" (French for "The Railway Robinsons"). In this story, Fantasio is sent to cover the inauguration of the first nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

ed train and, since no-one else is available, is compelled to take Gaston with him for assistance. Needless to say, with Gaston on board, things start to go wrong and the train is soon speeding out of control, leaving Spirou and the train designer the task of sorting things out. The serial was broadcast on Belgian radio in 1961. It was later published in Spirou magazine in 1964 and as a book, but in text form with Franquin and Jidéhem contributing just a few illustrations.

Gaston also appeared in Franquin's two final Spirou et Fantasio stories, published in Panade à Champignac

Panade à Champignac

Panade à Champignac is the nineteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The story, written and drawn by Franquin, was serialised along with Bravo les Brothers in Spirou, before publication as a hardcover album in 1969.-Story:...

. He is featured in the opening pages of the title story, and plays a central role in Bravo les Brothers in which he offers Fantasio a troupe of performing chimpanzee

Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...

s as an unwanted birthday present.

Gaston does not appear in QRN sur Bretzelburg

QRN sur Bretzelburg

QRN sur Bretzelburg , written by Franquin and Greg, drawn by Franquin with assistance by Jidéhem, is the eighteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series...

(published in 1961-63), but in one scene Fantasio is about to endure painful agony by torturers in a totalitarian state. He thus decides that the best thing to do is to focus on emptiness and think of Gaston.

Jean-Claude Fournier

Jean-Claude Fournier

Jean-Claude Fournier , known simply as Fournier, is a French cartoonist best known as the comic book artist who handled Spirou et Fantasio in the years 1969-1979.-Biography:...

succeeded Franquin as artist and writer of the Spirou and Fantasio series with Le faiseur d'or

Le faiseur d'or

Le faiseur d'or, written and drawn by Fournier, is the twentieth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the first to follow the Spirou retirement of André Franquin...

, published in 1969. Kidnapped by gangsters, leading scientist the Count of Champignac is forced by them to come up with a means of helping them with their plans. Thinking of Gaston, he comes up with the kind of recipe that the office idiot would devise, but the resulting and disgusting mixture does have the results that the gangsters wanted, much to the Count's annoyance.

When Tome

Tome

A tome is a large book, especially one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work.It may also refer to:-Places:* Tome, Miyagi, city in Japan * Tome-Adelino, New Mexico, city in New Mexico-People:...

and Janry took over the series a couple of references to Gaston were made in La jeunesse de Spirou

La jeunesse de Spirou

La jeunesse de Spirou, written by Tome and drawn by Janry, is the thirtyeighth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the sixth of the authors. The stories were serialised in Spirou, before they were compiled as a hardcover album in 1987...

(Spirou's youth) where a scam artist is publishing a faux number five album of the Gaston series. And during the tale about Spirou's childhood Gaston's car is seen parked in front of the publishing company.

More recently a reference to Gaston was made in the album "Au source du Z" (The source of Z) by Morvan

Morvan

The Morvan is a mountainous massif lying just to the west of the Côte d'Or escarpment in Burgundy, France. It is a northerly extension of the Massif Central and is of Variscan age. It is composed of granites and basalts and formed a promontory extending northwards into the Jurassic sea.-Music:The...

and Munuera, when Spirou uses the time shifting machine he remarks that the experience is yucky, almost as bad as the Champagne that Gaston made out of fermented potatoes later in that album when Spirou has to use the time shifter once more he remarks that it's time to take a sip from Gaston's Champagne again.

Focus on Gaston Lagaffe

For a period, Franquin had trained his assistant Jidéhem to take over the strip in due time, but Jidéhem felt no affinity with the character and remained the background artist. Franquin inversely grew tired of Spirou et Fantasio (a series he had not created but inherited in 1946) and decided in 1968 to resign the job, and concentrate on the increasingly popular Gaston Lagaffe. Gaston's antics appeared in Spirou from 1957 to 1996, a few months before Franquin's death in 1997, although new material appeared only sporadically after the early 1980s.

Format and appeal

Gaston Lagaffe follows the classic "gag" format: one-page stories (initially half-a-page) with an often visual punchline, sometimes foreshadowed in the dialogue. The humour mixes slapstick, puns and running gags. Franquin's style is characterised by extremely nervous characters and action and very quotable dialogue. The series is much loved not only for its perfectly timed comedy, but also for its warm outlook on everyday life. Although Gaston works at Spirou magazine and one of his colleagues is a cartoonist, the series satirises office life in general rather than the publishing or comics business; Franquin himself worked at home.
In the later episodes, the reader could discover a visual reference to the story in Franquin's signature at the bottom of the page.

Gaston was hired - somewhat mysteriously - as an office junior at the offices of the Journal de Spirou (the real-life publication in which the strip appeared), having wandered in in a state of confusion. The strip usually focuses on his efforts to avoid doing any work, and indulge instead in hobbies or naps while all around him panic over deadlines. Initially, Gaston was an irritating simpleton, but he developed a genial personality and sense of humour. Common sense however always eludes him, and he has an almost supernatural ability to create disasters ("gaffes") to which he reacts with his catchphrase: "M'enfin!" ("What the...?"). His job involves dealing with readers' mail. The ever-growing piles of unanswered letters ("courrier en retard") - and the attempts of Fantasio and Léon Prunelle to make him deal with it - are recurring themes of the comic.

Gaston's age is a mystery - Franquin himself confessed that he neither knew nor indeed wanted to know it. Although Gaston has a job, a car and his own place, he often acts like a young teenager. In the publication of Dossier Franquin Franquin had said that Gaston is a boy in his late teens but certainly not in his twenties. He is invariably dressed in a tight polo-necked green jumper and blue-jeans, and worn-out espadrilles

Espadrilles

Espadrilles are normally casual flat, but sometimes high heeled shoes originating from the Pyrenees. They usually have a canvas or cotton fabric upper and a flexible sole made of rope or rubber material moulded to look like rope. The jute rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille;...

. It is said that his appearance was originally based on that of Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...

, editor of the Journal de Spirou at that time. Also, in his first gags, Gaston was an avid cigarette smoker, but his habit was slowly phased out.

Gaston alternates between phases of extreme laziness, when it is near impossible to wake him up, and hyper-activity, when he creates various machines or plays with office furniture. Over the years, he has experimented with cooking, rocket science, music, electronics, decorating, telecommunication, chemistry and many other hobbies, all with uniformly catastrophic results. His Peter Pan-like refusal to grow up and care about his work makes him very endearing, while ironically his antics account for half the stress experienced by his unfortunate co-workers.

Gaston's disregard for authority or even public safety are not confined to his office — they occasionally threaten the entire city. He is not above covering road signs with advertising posters or even snowmen, reasoning that it is the only decent use that they have — being oblivious to the chaos and accidents that covering the road signs cause.

Gaston's pets

Gaston is very fond of animals (as was Franquin of drawing them) and keeps several pets. The main ones are a depressive, aggressive seagull

Laughing Gull

The Laughing Gull, Leucophaeus atricilla, is a medium-sized gull of North and South America. It breeds on the Atlantic coast of North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Northernmost populations migrate further south in winter, and this species occurs as a rare vagrant to western...

and a hyperactive cat. Like Franquin's most famous animal creation, the Marsupilami

Marsupilami

Marsupilami is a fictional comic book species created by André Franquin, first published on 31 January 1952 in the magazine Spirou. Since then it appeared regularly in the popular Belgian comic book series Spirou et Fantasio until Franquin stopped working on the series in 1968 and the character...

, those two never acquired a name and are just referred to as the cat and the seagull. Gaston also sometimes keeps a mouse (Cheese), and a goldfish (Bubulle). The animals are sometimes Gaston's partners in crime, sometimes the victims of his clumsiness and sometimes the perpetrators of nefarious schemes. They are often depicted more realistically than the pets in Spirou

Spirou

, in that we are not privy to their inner thoughts. The cat and seagull in particular can be fairly vicious, to the extent of forcing all employees and an unwilling Demesmaeker to wear helmets, but never to Gaston himself. They often team up to obtain food. For example, in volume 14, the seagull distracts the fishmonger

Fishmonger

A fishmonger is someone who sells fish and seafood...

while the cat steals a fish, which they later eat together.

The office co-workers

Fantasio

Fantasio is a fictional character from the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip. He was introduced in 1944 by Jijé, who was then drawing Spirou's adventures. Fantasio is Spirou's best friend and co-adventurer, a graphic reporter with an uncontrolled imagination and a mop of blond hair...

of Spirou et Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio

is the main supporting character and irritable straight man to Gaston in the early part of the series. Franquin acknowledged with regret that he had totally destroyed the original clown-like personality of the character by using him in this role. In Gaston, instead of having adventures and doing some reporting, Fantasio has an editorial role in the magazine and, as such, has the impossible task of trying to put Gaston to work. By the time the story Bravo les Brothers came out (which, while nominally a Spirou et Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio

story, was effectively hijacked by Gaston), it was time for Fantasio (and the occasional cameo by Spirou) to leave. When Fournier took over the Spirou et Fantasio series in 1970, Fantasio disappeared from Gaston. At first he made the occasional guest appearance, even once returning in the office itself, his absence explained as being away in Champignac, but otherwise faded out completely.

Spirou

Spirou

of Spirou et Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio

was a fairly major supporting character in the comic's very early days, though his role was quickly reduced to occasional cameos and background appearances. He was on generally friendly terms with Gaston, sometimes trying to moderate between him and Fantasio, usually without much success. Like Fantasio, he vanished entirely from the comic when Franquin left Spirou et Fantasio.

Léon Prunelle, an editor at the Journal de Spirou. Prunelle is even more short-tempered than Fantasio, from whom he has inherited not only the mammoth task of making Gaston work, but also the job of signing contracts with important businessman Aimé De Mesmaeker (see below). Initially optimistic about this, Prunelle slowly realizes that he cannot win. However he refuses to give up and sometimes resorts to drastic measures, such as locking up Gaston in the cellar or even a cupboard. Perpetually at the end of his tether, running around barking orders, Prunelle turns a nasty reddish purple when disaster strikes and utters his trademark outburst "Rogntudju!" (a mangled version of "Nom de Dieu", roughly the equivalent of "bloody hell", then unacceptable in a children's comic). Occasionally, he manages to turn the tables on Gaston and shows that he is not without a sense of humour. He has black hair, a short beard and wears glasses.

Yves Lebrac, (first presented with the name Yvon Lebrac), an in-house cartoonist, is comparatively laid-back. He is fond of puns and we see him woo (and eventually win) one of the attractive secretary girls over the course of the series. Although mostly on good terms with Gaston (unlike Prunelle), he occasionally loses his temper when deadlines loom and Gaston's interference becomes too much. When not a victim of "gaffes", he is a lenient comrade of Gaston, and the character with which Franquin himself most identified.

Joseph Boulier, a surly accountant for Éditions Dupuis, the publishers of the magazine. He states that he will not rest until he has tracked down every useless expense in the company, and in particular those of Gaston. However, his attempts to cause Gaston grief backfire in spectacular ways. He represents the more serious side of the comics publishing business.

Mademoiselle Jeanne ("M'oiselle Jeanne" to Gaston) is one of Gaston’s colleagues and his love interest. She is the only one in the office who sees any good in him. She was first depicted as comically unattractive — one gag sees Gaston needing a partner for the back end of his pantomime horse costume, and he chooses Jeanne because of her ponytail. Gradually however, she became cuter (with her body turning from pear-shaped to curvaceous) — if never really a beauty queen. Jeanne is a perfect match for Gaston, as she admires his talent, his courage, his inventiveness and is utterly oblivious to his lack of common sense (of which she herself has fairly little). However their courtship is perpetually stuck at the very first step. They address each other with the formal vous and as "Mister" and "Miss" and see each other mainly at the office — though they have had the occasional outing together. This platonic relationship, in a way, is in keeping with Gaston's refusal or inability to grow up. It is revealed in the album En direct de la gaffe

En direct de la gaffe

En direct de la gaffe, written and drawn by Franquin and Delporte, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R4. It is made up of 44 pages and was published by Dupuis. It consists of a series of one-strip gags.-Story:...

that Jeanne is color blind: she can't tell green from red. She also still lives with her mother and, although it is assumed that she is well beyond her teens, is shown grounded

Grounding (punishment)

Grounding is a form of punishment given to children, preadolescents or adolescents by their parents for misbehavior....

after a row.

By the end of the series, Gaston's daydreams about Jeanne did become relatively more explicit. To the dismay of critics, Franquin once actually drew them naked, with Gaston in a state of arousal, on a commercially unavailable greeting card.

Monsieur Dupuis

Dupuis

Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...

(the real-life publisher Jean Dupuis) himself has made two appearances - both times we only see his legs.

Spirou is also staffed by the Van Schrijfboek brothers: the mustached translator Bertje and the red-haired editor Jef, cleaning lady Mélanie Molaire (who always fumes at the mess left by Gaston and which she has to clean up), concierge Jules Soutier, and a string of attractive secretaries named Sonia (who is constantly handing in her notice), Yvonne and Suzanne. Occasionally, real-life figures from the Journal de Spirou (such as editor Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte

Yvan Delporte was a Belgian comics writer, and was editor-in-chief of Spirou magazine between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics...

or writer Raoul Cauvin

Raoul Cauvin

Raoul Cauvin is a Belgian comics author and one of the most popular in the humorist field.-Biography:Raoul Cauvin was born in Antoing, Belgium in 1938. He studied lithography at the Institut Saint-Luc in Tournai, but upon leaving school found that there no jobs available for lithographers...

) have cameos.

Friends

Jules-de-chez-Smith-en-face (Jules-from-Smith’s-across-the-street) is one of Gaston’s friends. He "works" (much in the same way as Gaston "works") in the office just across the street from the Journal de Spirou, prompting countless attempts at cross-street communication via walkie-talkie, flash card, carrier seagull etc. Jules shares Gaston's childish enthusiasm, and is his sidekick in many ventures. Although they are close, Jules addresses Gaston as "Lagaffe".

Bertrand Labévue is another of Gaston’s friends/sidekicks and also his cousin. As his name indicates, (bévue means "blunder"), he shares his cousin's tendency to goof up. Bertrand suffers from acute depression, mirroring Franquin's own problems with the illness, and Gaston and Jules do their best to cheer him up with food, country drives and other things (all of which backfire comically).

Manu is another friend, who regularly turns up in different jobs (à la Bert in Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a series of children's books written by P. L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. The books centre on a magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London and into the Banks' household to care for their...

): chimney sweep, sewer worker, installer of street signage... He also partakes in Gaston's schemes to irritate Longtarin, the policeman.

Foes

Aimé De Mesmaeker is a rich businessman; we know that he owns a private jet (until Gaston destroys it) and that his oldest daughter drives an Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

. His precise line of business is unknown, but he is repeatedly lured into the offices of Spirou

Spirou

by Fantasio or Prunelle in order to sign some lucrative contracts (see below). De Mesmaeker has developed a deep loathing for Gaston and by extension his colleagues. His frequent visits allow Franquin to satirise business rituals, as Dupuis' employees shower him with attention, complimentary drinks, cigars...

De Mesmaeker is named after Johan De Mesmaeker (known as Jidéhem

Jidéhem

from the French pronunciation of his initials J.D.M.), Franquin’s collaborator on the series; he remarked that the character looked like his own father. The real-life Mr De Mesmaeker Sr — actually a salesman — soon found that, as Gaston's strip became increasingly popular, concluding a deal would result in the client asking, "Where are the contracts?".

Joseph Longtarin ("long nose") is a police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

man working in the neighbourhood where the offices of Spirou are located. One of his particular responsibilities is for traffic and illegal parking. An exceptionally petty and vengeful man, he is the closest thing the series has to a villain. He is one of Gaston's favorite "victims" as well as his nemesis. The two clash continually over Gaston's car and parking habits. Gaston retaliates for Longtarin's repeated attempts to ticket him by wreaking havoc on the neighbourhood's parking meters (not just a bugbear of Gaston, but of André Franquin too). He pulls off other pranks, such as putting a small effigy of Longtarin on the front of his car, in a parody of the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy

Spirit of Ecstasy

The Spirit of Ecstasy is the name of the hood ornament on Rolls-Royce cars. It is in the form of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind and above her...

.

Ducran & Lapoigne (“Courage & Stronghold”) is an engineering firm (specializing in metallic bridges) whose offices neighbour those of Dupuis. This company is also a frequent victim of Lagaffe's mishaps and Fantasio or Prunelle often bear the brunt of Ducran and Lapoigne's anger -- both of them being big muscular men, as their names suggest.

Freddy-les-doigts-de-fée ("fairy-fingered Freddy") is a burglar. His occasional break-ins at Spirou are always foiled accidentally by Gaston, who tends to inadvertently leave dangerous objects, devices or pets around the office. Workers at Spirou see Freddy as a fellow victim of Gaston, and, instead of turning him in to the police, offer him comfort and freebies when they find him in the morning.

Props, inventions and other running gags

Objects play an important part in Gaston's life, and some of them have become iconic enough to be sometimes recreated in real life for exhibitions and such. The main two are:

Gaston's car

Gaston drives an old Fiat 509

Fiat 509

The Fiat 509 was a model of car produced by Italian automotive manufacturer Fiat between 1925 and 1929 as a replacement for the 501. Approximately 90,000 of the model were sold. In 1926 the car was upgraded to the 509A...

, which he acquires in gag #321, decorated with racing patterns that he added himself.. However its top speed still allows passengers to safely pick flowers on motorway verges. Much humour derives from the car's extreme state of decrepitude; for example, a friend of Gaston is able to "waterski" behind it on a slick of oil, while Gaston strenuously denies any such leaks. The car also produces huge quantities of (often toxic) smoke, even more so when Gaston converts it to run on coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

. Customisations and ill-fitted upgrades include:

An emissions filter fitted to the exhaust pipe which turns out not to let anything through, causing the exhaust to come in the front.
A bag in which exhaust fumes are collected. Unfortunately, Gaston thoughtlessly empties the bag in a busy street, rendering everyone unconscious.
Snow chains
Snow chains
Snow chains, or tire chains, are devices fitted to the tires of vehicles to provide maximum traction when driving through snow and ice....

.
A snow-plough
Snowplow
A snowplow is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes...

device that sucks the snow into a heater, which makes the snow evaporate (it doesn't work).
Seatbelts, which, accidentally wrap around the rear axle.
An airbag
Airbag
An Airbag is a vehicle safety device. It is an occupant restraint consisting of a flexible envelope designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision, to prevent occupants from striking interior objects such as the steering wheel or a window...

which smothers the driver (Prunelle states that it allows a less messy death in case of accident).
A wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...

.

The car is inadvertently rocket-powered on two separate occasions.

Some of Gaston's colleagues are terrified at the very thought of sitting in the Fiat – Prunelle swears on several occasions that he will never set foot in it again. The car is also the source of many clashes with Longtarin, as Gaston endlessly devises schemes to avoid paying parking meters, even going as far as parking it up in a tree or faking roadworks.

The Gaffophone

This extraordinary instrument, a prehistoric-looking combination of horn and harp created by Gaston, produces a sound so terrible and loud that it causes physical destruction all around and panics animals and even fighter pilots. Like the voice of the bard Cacofonix in Asterix

Asterix

Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...

, it horrifies everyone except its originator. The first time the instrument appears, the plucking of just one string causes the floor to collapse. Gaston has also created at least one other instrument in the same vein, and an electric version of the Gaffophone. Fantasio has tried several times to get rid of the Gaffophone, without success.

An illustrated text published in the Journal de Spirou column En direct de la Rédaction (and later collected in Gaston nº 10), chronicled (from the viewpoint of Prunelle) the Gaffophone's blossoming and development into a small ecosystem, which then self-destructed. Gaston later rebuilt his instrument.

Costumes

An early running gag involved Gaston coming up with elaborate and extremely impractical costumes for fancy dress parties at the facetious suggestions of his colleagues: Roly-poly toy

Roly-poly toy

A roly-poly toy, round-bottomed doll, tilting doll, tumbler or wobbly man is a toy that rights itself when pushed over. The bottom of a roly-poly toy is round, roughly a hemisphere. Many roly-poly toys are hollow, with a weight inside the bottom. It has a center of mass below the center of the...

, octopus, Greek urn, petrol pump, Eiffel Tower etc. He was invariably worried about whether he would be able to dance with the outfit on. Once, he dressed as the Marsupilami

Marsupilami

Other inventions

These have included:

A necktie- / shoelace-tying device
A ceiling-suspended table
A self-heating duffle coat
Duffle Coat
A duffle coat, or duffel coat, is a coat made from duffle, a coarse, thick, woollen material. The name derives from Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium where the material originates...
A rotating Christmas tree
A pneumatic ashtray
An electric scarecrow
A folding bicycle
A remote-controlled electric iron
A mini-lawnmower (to mow around daisies)
A suit of armour for mice
A solar-powered flashlight
Flashlight
A flashlight is a hand-held electric-powered light source. Usually the light source is a small incandescent lightbulb or light-emitting diode...
An electric cigar cutter
Cigar cutter
A cigar cutter is a mechanical device designed to cut one end off a cigar so that it may be properly smoked. Although some cigars are cut on both ends, or twirled at both ends, the vast majority come with one straight cut end and one end in a "cap" which must be cut off for the cigar to be smoked...

, shaped like a guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

which almost worked like a guillotine for the users' fingers.
An automatic hammer. The inevitable "gaffe" being that you first had to nail it to the wall.
A seatbelt made of rubber, for easy access to the mailbox from the car.
A coffeemaker which produces so stiff a drink, it renders the drinker (Gaston himself and De Mesmaeker) hyperenergetic, agitated and utterly unable to use even a pen without destroying it.
A tanning umbrella, to tan (or sunburn) when it is raining

The mail backlog

The task most often given to Gaston by Prunelle is to sort and answer the mail, presumably sent by readers. This often builds up to a mountain-like backlog, which Gaston often attempts to dispose of in creative ways, for instance stuffing a homemade sofa with it. In a similar vein, Gaston was briefly put in charge of the reference library: at first he arranged the books into a maze and charged his colleagues for admission, and later he simply piled them up, dug a cave in the middle and settled there with his pets, a radio and a stove to sleep all day.

De Mesmaeker's contracts

This is possibly the most frequent running gag in the series, and by Franquin's admission a MacGuffin

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...

: "Whatever's in the contracts is irrelevant. What we want to see is how Gaston will prevent them from being signed."

Aimé De Mesmaeker is a hot-tempered businessman who often visits the office (which he increasingly sees as a madhouse) in order to sign some important contracts. However, the contracts are irrevocably jinxed: before De Mesmaeker can apply pen to paper, Gaston's latest gimmick comes along, provokes mayhem and causes the hapless businessman to storm out, rip the contracts up, or in some cases pass out. Even when they do get signed, Gaston can always be counted on to accidentally, and unintentionally, destroy them.

Over the years, Fantasio and Prunelle's efforts to get the iconic contracts signed become increasingly frantic and desperate. Prunelle even goes so far as to send Lagaffe to the other side of town on some wild goose chase or bound and gag him and lock him into a cupboard. But even these measures are not enough to prevent the contracts in obtaining the ever-wanted signature.

On two occasions, De Mesmaeker actually ended up signing other contracts with Gaston spontaneously, instead of the contracts, both merchandising deals over Gaston's inventions (the "Cosmo-clock", an Apollo spacecraft

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...

-shaped cuckoo clock

Cuckoo clock

A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum-regulated, that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo's call and typically has a mechanical cuckoo that emerges with each note...

, and a soup recipe).

Politics, activism and promotional material

Authors at Spirou could only go so far in expressing anything resembling politics within the magazine, and so the author of Gaston generally stuck to a gentle satire of productivity and authority. However, the pacifism and concern for the environment that formed the basis of Franquin's politics and would be expressed much more bluntly in Idées noires

Idées noires

Idées noires is a collection of black comedy comic strips drawn by André Franquin, written by Franquin and Yvan Delporte. The one-page stories first appeared frequently in 1977, in the brief run of the Spirou supplement, Le Trombone illustré...

were already surfacing in Gaston (and Spirou et Fantasio). Very occasionally, Franquin stepped over the mark, as in an uncharacteristically angry strip where Gaston uses a toy Messerschmitt

Messerschmitt

Messerschmitt AG was a famous German aircraft manufacturing corporation named for its chief designer, Willy Messerschmitt, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, notably the Bf 109 and Me 262...

plane to strafe the whole office in protest at their (real life) appearance in the magazine's modelling column (while building the model, he says: “… and now, the swastikas. They are very popular amongst retards”). Outside of Spirou however, Franquin had a free rein, and used Gaston in promotional material for diverse organisations such as Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

and Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

. In the former, activists scare whales away from whalers by plucking the dreaded gaffophone. For the latter, Franquin produced a gut-wrenching sequence where Gaston is beaten and tortured and forced to watch M'oiselle Jeanne raped in front of him, before being sent to a prison camp. In the penultimate frame he faces capital punishment which the punters hope "serves as an example". Awaking in a sweat, Gaston shouts at the reader that "although this was a nightmare, it's happening right now around the world", urging membership.

Gaston has also appeared in advertising campaigns for batteries, a soft drink (Orange Piedboeuf), and in a campaign to promote bus use. The material was always drawn by Franquin himself rather than under licence, and has been reprinted in books. The latter campaign is interesting in that it shows Franquin's evolution from car enthusiast inventing the Turbo-traction and other fancy sports vehicles for Spirou in the 1950s, to disillusioned citizen concerned over traffic and pollution in later years. One topical strip had the seagull boycotting Gaston's car after seeing a bird stuck in an oil spill on television. "Life is becoming more and more complicated", its owner concludes gloomily in a very rare joke-free ending.

Albums

In 1960 the first Gaston book, a small-format (7x13 cm) publication, was released. Its format was so unorthodox that some retailers thought it was a promotional issue to be given away free. The cover features Gaston wearing orange espadrilles without socks, not yet given his trademark blue espadrilles. Fifteen major albums were published between 1963 and 1996, including all the strips that appeared in Spirou. There were some oddities such as number 1 appearing out of sequence and number 0 twenty years later. The first five were quickly sold out; the others were frequently reprinted.

Included in the series were the "R1" through "R5" albums (R for Réédition, French for republication). The R5 album was not published until 1986; its non-existence until then had been a mystery. This was due to the republication of the real first five books: they were published on a smaller format and from this small ones they couldn't make five big ones. After several years it was decided to fill it up with early unpublished material and some advertising gags for PiedBœuf.

Beginning in 1987, Éditions J'ai lu began publishing a 17-volume series in paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

format. The titles and contents did not exactly match the large-format albums.

In 1996, upon Gaston's 40th anniversary, Dupuis and Marsu Productions

Marsu Productions

Marsu Productions, or simply Marsu, is a publishing house and licensing and merchandising company located in Monaco, managing Franco-Belgian comics characters and copyright concerns, chiefly from the comics universe of André Franquin...

published Edition Définitive, containing nearly all Gaston gags in chronological order. As some of the earliest material had been damaged, restoration work was done by Studio Léonardo, with the results approved by Franquin. This edition is being published in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini Comics starting in January 2007.

In 2007, upon Gaston's 50th anniversary, Marsu Productions published Gaston 50, a new album with unpublished work. The strange number 50 refers to Gaston's age but also to the chaotic numbering of the Classic series, which hadn't got a number five for a very long time.

Série classique, Classic series
n°	Title	Year!! Pages!! Format !!Content!!Period !!Authors
-	Gaston	1960		19,7 x 8,3 cm	new	1960	Franquin, Jidehem
2	Gala de gaffes	1963	64	22 x 15 cm	new (strips 49 - 151)	1962	Franquin, Jidehem
3	Gaffes à gogo	1964	64	22 x 15 cm	new (strips 144 - 210)	1964	Franquin, Jidehem
4	Gaffes en gros	1965	64	22 x 15 cm	new (strips 215 - 286)	1965	Franquin, Jidehem
1	Gare aux gaffes	1966	64	22 x 15 cm	new (strips 294 - 351)	1959 to 1966	Franquin, Jidehem
5	Les gaffes d'un gars gonflé	1967	64	22 x 15 cm	new (strips 350 - 410)	1967	Franquin, Jidehem
6	Des gaffes et des dégâts Des gaffes et des dégâts Des gaffes et des dégâts, written and drawn by Franquin, is the sixth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. The 59 strips of this album were previously published in Spirou.-Story:...	1968	59	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 413 - 480)	1968	Franquin
7	Un gaffeur sachant gaffer Un gaffeur sachant gaffer Un gaffeur sachant gaffer, written and drawn by Franquin , is the sixth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. The 59 strips of this album were previously published in Spirou.-Story:...	1969	59	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 472 - 543)	1969	Franquin
8	Lagaffe nous gâte Lagaffe nous gâte Lagaffe nous gâte, written and drawn by Franquin, is the eighth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. The 59 strips of this album were previously published in Spirou.-Story:...	1970	59	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 544 - 607)	1970	Franquin
R1	Gala de gaffes à gogo Gala de gaffes à gogo Gala de gaffes à gogo, written and drawn by Franquin and Jidéhem, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R1. It is made up of 59 pages and was published by Dupuis. It consists of a series of one-strip gags.-Story:...	1970	59	21,8 x 30 cm	albums 2 and 3	1963	Franquin, Jidehem
9	Le cas Lagaffe Le cas Lagaffe Le cas Lagaffe, written and drawn by Franquin, is the ninth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is composed of 52 strips previously published in Spirou. It was published in 1971 by Dupuis.-Story:...	1971	52	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 601 - 658)	1971	Franquin
10	Le géant de la gaffe Le géant de la gaffe Le géant de la gaffe, written and drawn by Franquin, is the tenth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is composed of 52 strips previously published in Spirou. It was published in 1972 by Dupuis.-Story:...	1972	52	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 659 - 714)	1972	Franquin
R2	Le bureau des gaffes en gros Le bureau des gaffes en gros Le bureau des gaffes en gros, written and drawn by Franquin and Jidéhem, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R2. It is made up of 52 pages and was published by Dupuis...	1972	52	21,8 x 30 cm	album 4 and unpublished	1965	Franquin, Jidehem
R3	Gare aux gaffes du gars gonflé Gare aux gaffes du gars gonflé Gare aux gaffes du gars gonflé, written and drawn by Franquin and Jidéhem, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R3. It is made up of 52 pages and was published by Dupuis. It consists of a series of one-strip gags.-Story:...	1973	52	21,8 x 30 cm	album 1 and 5	1959 to 1966	Franquin, Jidehem
11	Gaffes, bévues et boulettes Gaffes, bévues et boulettes Le gang des gaffeurs, written and drawn by Franquin, is the eleven album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is composed of 46 strips previously published in Spirou...	1973	44	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 715 - 849)	1972	Franquin
R4	En direct de la gaffe En direct de la gaffe En direct de la gaffe, written and drawn by Franquin and Delporte, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R4. It is made up of 44 pages and was published by Dupuis. It consists of a series of one-strip gags.-Story:...	1974	44	21,8 x 30 cm	unpublished	1960 to 1968	Franquin, Delporte
12	Le gang des gaffeurs Le gang des gaffeurs Le gang des gaffeurs, written and drawn by Franquin, is the thirteenth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is composed of 46 strips previously published in Spirou...	1974	44	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 759 - 805)	1974	Franquin
13	Lagaffe mérite des baffes Lagaffe mérite des baffes Lagaffe mérite des baffes, written and drawn by Franquin, is the thirteenth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is made up of 46 strips previously published in Spirou.-Story:In this album, a struggle between Longtarin and Lagaffe begins...	1979	46	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 806 - 850)	1975 to 1979	Franquin
14	La saga des gaffes La saga des gaffes La saga des gaffes, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fifteenth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series. It is made up of 44 strips previously published in Spirou.-Background:...	1982	44	21,8 x 30 cm	new (strips 851 - 890)	1980 to 1982	Franquin
0	Gaffes et gadgets Gaffes et gadgets Gaffes et gadgets, written and drawn by Franquin, is an album in the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered 0. It is made up of strips and illustrations originally published in Spirou, and was published by Dupuis in 1985...	1985	46	21,8 x 30 cm	unpublished	1957	Franquin, Delporte
R5	Le lourd passé de Lagaffe Le lourd passé de Lagaffe Le lourd passé de Lagaffe, written and drawn by Franquin and Jidéhem, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R5. It is made up of 46 pages and was published by Dupuis...	1986	46	21,8 x 30 cm	unpublished	1957 to 1982	Franquin, Jidehem
15	Gaffe à Lagaffe ! Gaffe à Lagaffe ! Gaffe à Lagaffe !, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fifteenth album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series.-Inventions:*petrol: special petrol for the Gastomobile, it also can cause unexpected fireworks...	1996	45	21,8 x 30 cm	new and unpublished	1987 to 1996	Franquin
19	Gaston 19	1999	44	21,8 x 30 cm	new and unpublished	1957 to 1997	Franquin
50	Gaston 50	2007	44	21,8 x 30 cm	new and unpublished	1957 to 1997	Franquin

year the comics book was published in album, as opposed to the period during which the strips were published in the Spirou magazine.

"new" refers to an album whose strips had been published in magazine one or some years earlier (with the numero of the strips), while "unpublished" means the album is a collection of unrelated strips never published in albums by mistake. "album" means the album is a republication.

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
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

, 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

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

film based on Gaston Lagaffe, called Fais gaffe à la gaffe! directed by Paul Boujenah

Paul Boujenah

Paul Boujenah, born 20 May 1958 in Tunis, Tunisia, is a film director.He is the brother of Michel Boujenah and the uncle of Matthieu Boujenah.-Filmography:...

and starring Roger Mirmont was released to disappointing reception. It features future The Sopranos

The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...

star Lorraine Bracco

Lorraine Bracco

Lorraine Bracco is an American actress. She is best known for her TV roles as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO series, The Sopranos, and Angela Rizzoli on the TNT series, Rizzoli & Isles...

.

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.

Sources

Franquin publications in Le Journal de Spirou BDoubliées
Gaston appearances in Le Journal de Spirou gastonlagaffe.com

Footnotes

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Publication history

Spirou et Fantasio appearances

Focus on Gaston Lagaffe

Format and appeal

Gaston Lagaffe

Gaston's pets

The office co-workers

Friends

Foes

Props, inventions and other running gags

Gaston's car

The Gaffophone

Costumes

Other inventions

The mail backlog

De Mesmaeker's contracts

Politics, activism and promotional material

Albums

Other publications

Gaston film

See also

Sources

External links