Le Petit Spirou
Encyclopedia
Le Petit Spirou is a popular Belgian
comic strip
created by Tome
and Janry in 1987. The series developed from La jeunesse de Spirou
(1987), a Spirou et Fantasio
album in which Tome and Janry (at the time the authors of the series) set to imagine Spirou
's youth. It was developed into a spin-off
series shortly afterwards and the authors have focused on it ever since the controversy created after their final Spirou et Fantasio album, Machine qui rêve (1998). New albums are among the bestselling French-language comics, with 330,000 copies for the latest one.
In addition to continuing to develop the character in the spirit of previous Spirou et Fantasio author Franquin
, in this series Tome and Janry paid homage to Franquin's manner of animating the gag's signature.
boy. A lot of the gags center around the character's interest in the opposite sex, most notably he and his pals coming up with ways of spying on the girls' showers and dressing room. Other topics concern religion and the contradictions and absurdities of the adult world. It is generally acknowledged that, psychologically speaking, the character in Le Petit Spirou has little in common with the clean-cut adult he will become.
.
(De Kleine Robbe, distributed by Dupuis
), Croatian
(Mali Spirou, distributed by Strip-Agent), Spanish
(El Pequeño Spirou, edited by Ediciones Kraken) and Danish
, Swedish
, Norwegian
, Finnish
and Polish
(Den lille Splint, Den unge Spirou, Lille Sprint, Pikku Piko and Mały Sprytek, published by Egmont
).
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...
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 by Tome
Philippe Vandevelde
Philippe Vandevelde, working under the pseudonym Tome , is a comic strip script writer. He is known for collaborations with Janry on Spirou et Fantasio and Le Petit Spirou, and with Luc Warnant and later Bruno Gazzotti on Soda...
and Janry in 1987. The series developed from 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...
(1987), a 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...
album in which Tome and Janry (at the time the authors of the series) set to imagine 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....
's youth. It was developed into a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series shortly afterwards and the authors have focused on it ever since the controversy created after their final Spirou et Fantasio album, Machine qui rêve (1998). New albums are among the bestselling French-language comics, with 330,000 copies for the latest one.
In addition to continuing to develop the character in the spirit of previous Spirou et Fantasio author 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 this series Tome and Janry paid homage to Franquin's manner of animating the gag's signature.
Synopsis
This series details the antics of the character as an elementary schoolElementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
boy. A lot of the gags center around the character's interest in the opposite sex, most notably he and his pals coming up with ways of spying on the girls' showers and dressing room. Other topics concern religion and the contradictions and absurdities of the adult world. It is generally acknowledged that, psychologically speaking, the character in Le Petit Spirou has little in common with the clean-cut adult he will become.
Characters
In La Jeunesse de Spirou, regular characters such as Fantasio, Spip the squirrel and their enemy Zantafio also featured as children. However when the actual P'tit Spirou series came about it was decided to leave them out and to create new characters, given that, in the original series (started in the 1930s), Spirou had not met them until adulthood.The children
- SpirouSpirou (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....
- The main character, already wearing his trademark red bellhopBellhopA bellhop, also bellboy or bellman, is a hotel porter, who helps patrons with their luggage while checking in or out. Bellhops often wear a uniform , like certain other page boys or doormen...
outfit. - Antoine Vertignasse "Vert" - Spirou's best friend and companion in his adventures.
- Suzanne Berlingot "Suzette" - Spirou's girlfriend.
- Nicolas Ponchelot - Spirou's second best friend, with a good appetite and a few extra pounds.
- Cyprien Futu "Cassius" - Another friend of Spirou, of African origins. The son of the school's cook. His nickname is a reference to Cassius Clay as he is very good at boxing.
- Masseur - Another friend, big but not very intelligent. In French "Masseur" sounds like "ma soeur", "My sister". This allows Suzette to trade photos of the naked Masseur for treats, as people understand "Je te donnerai une photo de masseur nue" ("I'll give you a nude photo of Masseur") as "Je te donnerai une photo de ma sœur nue" "I'll give you a nude photo of my sister".
- André-Baptiste Depérinconu - The secret son of the abbot? In any case, he copies him in everything. Word play on French "de père inconnu", "of unknown father".
The adults
- Mr. Mégot - The gym teacher, always trying to organize original sporting events that always end in disaster. Drinks and smokes a lot. "Mégot" is French for a cigarette butt.
- Abbot Langelusse - He always has ideas to pray God's glory and save the souls of his flock, which usually also end in disaster. A word play on angelusAngelusThe Angelus is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ The Angelus (Latin for "angel") is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus...
. - Miss Claudia Chiffre - The math teacher. "Chiffre" is French for digit, and an obvious play on the name Claudia SchifferClaudia SchifferClaudia Schiffer is a German model and occasional actress, who reached the peak of her popularity during the 1990s, initially due to her resemblance to Brigitte Bardot. Schiffer is one of the world's most successful models, having appeared on over 500 magazine covers...
. - Melchior Dugenou - A timid teacher with big glasses and the boyfriend of Miss Chiffre, which nobody understands why. He is a good head shorter than his girlfriend, Miss Chiffre.
- Pépé Spirou - Spirou's grandfather and his favourite adult. At his age, he is not much wiser than his grandson. He also wears the family's trademark red outfit.
- Mrs. Gourmandine - Pépé's girlfriend.
- Mrs. Spirou - Spirou's mother, dressed in a female version of her son's red outfit.
- Mr. Spirou - Spirou's father, dressed in the standard bellboy outfit. He appears seldom in the series and his face is never seen. Tome claims that this was because he would have looked too much like the adult Spirou. Tome also claims that he did not know his own father well and that he lacked "emotional documentation on the subject".
Albums
Like the main series, these albums are published by DupuisDupuis
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...
.
- Dis bonjour à la dame (Say hello to the lady, 1990)
- Tu veux mon doigt? (Do you want my finger?, 1991)
- Mais qu'est-ce que tu fabriques? (What are you doing?, 1992)
- C'est pour ton bien (It's for your own good, 1994)
- "Merci" qui? ("Thanks" to whom?, 1994)
- N'oublie pas ta capuche! (Don't forget your hood!, 1996)
- Demande à ton père! (Ask your father!) (1997)
- T'as qu'à t'retenir! (Just hold it [pee] in) (1999)
- C'est pas de ton âge! (That's not something for your age!, 2000)
- Tu comprendras quand tu s'ras grand! (You'll understand when you'll grow up, 2001)
- Tu ne s'ras jamais grand! (You'll never grow up!, 2003)
- C'est du joli! (Nice work!, 2005)
- Fais de beaux rêves (Sweet dreams, 2007)
- Bien fait pour toi ! (Serves you right!, 2008)
Translations
Le Petit Spirou has been translated to several languages, including DutchDutch 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...
(De Kleine Robbe, distributed by 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...
), Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
(Mali Spirou, distributed by Strip-Agent), 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...
(El Pequeño Spirou, edited by Ediciones Kraken) and 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...
, 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...
, 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...
, 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...
and Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
(Den lille Splint, Den unge Spirou, Lille Sprint, Pikku Piko and Mały Sprytek, published by Egmont
Egmont Publishing
The Egmont Group is a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise media generally....
).