Zantafio is a recurring fictional antagonist in the 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...

comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series. He was created by 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...

 and first appeared in Spirou et les héritiers

Spirou et les héritiers

Spirou et les héritiers, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fourth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and a great leap in the expansion of the Spirou universe...

(1952). Zantafio bears a strong resemblance to Fantasio

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...

, because they are cousins. In Le dictateur et le champignon

Le dictateur et le champignon

Le dictateur et le champignon, written and drawn by Franquin, is the seventh album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. After serial publication in Spirou, the story was released as a hardcover album in 1956.-Story:...

(1953), he is a South-American dictator

Dictator

A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...

 of the fictional country Palombia

Palombia

Palombia is a fictitious South American country from the Belgian Spirou et Fantasio and Marsupilami comic book stories. The name is a portmanteau of Paraguay and Colombia. In French, Palombie is especially a word game between Colombie, Colombe and Palombe.-Overview:Palombia is a small country in...

.

Character evolution

Zantafio first appears at an inheritance contest, arrogant and in debt. He and Fantasio are the only heirs, and he who wins three challenges wins the heritage. After continually employing dirty tactics and still losing, Zantafio admits defeat, claiming to see the errors of his cheating ways, and feels guilty about it. The cousins part on good terms while searching for 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...

 in the Palombian rainforest.

Yet, Zantafio, under the alias of General Zantas, returns as the dictator of the country, much to the surprise of Spirou and Fantasio. He offers Spirou and Fantasio a place within his army, but they are repulsed by Zantafio's change in personality. No longer friendly, Zantafio becomes merciless, brutal, and drunk on power. Spirou and Fantasio, with the inventions of the Count of Champignac, initiate a revolt in Palombia. During the revolution, Zantafio is ousted from power and disappears into the jungle.Zantafio later strikes back at his cousin by framing him for thievery. He employs special henchmen to impersonate him and therefore disgrace him, but Spirou manages to foil his plans. Zantafio continues to return several times as the nemesis antagonist, exploring many variants of crime. He even becomes Zorglub's second-in-command and then tries to replace him to gain power in L'ombre du Z (1956).

When 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:...

 took over the series, the criminal organisation known as the Triangle became the main recurring antagonist focus of the series. In Tora Torapa (1973), Zantafio returns as leader of the Triangle.

After Fournier left the series, Zantafio disappeared for a long time as well: the new creative team of Broca & Cauvin created new villains for their short run and their successors Tome & Janry started out their run creating own villains well. Their La jeunesse de Spirou included a story from the spin-off series Le Petit Spirou

Le Petit Spirou

Le Petit Spirou is a popular Belgian comic strip created by Tome and Janry in 1987. The series developed from La jeunesse de Spirou , a Spirou et Fantasio album in which Tome and Janry set to imagine Spirou's youth...

, which showed Zantafio as a child (but still wearing a moustache), but this story was done for comedic purposes. In Spirou à Moscou (1990), Zantafio returns, attempting to become the new Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

When Morvan and Munuera took over as Spirou creative team, Zantafio returned in their second issue, L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (2005).

Appearances

4. Spirou et les héritiers

Spirou et les héritiers

Spirou et les héritiers, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fourth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and a great leap in the expansion of the Spirou universe...

(Franquin)7. Le dictateur et le champignon

Le dictateur et le champignon

Le dictateur et le champignon, written and drawn by Franquin, is the seventh album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. After serial publication in Spirou, the story was released as a hardcover album in 1956.-Story:...

(Franquin)8. La mauvaise tête

La mauvaise tête

La mauvaise tête, written and drawn by Franquin, is the eighth album in the Spirou et Fantasio series. After serial publication in Spirou the complete story was published, along with the Marsupilami short story Touchez pas aux rouges-gorges, in a hardcover album in 1957.-Story:In A Head for Crime,...

(Franquin)

• 16. L'ombre du Z
  L'ombre du Z
  L'ombre du Z, written and drawn by Franquin, is the sixteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the second part of Franquin's Zorglub diptych...
  
  (Franquin)
• 20. 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...
  
  (Fournier)
• 23. Tora Torapa
  Tora Torapa
  Tora Torapa, written and drawn by Fournier, is the twentythird album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the author's fourth, following the Spirou retirement of André Franquin...
  
  (Fournier)
• 42. Spirou à Moscou
  Spirou à Moscou
  Spirou à Moscou, written by Tome and drawn by Janry, is the forty-second album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the tenth of the authors. The story was serialised in Spirou, before it was released as a hardcover album in 1990.-Story:...
  
  (Tome & Janry)
• 48. L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (Morvan & Munuera)