While the new author is very talented, Franquin was always against any continuation or adaptation of his work on Gaston.
On top of it, Dupuis practicaly recognizes that they don’t care about the moral rights of the intellectual property (which are inalienable, we are not in USA)
Is the site experiencing technical difficulties, or can it not handle me refusing their cookies?
As the article seems to pop on/off here is the context.
Dupuis has announced a new album of Gaston Lagaffe (Guust Flater), which will be written and drawn by Delaf (very talented author, already known from Les Nombrils)
However, Franquin was always against any continuation or adaptation of his work on Gaston, and his daughter has opposed (like she already did for the terrible movie) against the publication.
He signed indeed a waiver to Dupuis about further exploitation of his work (patrimonial rights), but on the moral rights, he was publicly against it, as is her daughter
**Will the return of Guust turn out to be a flop? Daughter of creator does everything to stop first album in 30 years**
*Thirty years after the last album, a completely new Guust Flater comic strip is coming out. This was demonstrated at the Angoulême comic book festival. But what was hushed up at the festival was that Franquin’s daughter would do anything to stop the publication.*’
Flater strikes again!’ Under this title, a new Gaston Lagaffe – or Guust Flater – will hit store shelves in October. And that is more than 25 years after the death of the Brussels creator André Franquin. Daughter Isabelle Franquin still wants to do everything to stop the reanimation of her father’s comic strip, but she doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Focus Vif writes that Isabelle was only recently informed of the plans, and is not happy about it. According to her, her father always stated in interviews that no one should continue his Guust after his death. As the only child, she claims the moral rights to her father’s conceit.
But father Franquin sold the rights to his characters and to their publication to publishing house Dupuis. And they want to publish a new Flater album for their 100th anniversary. To do this, they hired the French-speaking Canadian Marc Delafontaine, who already convinced the publisher in 2016 with a cartoon as a tribute to Guust Flater.
A counsel for the publisher defends the plans in Le Vif, stating that “Franquin indicated in his interviews that he did not think dogmatically, and that his opinion evolved according to the context.” The publisher also brings in that they want to save Franquin’s comics from oblivion. But these arguments are not accepted by Isabelle Franquin, who says she will take all possible steps.
**Copying Rembrandt**
Merho, who is not only the author of De Kiekeboes but also a Franquin aficionado, has a “double feeling” about the witch hunt. “Franquin cannot be imitated. His drawings are of such a high level, it’s like trying to recreate a Rembrandt. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m very curious about that album.”
For that, we’ll have to wait until October 19. So then Flater strikes again. There will be 1.2 million copies of the album printed immediately. These will undoubtedly be in addition to the 35 million albums already sold, published in 27 languages.
Guust Flater was created by Franquin in 1957 at the request of Yvan Delporte, who was looking for a character to illustrate the columns in the weekly comic strip Spirou. Franquin then worked out a character who presented a clumsy employee of the editorial staff, and who regularly made things go haywire. The character was given the name ‘Gaston’, named after Gaston Mostraet, a clumsy acquaintance of Delporte.
These illustrations eventually resulted in a comic strip series, ‘Gaston Lagaffe’. Or in Dutch: Guust Flater. Franquin published the albums until 1992, and died five years later.
**These also came back after the death of their illustrator**
Lucky Luke: Created in 1946 by the Belgian Maurice De Bevere, under the pseudonym ‘Morris’. De Bevere died in 2001. The Legend of the West, published posthumously in 2002, was his last album. Three years after Morris’ death, the cowboy was given a new life under Hervé Darmenton (‘Achdé’). In 2020, the last Lucky Luke album was published.
Asterix: The first 24 albums were written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. After Goscinny’s death, Uderzo continued on his own. After The Birthday of Asterix and Obelix: The Golden Book from 2009, Uderzo retired. The series was continued in 2013 by the duo Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, who shape the stories of Asterix and Obelix to this day.
Jommeke: The clever, adventurous boy with the straw roof on his head and a parrot on his shoulder, was conceived by Belgian Jef Nys in 1955. Nys wrote and drew the Jommekes for 54 years, until his death. Since 2010 the albums have been designed by ‘Studio Nys’, the people Nys gathered around him since the 1970s to assist him in making the albums. Among others, Nys’ granddaughter Sarina Ahmad is now part of that studio.
Suske en Wiske: The Belgian comic book series was conceived in 1945 by Willy Vandersteen, who initially edited and drew all the stories himself. Vandersteen’s wife took care of the inking of the drawings. But over the years he too gathered many people around him, who today gather in Studio Vandersteen and maintain the future of the series.
4 comments
While the new author is very talented, Franquin was always against any continuation or adaptation of his work on Gaston.
On top of it, Dupuis practicaly recognizes that they don’t care about the moral rights of the intellectual property (which are inalienable, we are not in USA)
https://twitter.com/J_Lachasse/status/1504412888315969548?s=20&t=YRRH63XPmSCtbz0VjV6B0A
Is the site experiencing technical difficulties, or can it not handle me refusing their cookies?
As the article seems to pop on/off here is the context.
Dupuis has announced a new album of Gaston Lagaffe (Guust Flater), which will be written and drawn by Delaf (very talented author, already known from Les Nombrils)
However, Franquin was always against any continuation or adaptation of his work on Gaston, and his daughter has opposed (like she already did for the terrible movie) against the publication.
He signed indeed a waiver to Dupuis about further exploitation of his work (patrimonial rights), but on the moral rights, he was publicly against it, as is her daughter
Nieuwsblad also covered it in this (paywalled article): [https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20220317_97297672](https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20220317_97297672)
Freed Via Deepl:
**Will the return of Guust turn out to be a flop? Daughter of creator does everything to stop first album in 30 years**
*Thirty years after the last album, a completely new Guust Flater comic strip is coming out. This was demonstrated at the Angoulême comic book festival. But what was hushed up at the festival was that Franquin’s daughter would do anything to stop the publication.*’
Flater strikes again!’ Under this title, a new Gaston Lagaffe – or Guust Flater – will hit store shelves in October. And that is more than 25 years after the death of the Brussels creator André Franquin. Daughter Isabelle Franquin still wants to do everything to stop the reanimation of her father’s comic strip, but she doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Focus Vif writes that Isabelle was only recently informed of the plans, and is not happy about it. According to her, her father always stated in interviews that no one should continue his Guust after his death. As the only child, she claims the moral rights to her father’s conceit.
But father Franquin sold the rights to his characters and to their publication to publishing house Dupuis. And they want to publish a new Flater album for their 100th anniversary. To do this, they hired the French-speaking Canadian Marc Delafontaine, who already convinced the publisher in 2016 with a cartoon as a tribute to Guust Flater.
A counsel for the publisher defends the plans in Le Vif, stating that “Franquin indicated in his interviews that he did not think dogmatically, and that his opinion evolved according to the context.” The publisher also brings in that they want to save Franquin’s comics from oblivion. But these arguments are not accepted by Isabelle Franquin, who says she will take all possible steps.
**Copying Rembrandt**
Merho, who is not only the author of De Kiekeboes but also a Franquin aficionado, has a “double feeling” about the witch hunt. “Franquin cannot be imitated. His drawings are of such a high level, it’s like trying to recreate a Rembrandt. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m very curious about that album.”
For that, we’ll have to wait until October 19. So then Flater strikes again. There will be 1.2 million copies of the album printed immediately. These will undoubtedly be in addition to the 35 million albums already sold, published in 27 languages.
Guust Flater was created by Franquin in 1957 at the request of Yvan Delporte, who was looking for a character to illustrate the columns in the weekly comic strip Spirou. Franquin then worked out a character who presented a clumsy employee of the editorial staff, and who regularly made things go haywire. The character was given the name ‘Gaston’, named after Gaston Mostraet, a clumsy acquaintance of Delporte.
These illustrations eventually resulted in a comic strip series, ‘Gaston Lagaffe’. Or in Dutch: Guust Flater. Franquin published the albums until 1992, and died five years later.
**These also came back after the death of their illustrator**
Lucky Luke: Created in 1946 by the Belgian Maurice De Bevere, under the pseudonym ‘Morris’. De Bevere died in 2001. The Legend of the West, published posthumously in 2002, was his last album. Three years after Morris’ death, the cowboy was given a new life under Hervé Darmenton (‘Achdé’). In 2020, the last Lucky Luke album was published.
Asterix: The first 24 albums were written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. After Goscinny’s death, Uderzo continued on his own. After The Birthday of Asterix and Obelix: The Golden Book from 2009, Uderzo retired. The series was continued in 2013 by the duo Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, who shape the stories of Asterix and Obelix to this day.
Jommeke: The clever, adventurous boy with the straw roof on his head and a parrot on his shoulder, was conceived by Belgian Jef Nys in 1955. Nys wrote and drew the Jommekes for 54 years, until his death. Since 2010 the albums have been designed by ‘Studio Nys’, the people Nys gathered around him since the 1970s to assist him in making the albums. Among others, Nys’ granddaughter Sarina Ahmad is now part of that studio.
Suske en Wiske: The Belgian comic book series was conceived in 1945 by Willy Vandersteen, who initially edited and drew all the stories himself. Vandersteen’s wife took care of the inking of the drawings. But over the years he too gathered many people around him, who today gather in Studio Vandersteen and maintain the future of the series.
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