S is for Spirou

"Spirou and Fantasio" is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. It's a Franco-Belgian adventure comic. Only a few albums have been translated to English, usually in India (of all places). When I grew up during the 1970's and 1980's, the series was popular in Sweden, since many of the albums were available in Swedish.

As a kid, I preferred "Spirou and Fantasio" to "Tintin", considering the former to be more exciting. Today, I would probably prefer "Tintin", although I must admit that I'm no longer very interested in comics! "Tintin" always struck me as more realistic, while "Spirou and Fantasio" is obviously fictional. "Spirou" is somewhat chaotic, probably because the comic was written and illustrated by more than one person. There are also annoying crossovers with other comics. As a child, however, I liked the more fantasy-prone atmosphere of "Spirou".

The main characters of "Spirou and Fantasio" are the two reporters Spirou and Fantasio, who frequently visit the absurd small town of Champignac. According to Wikipedia, this fictional town is situated in Wallonia, while I always assumed it was in Brittany. (Maybe two different writers placed it in two different regions?) The goofy and paranoid Mayor of Champignac is a recurring character in the comic, as is the genial inventor, the Count of Champignac. Spirou has the most uncool pet animal of any comic hero I'm familiar with: a squirrel the size of a dog! Later, Spirou and Fantasio adopt a fantasy animal known as the Marsupilami, a kind of monkey with near-supernatural fighting abilities. The Marsupilami frequently saves the two reporters from the clutches of various villains, the most notorious being Fantasio's cousin Zantafio and the mad scientist Zorglub, an old competitor of the Count of Champignac. Occasionally, Spirou and Fantasio visit the fictitious Latin American nation of Palombia, a favourite hang-out for said Zantafio and Zorglub.

Despite my liking for "Spirou" as a child, I never liked Zorglub. Most comic book characters are either good or bad, but Zorglub is both and neither. You never know what to make of him. Somehow, I didn't like his unpredictability. His goals are also incomprehensible. In "Z is for Zorglub" he tries to take over the world with the aid of a sinister ray weapon which can brainwash people and turn them into mindless robots. However, it later turns out that his main goal is simply to write "Coca Cola" on the Moon! Unfortunately, his brainwashed astronauts write the advertising slogan backwards, thus making Zorglub the laughing stock of the entire world. The mad scientist suffers a nervous break down and quite simply absconds. (It's not clear what the Coca Cola Company thought about this episode.)

If you are interested in comics, you might as well try out "Z is for Zorglub", or other albums available in English. Personally, however, I feel I have somehow outgrown Spirou, Fantasio and their absurd friends and foes.

And I'm sure that town was in Brittany...

;-)