I have since learned that overseas people don't really know that much about European comic strips. Exceptions are Asterix, Lucky Luke, The Marsupilami and of course The Smurfs but what many people don't know is that save from "Asterix" all of these series originated from the same weekly comic magazine called "Spirou" which is one of the longest running comic magazines, it first came out in 1938 and is still going strong. Lucky Luke, The Marsupilami, Johan and Peewit and the Smurfs all made their first appearences in "Spirou" magazine well before Hanna-Barbera and Disney bought the rights for the use of those characters in cartoon series.
One of those characters who's comics were never published in English came from the cartoonist who gave us the Marsupilami: Andre Franquin. Franquin was already considered to be one of the grandmasters of cartooning back in 1957 when he drew the title series of "Spirou" magazine. That same year, Franquin decided to start a little series as a side project. His reasoning was that everybody in the magazine had a job: Lucky Luke was a Cowboy, Johan and Peewit were knights and even in the village of the smurfs everybody had a profession. What the magazine needed was a guy who didn't do anything, a teenager who just slacked off, pulled pranks, tried to invent something useless, or tried to be musical, kept pets in the office, in short: somebody who just caused mayhem. Luckily the Chief editor liked the idea and the beatnik teenager made his appearance shortly afterward. The Chief editor named the character after the teenage son of a friend of his named Gaston Lagasse and to emphasize the bumbling blundering nature of the teenage cartoon character it was changed into Lagaffe which was a word play on "Gaffe" which is a French word for "Blunder" The name Gaston Lagaffe can be translated into George Blunder which is the name I'm gonna use in my translated comics.
George Blunder in 1958
George Blunder in 1973
The comics of George Blunder were a slamming success and were also one of the longest running comic series from "Spirou" magazine spanning from 1957 until 1996 when Franquin died. They made Franquin one of the most prolific of all comic artists in Europe and it's a real shame that his legend isn't that well known overseas because of his comics never being published in English. So as to make my own contribution into spreading the word about him I started to translate comics and to put them online.
the Series of George Blunder apart from George himself also has other characters they are:
Janine (Jeanne) George's redheaded bespectacled girlfriend.
Peter Fantasio (Papy Fantasio) George's senior at the office, twice his age and an incredible neat freak, Peter and George frequently clash with each other.
Leo Prune (Leon Prunelle, the one with the glasses) and Jeeves Breaker (Yves LeBrac) two of George's colleagues, Jeeves being a cartoonist and Leo the assistant editor. After Franquin lost the rights to use Fantasio in the series Leo Prune took over the role of being George's senior. Jeeves is also the only character aside from George who's in a relationship and his girlfriend also appears in the series although she's never been given a name.
Giles (Jules) George's best friend and partner in blundering. Giles, like George is a teenager working with a publishing company and also like George he's not really putting in much effort. Preferring to slack off and fool around.
Bert Bumbler (Bertrand Labévue, seen here with his little sister) George's cousin and second best friend. Bert is the quiet one in the group, lacking the teenage enthusiasm of George and Giles but he makes that up in Teenage Angst and depression, making the comic a little more serious.
Officer Longnose (Officer Longtarin) the local traffic cop, George's car is a real pain in Longnose's back not to mention his relationship with its owner...
And finally
Mister Knives (Mr. De Mesmaeker) a contractor for the publishing company. He's the one who provides the company with fundings unfortunately, all the attempts of closing a contractual deal with the company are unintentionally thwarted by George's antics.
And with everybody introduced it's time for my first submissions of translated George Blunder comic strips. First up, here's one from the first year of publishing: 1957. George's interest in Rock N Roll music has resulted in him trying to build his own electric guitar...
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/Guust3.jpgAgain from the first year, George makes another attempt to become a Rock N Roll musician.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/Guust4.jpgThe guy in Red standing next to Fantasio is the title character of Spirou magazine: Spirou himself.
This one is from the late sixties and George plays a prank on Leo and Jeeves.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/Guust5.jpgAnd to close it off here again is one from the late sixties and with Giles sick in bed George decides to be a good friend...
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guitarman91/Guust2.jpgI'll add more later, enjoy reading.
