Will, Franquin - Lot 35

Will, Franquin WILL & FRANQUIN LE MARSUPILAMI Dupuis Original double plate from the two-page in two pages "Grand zéro sur toute la ligne", published in Le Journal de Spirou no. 2139 April 12, 1979. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 46.6 cm (14.37 × 18.35 in.) This zany two-page story is by Yvan Delporte, who used to have fun imagining stories in the pages of the newspaper with the people who worked there. In this case, it's not fictional characters like Gaston, Fantasio and Spirou, but the authors themselves, Will and Franquin, on a documentation trip - paid for, of course, by the newspaper - to Palombia. It was Monsieur Boulier, Monsieur Dupuis' accountant, who made an alarmist report, in view of the sums spent on the trip and the scant results obtained, after examining the reports sent in by the investigators, which Boulier did not fail to quote, the better to underline their inconsistencies. The Marsupilami remains elusive... Except in these two plates where Franquin is involved in the drawing: he is in fact the designer of the oviparous marsupial we see in his pages. Our illustrators, having overdone the pulque, don't see it. All they see is this pinkish elephant emerging from the mangrove, which gives an indication of how the authors of the Isabelle series conceived their scripts... Although discreet, Franquin's incursions are expressive and brilliant. The creator of Gaston Lagaffe also sometimes intervened in the composition of the plates or in the development of certain secondary characters when he had the opportunity to glance over the shoulder of his old accomplice. Will, like most of the artist friends of the master, welcomed his suggestions with pride and delight.