Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio

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Spirou et Fantasio #1
Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio

Cover of the Belgian edition

Publisher	Dupuis
Date	1950
Series	Spirou et Fantasio

Creative team
Writer(s)	Franquin
Artist(s)	Franquin

Original publication
Published in	Le Journal de Spirou
Issue(s)	#522 - #616
Date(s) of publication	1948 - 1950
Language	French
ISBN	ISBN 2-8001-0003-6

Chronology
Followed by	Il y a un sorcier à Champignac, 1951

Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio, written and drawn by Franquin, is a collection of four stories from serial publication between 1948-50 in Le Journal de Spirou, to be released as the first Spirou et Fantasio hardcover album in 1950.

[edit] Stories

The featured stories were:

Spirou et les plans du robot (from Spirou #522 to #540)

In The Robot Drawings, Spirou and Fantasio have a hunch they need to protect the world from criminals getting their hands on mad Professor Samovar's blueprints for a robot with doomsday potential. This is the sequel to Radar le robot (1947).

Spirou sur le ring (from Spirou # 541 to #566)

In Spirou in the Ring, a neighbour bully challenges Spirou to a boxing match, who nobly accepts and asks Fantasio to coach him. An entire Brussels working class community turns out for the big event, and an epic boxing match of cheating and courage is played out. Spirou's weight is also revealed to be 40.8 kg.

Spirou fait du cheval (from Spirou #567 to #574)

In Spirou Rides a Horse, Fantasio attempts to mix it up with the upper class by playing the equestrian dandy gentleman, and Spirou reluctantly joins him horseback riding. Fantasio is given a very noble steed, while Spirou's horse is ridiculously unhorselike.

Spirou chez les Pygmées (from Spirou #589 to #616)

In Spirou meets the Pygmies, a leopard escaped from the zoo assaults Spirou and Spip during a forest picnic trip, but they manage to become friendly. Not able to keep it in his apartment, Spirou and Fantasio bring it home to an African island, leading to adventures of pygmy tribes and arms dealing villains.

[edit] Background

Franquin's drawing style of this period, while it closly resembles the style of Jijé whose characters he had suddenly inherited, shows the first steps in developing his personal interpretation the characters and maturing storytelling skills, as illustrated by contrasting the very early first two stories with the two latter.

Another apparent influence is that of Franquin's boarding mate at the time, Morris whose Lucky Luke character Jolly Jumper's insane cousin stars in Spirou fait du cheval. Morris is also lampooned in Spirou sur le ring as Spirou's main little do-good friend.