The 22nd volume of the adventures of Gaston Lagaffe, with a new designer, will be published on November 22, after a dispute which almost prevented the album from seeing the light of day, Dupuis editions announced on Tuesday. Included in a publication program from the Belgian publisher sent to the press, Le Retour de Lagaffe (48 pages, 12.50 euros in France) is signed by the Canadian cartoonist Delaf (Marc Delafontaine in the civil status). The latter had taken over the series with the intention of respecting very scrupulously the spirit of the creator of the character, the Belgian André Franquin (1924-1997).
However, Franquin’s daughter and beneficiary, Isabelle, had asked to stop the project as soon as she was informed of it in early 2022. Her father, she insisted, had “always expressed during his lifetime, continuously and repeatedly , his will that Gaston not survive him under the pencil of another draftsman”. To settle the dispute, the Dupuis editions and Ms. Franquin had opted for private arbitration, in this case that of a lawyer from Brussels.
He had concluded in May 2023 that Gaston Lagaffe could be reborn “provided that he sought the prior approval of Isabelle Franquin”. From the point of view of the beneficiary, “any refusal […] must be justified by ethical or artistic reasons”, specified the arbitrator.
Gaston Lagaffe, a legendary lazy and clumsy office worker, is an antihero created in 1957 who personalizes the resistance to injunctions to productivity and conformity. Delaf claimed a particular method of portraying the character: he carefully cataloged all of her attitudes and characteristics, as well as her entire environment, before immersing her in more modern situations. His drawing perfectly copies that of Franquin.
This choice left some of the critics skeptical. “The designer, a good student, built up a database of 10,000 files from the original work. Can too much respect give a good tribute? Gaston Lagaffe probably deserves a little more madness, ”wrote Les Inrockuptibles magazine in June.
