Will Lagaffe be born again? Under the influence of a lawsuit, Belgian publisher BD Dupuis decided to postpone until next year its project to release a new album by Gaston Lagaffe, which was opposed by the cartoonist’s son Franquin. Note that Quebec cartoonist Delaf is supposed to pick up the torch from the drawing board.
The announcement of the suspension of this publication was made on Monday at a hearing before a Brussels court, taken by Isabelle Franquin, the daughter of the Belgian designer who died in 1997.
Ms. refused. Franquin returned his father’s protagonist character in the form of another designer or another designer, while Dupuis editions entrusted the pencil to Marc Delafontaine, alias Delaf.
Legendary characters such as Asterix, Lucky Luke or more recently Corto Maltese, re -launched by Casterman editions in 2021, have experienced a rebirth after the death of their creator.
Respect the wishes of André Franquin
His father repeatedly repeated, over the years, that he did not want to take Gaston Lagaffe by another cartoonist after his death.said Martine Berwette, Isabelle Franquin’s lawyer, in court.
This is’an inalienable moral right authorized to use André Franquin’s sole beneficiary, according to the lawyer.
On the contrary, the Dupuis editions believe they own the economic rights to Franquin’s characters, by acquiring in 2013 the company Marsu Productions where the creator of Lagaffe concluded a transfer agreement in 1992.
We want a calm debatesaid Dupuis
Creating an event in the world of Franco-Belgian comics, Dupuis announced in mid-March at the Angoulême festival the release next October of a new album titled The Return of Lagaffe.
On Monday, his lawyer Alain Berenboom however announced that the publisher had agreed to postpone his project: We don’t want to go to war, we want a peaceful debate with Ms. Franquin, he explained. Any preprint to Spirou’s Diary a new adventure in Lagaffe was also suspended.
Franquin’s daughter received the support of several authors, including Philippe Geluck, in an open letter accusing Dupuis ’project of give up the will from the creator of Lagaffe.
In doing so […] you are proposing to go back to a time where the will of the creator was subject to the goodwill of the commercial rights holders and where an ersatz – or derivative product – presented itself as an original workattacked this text.
Source: Radio-Canada
