The announcement was made at the Angoulême International Comics Festival last March: after almost 30 years of absence, the mythical character of Gaston Lagaffe was to be back next October under the pen of the designer and Quebec screenwriter Delaf. The latter takes up the pencil of the creator of Gaston, André Franquin, who died in 1997.
Since then, the famous publishing house Dupuis, at the origin of the project, has been the target of criticism. On the part of certain authors, including Zep and Geluck, who circulated a petition asking that Franquin’s demands be respected, that is to say that Gaston Lagaffe not be taken back after his death. From Isabelle Franquin, the author’s daughter, who, for her part, took the case to court. This prompted the publisher, which does indeed own the rights to the character, to announce the postponement of the publication of the album, titled The return of Lagaffeuntil the case is settled.
In the case that concerns us, that of Gaston Lagaffe, we go further than the law and make it a moral question and a question of perception.
In fact, what Isabelle Franquin is trying to assert here is that her moral right, as her father’s heiress, surpasses the right of Dupuis, who, since 2013, has control of the publishing house Marsu Productions, to whom André Franquin had sold the rights to Gaston.
Hergé and Franquin, same fight?
The fundamental question is then the following: does the fact that Franquin said, in an interview, that he did not want the adventures of a character whose rights he sold to continue, give his estate the power to prevent Dupuis from publishing new Gaston albums? As Hergé had done, at the time, before his death, and had expressed the wish that no new adventure of his famous Tintin be published after his death. The difference lies in the fact that Hergé never ceded the rights to his character and that it is Moulinsart, a company run by Hergé’s widow and her husband, who is responsible for it.
Survive, or not, its creator
One thing is clear, this case brings forward the question of the survival of a character to the one who created it. The comic book mediator Michel Giguère, co-author of a book on the character of Paul, by Michel Rabagliati, finds the subject interesting: “The question also arises for cinema and for the novel. But in comics, especially those that are more commercial or more mainstream, it relies heavily on the principle of the series and the recurring character. In the case that concerns us, that of Gaston Lagaffe, we go further than the law and make it a moral question and a question of perception. There are readers who go so far as to sanctify a character or a series, to the point where they will find it a sacrilege to continue a series after the death of its creator. »
For author Jean-Paul Eid, whose latest album The little astronaut has been awarded many times over the past few months, it is a matter of judgment. “Obviously, if the author owns his rights and he clearly says that he does not want us to continue publishing albums featuring the characters he has created, it is clear that we do not can’t do it. On the other hand, if this is not the case, it can be done with respect. Either by taking the character almost as is, in the continuity of what had been started, or else a designer or a scriptwriter decides to take it over in his own way. Either way, it’s interesting to see where it can go. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that a series, if it is not maintained, dies a little at the same time as its author. Yes, we haven’t retouched Tintin, but it’s sad to have seen him become a museum character. »
When one of the original authors does worse
The comic book critic and former co-owner of a bookstore devoted to the genre Jean-Dominic Leduc adds a layer: “It has even happened that a series taken up after the death of its creator allows itself to go elsewhere and give us a different reading. We did it with the last revival of the character of Corto Maltese, which we literally changed eras, for example. And let’s not forget that one of Asterix’s worst albums, The sky is falling on his head, was written and drawn by Uderzo, one of the two creators of the series. Those who have taken over the character since have never managed to do worse! »
Moreover, as Michel Giguère points out in To have to “It’s a much more common phenomenon among Americans, especially among superheroes. If Superman or Batman had died at the same time as their original authors, we would have missed out on great series. »
But, between the sacralization in the extreme and the mass production intended for an audience that only consumes the big brands of the genre, there is still a whole creative spectrum that deserves to be published and to be read. Can we trust readers a little to decide what they want to read? Because, anyway, a character without readers is, somewhere, also a bit dead.