(Brussels) Will Lagaffe be reborn? Under the influence of a lawsuit, the Belgian publisher of BD Dupuis has decided to postpone until next year at the earliest its project to release a new album by Gaston Lagaffe, opposed by the daughter of the cartoonist Franquin.
Posted at 9:33 a.m.
The announcement of the “suspension” of this publication was made on Monday during a hearing before the Brussels court, seized by Isabelle Franquin, the daughter of the Belgian designer who died in 1997.
Mme Franquin refuses that the star character of his father revives under the features of another draftsman, project of the Dupuis editions which entrusted the pencil to the Quebecois Delaf (Marc Delafontaine of his real name).
Legendary characters such as Asterix, Lucky Luke or even more recently Corto Maltese, relaunched by Casterman editions in 2021, experienced a rebirth after the death of their creator.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Isabelle Franquin, the daughter of the Belgian cartoonist Franquin, refuses that the star character of her father revives under the features of another cartoonist, project of the Dupuis editions which entrusted the pencil to the Quebecer Delaf, Marc Delafontaine of his real name (our photo ).
“His dad repeated continuously, for years, that he did not want Gaston Lagaffe to be taken over by another cartoonist after his death,” said Martine Berwette, Isabelle Franquin’s lawyer, in court.
It is “an inalienable moral right” that is empowered to exercise the one who is the sole beneficiary of André Franquin, according to the lawyer.
Conversely, the Dupuis editions believe that they own the economic rights to the characters of Franquin, via the acquisition in 2013 of the company Marsu Productions with which the creator of Lagaffe had concluded a transfer agreement in 1992.
Creating the 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 entitled The return of Lagaffe.
On Monday, his lawyer Alain Berenboom however announced that the publisher agreed to postpone his project: “we do not want to go to war, we want a serene debate” with Mme Franquin, he explained.
On the one hand, recalled Mand Berenboom, any preprint in the newspaper Spirou of a new adventure by Lagaffe (a board from the future album, editor’s note) is suspended.
According to him, this amounts to emptying of its substance the action in summary proceedings brought at the end of March by the complainant before the French-speaking court of first instance in Brussels.
“Concern of appeasement”
On the other hand, the album itself — which would be the 22and opus by Gaston Lagaffe – will not be released before 2023, which leaves time to settle the dispute on the merits, after private arbitration.
“We agree to postpone the pre-publication of Gaston’s plates in Spirou and the album Gaston by Delaf until the beginning of the year 2023, that is to say after the arbitrator has rendered his decision”, assured AFP Mand Berenboom.
The arbitrator chosen by the two parties is expected to render his decision “at the end of September”, within a month after closed-door pleadings scheduled for the end of August. This judgment will not be subject to appeal, according to the lawyers of the two camps.
Pending this procedure, the single judge ruling in summary proceedings in Brussels announced Monday after short pleadings that she would issue an order “no later than June 3” activating the suspension of Dupuis’ projects.
“We must record this commitment to respect what we are asking exactly, the judge will do it”, commented Mand Berwette after the hearing.
The lawyer was pleased that Dupuis had to “bow” in this emergency procedure which consisted in prohibiting “any promotion and pre-publication” of new adventures by Lagaffe.
In its issue dated April 6, the weekly Spirou had published a first Lagaffe gag drawn by Delaf, which Isabelle Franquin’s lawyers had deplored.
The Dupuis editions had then announced to suspend the continuation of the prepublications “for the sake of appeasement”.
Franquin’s daughter received the support of several authors, including Philippe Geluck, in an open letter accusing Dupuis’ project of “trampling on the will” of the creator of Lagaffe.
” By doing so […] you are proposing to return to a time when the will of the creator was subject to the goodwill of the commercial rights holders and where an ersatz – or derivative product – presents itself as an original work”, denounces this text.