9 - Franquin

Franquin ANDRÉ FRANQUIN GASTON Dupuis Gaston and His Car, original illustration created in 1975. Signed. Watercolor and India ink on paper 19.8 × 26.2 cm (7.8 × 10.31 in.) What a magnificent drawing by André Franquin! And what a perfect encapsulation of the world of Gaston Lagaffe, his beloved hero, who will celebrate his 70th birthday next February! Here he is behind the wheel of his legendary 1925 Fiat 509, that unbelievable clunker that drives Officer Longtarin to despair, even pushing him to the brink of depression. By his side, of course, are his two inseparable sidekicks, who’ve taken up residence with him in the offices of Dupuis Publishing: the crazy cat and the irrepressible black-headed gull. But don’t for a moment think that Franquin just draws anything! A car enthusiast, he knows his engines and draws pistons with the precision of a watchmaker. He applies the same rigor to animals: his seagull is indeed a seagull, not a gull! And, in Franquin’s work, this documentary accuracy never gets in the way of the joke—quite the opposite: it fuels it. Just look at where the bird has chosen to perch: atop the grille, on the radiator cap, like an irresistible parody of the Spirit of Ecstasy, the famous “angel” that adorns Rolls-Royces! Nothing escapes Franquin’s imagination, not even his own name. Starting with gag 658, in December 1970, he transformed his signature into a little graphic theater: it comes to life, grimaces, explodes, contorts, and becomes an extra gag in its own right. This drawing is a wonderful testament to Franquin’s graphic generosity. Everything in it is alive, everything moves, everything tells a story—down to the smallest detail. And behind the lines, we can sense the author reveling in his own invention: we can almost hear him laughing as he draws—he who is undoubtedly the most virtuosic cartoonist of his generation. Didier Pasamonik