Gaston Lagaffe fans will have to be patient.
The Belgian publisher of BD Dupuis has decided to postpone until next year at the earliest its plan to release a new album by the famous character.
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. The latter refuses that the character his father's star revives in the guise of another designer, while Dupuis editions have decided to entrust the keys to the characters to the Canadian designer Delaf, whose real name is Marc Delafontaine.
This “rebirth” in the guise of a new designer has taken place for several legendary characters such as Asterix, Lucky Luke or even more recently Corto Maltese, relaunched by Casterman editions in 2021. “His dad repeated continuously, during years, that he did not want Gaston Lagaffe to be taken over by another cartoonist after his death, ”said Martine Berwette, lawyer for Isabelle Franquin, 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.
"We don't want to go to war"
For their part, the Dupuis editions believe that they own the economic rights to the characters of Franquin, through the acquisition in 2013 of the company Marsu Productions with which the creator of Lagaffe had concluded a transfer agreement in 1992. Dupuis had created the event in the world of Franco-Belgian comics by announcing in mid-March at the Angoulême festival the release next October of a new album entitled "Le Retour de Lagaffe".
This 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 Ms. Franquin, he explained.
Me Berenboom recalled that, on the one hand, any pre-publication in Spirou's journal of a new Lagaffe adventure (note: a board from the future album) 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.
On the other hand, the album itself - which would be Gaston Lagaffe's 22nd opus - will not be released before 2023, which leaves time to settle the dispute on the merits, after private arbitration.
Justice will decide “at the end of September”
"We agree to postpone the pre-publication of Gaston's boards in Spirou and the Gaston album by Delaf until the beginning of 2023, that is to say after the referee has rendered his decision" , assured AFP the lawyer for Dupuis editions.
The arbitrator chosen by the two parties should 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 “by June 3 at the latest”.
Franquin's daughter's lawyer welcomed the fact 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 gag by Lagaffe 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”.