The return of Gaston Lagaffe? The publisher Dupuis can revive the comic book hero, but on condition of consulting the daughter of the cartoonist Franquin, authorized to raise objections on such a project, decided Tuesday a private arbitration requested by both parties in this legal dispute.
"The principle of a resurrection of Gaston is lawful but Dupuis and Dargaud-Lombard did not respect the contractual process of approval and Isabelle Franquin still has the right to assert her observations," said Tuesday evening the lawyers of Isabelle Franquin in announcing the decision.
In March 2022, at the Angoulême festival (France), Dupuis created the event in the world of Franco-Belgian comics by announcing the upcoming release of a new episode of the adventures of Lagaffe, a new album entitled "Le Retour de Lagaffe", under the pencil of Canadian cartoonist Marc Delafontaine (aka Delaf).
An "inalienable moral right"
But this was without counting the pugnacity of Isabelle Franquin, daughter and sole beneficiary of the cartoonist André Franquin who died in 1997. Refusing to allow her father's star character to be revived as another cartoonist, she took legal action in Belgium. It first obtained, in the context of an interlocutory action a year ago, the suspension of the publication of the "Return", initially scheduled for October 2022.
In fact, Dupuis has undertaken not to publish a new album before 2023 at the earliest, until the dispute is settled on the merits by private arbitration, in this case a Brussels lawyer chosen by both parties.
Éditions Dupuis believes that it owns the economic rights to Franquin's characters, via the acquisition in 2013 of the company Marsu Productions with which the creator of Lagaffe had concluded a transfer agreement in 1992. For her part, Isabelle Franquin argued that her father himself "did not want Gaston Lagaffe to be taken over by another cartoonist after his death". It is "an inalienable moral right" that she can exercise, had insisted in May 2022 her lawyer Martine Berwette.
Isabelle Franquin will have to be consulted
Ultimately, the arbitration, a procedure that is not subject to appeal, concludes that Lagaffe can be reborn "provided it seeks the prior approval of Isabelle Franquin according to the forms provided for in a contract concluded between the parties in 2016".
"The project of Gaston by Delaf was not approved by Isabelle Franquin" and "the moral right" exercised by the latter "comes out intact", it is stipulated. "His agreement is essential for any new creation, including on the choice of the author," insists the arbitrator according to the statement, which specifies that "any refusal on his part must be justified by ethical or artistic reasons".