Will Franquin's tender blunderer rise from the ashes?
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 designer André Franquin.
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.
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Isabelle Franquin refuses that the star character of her father revives under the features of another draftsman, project of the Dupuis editions which entrusted the pencil to the Canadian Delaf (Marc Delafontaine of his real name).
Yet legendary comic book heroes like Asterix, Lucky Luke or even more recently Corto Maltese, relaunched by Casterman editions in 2021, experienced a rebirth after the death of their creator.
"
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, again according to the counsel of the complainant.
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The recovery of great characters is a bad treatment that we inflict on comics
"
On the other hand, Dupuis editions believe that they own the economic rights to Franquin's characters, through 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 had announced in mid-March at the Angoulême festival the release in October of a new album entitled
Le Retour de Lagaffe
.
Monday, May 16, 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 Isabelle Franquin, he explained.
On the one hand, recalled Me Berenboom, any pre-publication in the
Journal de Spirou
of a new adventure by Lagaffe, board of the future album, is suspended.
This amounts, according to him, 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.
A final decision will be made by private arbitration
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.
"
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 Me 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 Me 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 - is presented as an original work
", denounced in particular the letter from the creator of
Chat
.
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