July 14, 2004
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La Park (aka La Parka)
by Eddie & LiliSome La Parka links: La Parka bio; Church of La Parka; La Parka gallery
Spirou
the original Spirou by Andre FranquinVia The Cartoonist – a very old Spirou comic in Swedish. Like Tin Tin, Spirou was a famous icon of Belgian comics. There were many different versions of Spirou by different artists; Eddie has a Spirou comic book by Chaland.
Eddie: Spirou was one of those classic comic characters that never really made it big outside of Belgium – although Disney took some elements for their Marsupilami series. Hmmm…maybe sometimes it’s good that some things are left undiscovered by Hollywood. Apparently Speilberg has the rights to a film version of Tin Tin…when I wake up screaming some nights, this is why.
Back to Spirou…I’m a HUGE aficionado of Belgian comics. Spirou is just one series in a long line of great Belgian bande dessinees, that includes ‘Blondin & Cirage’, and the ‘Bob Fish/Freddy Lombard series by the awesomely gifted Yves Chaland. Tin Tin may be Belgian’s most known character, but believe me – there are hundreds of other great characters in the comic shops of Brussels.
Related link: The Comic Strip Museum in Brussels (we were there a couple of years ago. Awesome.)
Comments (6)
That Parka drawing is phenomenal!!!!
jorge
Ha! Gracias hermano!
Arriba Bofo, Cabrita and Danny Boy! See you for the quarter finals! – Eddie
I saw a lot of Spirou in the comic shops in Germany, but never bought any…I was too enamored of all the Ranxerox and obscure Moebius titles on the shelves.And those Blondin and Cirage books would *never* fly here in the States given the outdated racial stereotypes.
La Park is cool.
Blondin and Cirage – like ‘Tintin In The Congo’ – was from another time, another place, another attitude. At their time of print, they were no different from how people of different nationalites were being portrayed in Looney Tunes. – Eddie
Eddie – Sorry if my comment was unclear. I know that they were produced many years ago, and I don’t have any problem viewing them as an artifact from a time with very different social mores than ours. What I was getting at was that it’d be unlikely that comic shops here in the US would carry the reprints nowadays because of how politically incorrect they are.Some Tin Tin titles that can be readily purchased in other countries are completely unavailable here for that reason.