Introduction   On Racism   Epigraphs   A History of the Pulps   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   

Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Spirou. Spirou was created by the Belgian creators Jean Dupuis and Robvel and appeared in Le Journal De Spirou (1938-present).

Spirou is an adventurous young teenager who begins as a hotel groom but who is quickly dragged into a series of adventures around the world. He is assisted by Spip the Squirrel and by the eccentric inventor Comte de Champignac. He is accompanied by his best friend, the reporter Fantasio. Some of his enemies include the Mad Scientist Zorglub and the dictator Zantafio. Spirou travels to European operetta kingdoms, to China (in “The Prisoner of the Buddha”), and to the fictional South American nation of Palombia.

* I'm including the Spirou comic strips in the Best of the Encyclopedia list because they are well-written. It's overly simplistic--but not too much so--to describe the adventures of Spirou as the best imitation of Tintin (II) available. There are a number of similarities between the two characters and the comics they appeared in, and both share the very appealing ligne claire style. In fact, apart from Spirou being an actual news reporter (as opposed to the more general world adventurer Tintin (II)), there's not much at all to differentiate them--which is a high compliment to the Spirou comics, and good news to the reader, since the existence of Spirou and its ongoing status means there will always be new Tintin (II)-style comics to read. 

Table of Contents / Annotations / Blog / Books / Patreon / Twitter / Contact me