Editing André Franquin (section)

==Biography==

===Franquin's beginnings===
[[File:Maison familiale Franquin.JPG|thumb|right|upright=0.80|Franquin's family home in [[Ixelles]]]]

Franquin was born in [[Etterbeek]] in 1924.<ref name=Weyer>De Weyer, Geert (2005). "André Franquin". In België gestript, pp. 113-115. Tielt: Lannoo.</ref> Although he started drawing at an early age, Franquin got his first actual drawing lessons at ''[[École Saint-Luc]]'' in 1943. A year later, however, the school was forced to close down because of the [[World War II|war]] and Franquin was then hired by Compagnie belge d'actualités (CBA), a short-lived animation studio in [[Brussels]]. It is there he met some of his future colleagues: Maurice de Bevere ([[Morris (comics)|Morris]], creator of ''[[Lucky Luke]]''), Pierre Culliford ([[Peyo]], creator of the ''[[Smurfs]]''), and [[Eddy Paape]]. Three of them (minus Peyo) were hired by [[Dupuis]] in 1945, following CBA's demise. Peyo, still too young, would only follow them seven years later. Franquin started drawing covers and cartoons for ''Le Moustique'', a weekly magazine about radio and culture.<ref name =Weyer/> He also worked for ''Plein Jeu'', a monthly scouting magazine.

During this time, Morris and Franquin were coached by Joseph Gillain ([[Jijé]]), who had transformed a section of his house into a workspace for the two young comics artists and [[Will (comics)|Will]]. Jijé was then producing many of the comics that were published in the [[Franco-Belgian comics]] magazine ''[[Spirou (magazine)|Spirou]]'', including its flagship series ''[[Spirou et Fantasio]]''. The team he had assembled at the end of the war is often referred to as ''La bande des quatre'' (lit. "The Gang of Four"), and the graphical style they would develop together was later called the [[Marcinelle school]], [[Marcinelle]] being an outskirt of the industrial city of Charleroi south of [[Brussels]] where Spirou's publisher Dupuis was then situated.

[[File:Spirou-ensemble1.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.80|Some of the main characters of ''Spirou & Fantasio'', are from Franquin's album ''[[Le gorille a bonne mine]]'' (1959). From left to right: the Marsupilami, Spirou, Fantasio, and the squirrel Spip.]]

Jijé passed the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' strip to Franquin, five pages into the making of ''[[Spirou et Fantasio (comic book)#Stories|Spirou et la maison préfabriquée]]'', and from ''Spirou'' issue #427 released 20 June 1946, the young Franquin held creative responsibility of the series.<ref name="Franquin-Une vie-1946" /> For the next twenty years, Franquin largely reinvented the strip, creating longer, more elaborate storylines and a large gallery of burlesque characters.

Most notable among these is the [[Marsupilami]], a fictional monkey-like creature. The inspiration for the Marsupilami's extremely long, [[prehensile]] tail came from imagining an appendage for the busy [[tram]]way conductors Franquin and his colleagues often encountered on their way to work. This animal has become part of Belgian and French [[popular culture]] and has spawned cartoons, merchandise, and since 1989 a comic book series of its own. The cartoons have broadened their appeal to English-speaking countries.

===Mid period===
By 1951, Franquin had found his style. His strip, that appeared every week on the first page of ''[[Spirou (magazine)|Spirou]]'', was a hit. Following Jijé's lead in the 1940s, Franquin coached a younger generation of comics artists in the 1950s, notably [[Jean Roba]] and [[Jean De Mesmaeker|Jidéhem]], who both worked with him on ''[[Spirou et Fantasio]]''.

In 1955, following a contractual dispute with his publisher Dupuis, Franquin went for a short stint at rival ''[[Tintin (magazine)|Tintin]]'' magazine. This led to the creation of ''[[Modeste et Pompon]]'', a gag series which included contributions from [[René Goscinny]] (of ''[[Astérix]]'' fame) and Peyo. Franquin later returned to ''Spirou'', but his contractual commitment to ''Tintin'' meant that he had to contribute to both magazines, an unusual arrangement in the comic industry. The series was later passed on to authors such as [[Dino Attanasio]] and [[Mittéï]] (Jean Mariette).

[[Image:Belgique - Louvain-la-Neuve - Rue des Wallons - 10.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.80|Mural painting representing Gaston in the rue des Wallons in [[Louvain-la-Neuve]] (Belgium)]]

[[File:Fiat 509 06011701.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.80|Replica of [[Gaston (comics)|Gaston]]'s car]]

In 1957, ''Spirou'' chief editor [[Yvan Delporte]] gave [[Franquin]] the idea for a new figure, [[Gaston Lagaffe]] (from the French ''la gaffe'', meaning "the blunder"). Initially, a joke designed to fill up blank space in the magazine, the weekly strip, detailing the mishaps and madcap ideas and inventions of a terminally idle office boy working at the ''Spirou'' offices, took off and became one of Franquin's best-known creations.

However, Franquin soon suffered a period of [[clinical depression|depression]], which forced him to stop drawing Spirou for a time. This happened between 1961 and 1963, in the middle of ''[[QRN sur Bretzelburg]]''. During this time, he continued to draw ''Gaston'' despite his ill health, most likely because of the lighter nature of the series. (In one story, ''[[Panade à Champignac|Bravo Les Brothers]]'', Gaston's antics drive his boss [[Fantasio]] to yet another nervous breakdown. In desperation he takes some [[anti-depressant]]s which "Franquin left behind".)

In 1967, Franquin passed ''Spirou et Fantasio'' on to a younger artist, [[Jean-Claude Fournier]], and began to work full-time on his own creations.

''Gaston'' gradually evolved from pure [[slapstick]] humor to feature themes important to Franquin, such as [[pacifism]] and [[environmentalism]]. Franquin also used its characters in paid ad strips he drew and worked with the strip on and off until his death.

===Franquin's later period===
The 1960s saw a clear evolution in Franquin's style, which grew more loose and intricate. This graphical evolution would continue throughout the next decade. Soon, Franquin was considered an undisputed master of the art form, on par with the likes of [[Hergé]] and his influence can be seen in the work of nearly every cartoonist hired by ''Spirou'' up until the end of the 1990s. Early comic [[fanzine]]s from around 1970 featured Franquin's ''Monsters'', individual drawings of imaginary beasts highlighting his graphical craftmanship.

[[File:Idées_noires.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.70|''Idées noires'', 1977 by Franquin]]

The last, and most radical, shift in Franquin's production happened in 1977, when he went through another nervous breakdown and began his ''[[Idées noires|Idées Noires]]'' strip (lit. ''"Dark Thoughts"''), first for the ''Spirou'' supplement, ''Le Trombone Illustré'' (with other cartoonists like [[René Follet]]) and later for ''[[Fluide Glacial]]''.<ref name=Weyer/> With ''Idées Noires'', Franquin showed the darker, pessimistic side of his nature. In one strip, a pair of flies are seen wandering through a strange landscape, discussing the mistakes of their predecessors. In the final panel, we see the landscape is a city made from human skulls, and one fly responds: "Don't be too hard on them, they did leave us such splendid cities". Drawn entirely in black and white, ''Idées Noires'' is much more adult-oriented than Franquin's other works, focusing on themes such as death, war, pollution, and [[capital punishment]] with a devastatingly sarcastic sense of humour. Franquin also shows clear opposition against [[game hunting]], the [[death penalty]], [[nuclear power]] and [[nuclear war]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/f/franquin_andre.htm|title=André Franquin|website=lambiek.net}}</ref>

From 1978 to 1986, he was part of the team that developed the concept of ''[[Isabelle (comics)|Isabelle]]'', the adventures of a little girl in a world of witches and monsters. The character was named after Franquin's daughter.

Proof of his popular and critical appeal, Franquin was awarded the very first [[Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême]] in 1974. Many books by Franquin have been published, many of which are considered classics of the genre. They have been translated into many languages. Several books have been written about [[Franquin]], such as [[Numa Sadoul]]'s ''Et Franquin créa la gaffe'', an exhaustive interview with the artist covering his entire career.

Franquin died in 1997 in [[Saint-Laurent-du-Var]] at the age of 73 from a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]]. He was previously married to Liliane Servais. In 2004 took place the first major museum retrospective of his work, an exhibit called "Le monde de Franquin"', in Paris' [[Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie]].  This exhibition was continued in 2006 in the city where he was born, [[Brussels]], the latter was fully bilingual (French/Dutch). In 2005, a [[Wallonia|Walloon]] survey elected him as the "18th greatest Belgian ever".