Editing André Franquin (section)

===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.