FRANQUIN - Lot 98

FRANQUIN ANDRÉ FRANQUIN ◊ GASTON Un Gaffeur sachant gaffer (T.7), Dupuis 1969 Original plate, gag no. 481, prepublished in Le Journal de Spirou no. 1540, October 19, 1967. India ink on paper 36.3 × 45.4 cm (14.29 × 17.87 in.) Léon Prunelle's career was no accident. After arriving at the Journal de Spirou as a simple editor, he bided his time until he was finally promoted to chief. But is being Gaston's superior really a promotion? When Léon Prunelle took up his position in the editorial department on the morning of July 19, 1962, he had every reason to be pleased. He looked like a local schoolteacher: beard on a collar, glasses, pipe in the mouth and, a detail that's not misleading, a brown-beige corduroy jacket. Ambitious, he wasted no time in trying to "fish out contracts" from Mr. De Mesmaeker. "All that was needed to settle this affair was someone calmer than Fantasio..." he thought at the time. Despite his debonair background and Léon Prunelle's inherent patience (as an astute pedagogue, he recognized that the unemployed hero was, after all, no more than a child), he eventually wears down and becomes nothing more than a ball of nerves. It has to be said that, on this page, Gaston gives him the whole package: the bowling ball, the Little Chemist and the Gaffophone. And therein lies Prunelle's tragedy. Fantasio's departure opened up a royal road to responsibility. But, unlike Fantasio, he had to prove himself. The contract became his obsession and the blunder his misfortune. Like Charon, the oarsman of the underworld, he had taken command of the boat and could never give it back!