Spirou et les héritiers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Creative team
Spirou et Fantasio #4 Spirou et les héritiers
Cover of the Belgian edition
Publisher	Dupuis
Date	1952
Series	Spirou et Fantasio
Writer(s)	Franquin
Artist(s)	Franquin
Original publication
Published in	Le Journal de Spirou
Issue(s)	#693 - #726
Date(s) of publication	1951 - 1952
Language	French
ISBN	ISBN 2-8001-0006-0
Chronology
Preceded by	Les chapeaux noirs, 1952
Followed by	Les voleurs du Marsupilami, 1954

Spirou et les héritiers, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fourth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and a great leap in the expansion of the Spirou universe. After serial publication in Spirou, it was released as a complete hardcover album in 1952.

1 Story
2 Background
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Story

In Spirou and the Heirs, Fantasio is told he must compete against his cousin Zantafio to inherit from a long-absent uncle. The deceased has devised three trials for the two men: creating an original and useful invention, achieving a top 6 Grand Prix race position, and finally capturing a mysterious animal, the Marsupilami in the Palombian jungle. The dishonest Zantafio uses extreme tactics to win, and the two cousins are tied after the second task.

The third task proves the hardest, as the creature's prodigious reflexes and abilities make it impossible to capture, until it accidentally drinks a gallon of heating oil. Spirou and Fantasio nurse it and put it in a cage. On their way back, they are ambushed by hostile natives, but Zantafio, who has seen the errors of his ways and decided to drop out of the race, rescues them. Back home, Fantasio is declared the winner but learns that his impoverished uncle devised the race because he had nothing to leave his young relatives. The inheritance is the lessons in life learnt in the course of the competition. Fantasio declares himself satisfied, and decides to take the Marsupilami back from the zoo it has been donated to, and release it into the wild. While the Marsupilami is pleased to go back to its natural habitat, it starts missing Spirou and Fantasio and the end of the album sees him following the two friends while they bemuse about ever seeing it again.

[edit] Background

In Spirou issue #720, published January 31, 1952, the Marsupilami made its first appearance.^[1] Franquin told that the ideas leading to its creation stem from the period Franquin lived in Jijé's household with Will and Morris, from a joke concerning a very active tramway driver with too many duties, in need of a long, agile rat's tail to help with the tasks, and how this core idea allowed the Marsupilami character to grow.^[2] Another influence was Pilou Pilou, a character that made an impression during Franquin's youth. He later expressed regret at having bound the Marsupilami species to a South American jungle, considering marsupials are found in Australia.

With Les Heritiérs, Franquin also reveals his passion for automobile sports.