(re) reading of his recent Spirou and Fantasio me want to (re) discover Modeste and Pompon of Franquin, a work unknown in the shadow of the groom and Lagaffe , whose creation was accidental. - Modeste is a young single man at the vivid temperament, at once inventive, irritable, and almost enough, but still nice because often the victims of unfortunate.
- Pompon was a young woman, beautiful and moderate character, sometimes mischievous, whose relationship with Modeste remains subject to interpretation (is she his girlfriend? A friend? A relative?). She is obviously younger than him but very close.
- Felix is friends with Modeste and Pompon, but worries often quoiqu'involontairement, the first in the canvassing for him peddle his inventions, each more improbable and disastrous as each other. This is the ancestor blundering undeniable Gaston.
- The three nephews of Felix frequently occupy his house, scene of their pranks, which their uncle is the first victim, and that Felix is actively involved.
- Mr. Ducrin is one of two neighboring Modest: grumpy and unpleasant, psychologically and physically it foreshadows the book in the series Boulier GastonLagaffe , and was created by Greg .
- Mr. Dubruit is another neighbor of Modeste: pests and invasive, father of children unbearable, it was created by Goscinny .
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Modeste and Pompon was published in the weekly Journal de Tintin from 1955, Franquin and wrote and drew their gags for four years, also illustrating the ideas of others as Greg gags, Goscinny , Peyo and Tibet. Franquin's run is available in three albums ( 1: 60 Pranks & Pompon Modeste , 1958; 2: Hello Modest, 1959; 3: Any full gags , 1973) and the anthology (1996).
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What strikes immediately with Modeste and Pompon is his description of the 50s and in particular its look with the representation of furniture, vehicles and clothes of the time. Personnnages all live in houses, allowing the staging of neighborhood quarrels but also the painting of the "way of life" post-war heroes to wear neat toilets, very stylish in mind vintage found in films of the era and some current TV series (Mad Men ). Hence a mixture retro and modern yet surprising.
The genesis of the series is also surprising: in 1955, when he was already a renowned author of the editions Dupuis for which he hosts Spirou and Fantasio series he has successful enough to be regarded as heroes rivals such as aesthetic and commercial Tintin (before that Asterix not come to play the third challenger), Franquin opposes Charles Dupuis for financial reasons, believing (as others) that underpaid given the success of its production. The publisher refuses But to give the artist and resigned in due form.
His departure is resounding and competition jumps at the chance to recruit him: Franquin "passes to the enemy" by engaging with Raymond Leblanc published by Le Lombard. He agreed to create a comedy series within certain constraints: it had to be funny but not vulgar and that heroes are not street urchins to not look like Quick and Flupke of Hergé. Franquin named his main character Modest and the editor of the Journal of Tintin Pompon propose to his partner because she was wearing on his head (!).
The case bounced just a year after Charles Dupuis gets an appointment with him Franquin and expressed his regrets. The artist, sentimental, agrees to return to Dupuis (with a renegotiation of his contract), but must arrange with the Lombard. A "gentlemen's agreement" is concluded and the five-year commitment will be reduced to four ...
Franquin will therefore be in a unique position as uncomfortable but exhausting: it will provide up to seven bands weekly and share with Spirou and Fantasio and Modeste and Pompon , until 1959! The last straw for an artist who describes himself as a "lazy", whose working method is largely based on writing improvised ...
In this context, we understand that the assistance of Greg (which, according Franquin, provided more than he gags for the series), Goscinny, Peyo and Tibet, was not too much to help the artist, whose work has never unworthy yet - instead, it produces beautiful opus Spirou and Fantasio and Modeste and Pompon reflects impeccable rigor.
But the series will mainly serve as a laboratory to Franquin: not as graphically as the line is identical to that of its Spirou, but narratively. Indeed, he works in the specific context of the gag in a board, which will be his trademark in GastonLagaffe . It uses most of the time a cutting waffle iron, which he pulls up yet: even better, he seems to play this rigid formalism to better test their limits and to maximize the effects of the flow of reading the sequence of vignettes, ellipses comedy, burlesque vitality springs (glimpsed in some sequences Spirou with, especially the "escape" of Marsupilami).
mechanics of the comic series is classic: Franquin (and writers) do not seek originality but vivacity. The couple is at the center of the case: whether the one formed by Modeste and Pompon Modeste or Felix, Modesto and its two neighbors (never occur together). Sometimes the pairing gives way to the group and this enlargement of the cast is even worse, gags more pests, which invariably suffers Modeste.
Modeste's character is astonishing: it is not nice in itself, immediately. It is a speaker, sometimes arrogant, grumpy, maniacal. But he repeatedly undergo the worst insults, the most unpleasant hassle: sometimes he deserves his punishment, sometimes he plays bad luck. In comparison Pompom is erased: it has not the nerve and energy Seccotine is a sensible girl, temperate, even though it sometimes gives up Modeste (even though it is not - always - responsible of what she accuses him). It is as if Franquin was left with the idea of a couple but had left them overwhelmed by his hero, more colorful, more malleable, more fallible. Similarly, Felix eclipse Pompon triggering events while the arbitrator or comments only.
Finally, we welcome the brilliant performance of Franquin has invented for the series variations of the furniture "atom" of the 50's quite staggering: Rather than gather information and risk losing time, he preferred to any (re) invent ... Unfortunate choice because for such a perfectionist, it was terribly time consuming! But what a result: in many respects as Blake and Mortimer, Modeste and Pompon remains an amazing testimony of what lived in Franco-Belgian at the time.
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Read Modeste and Pompon : in the shadow of Spirou and Gaston is one of the funniest comics of this huge and elegant man what was Franquin!
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