Timewaster
I finished a 12-page essay today on the Swedish East India Company and it's effect on the consumption of luxury goods in 18th century Sweden. As that brings to a close my most immediate causes of stress (obviously, I'll be buying a new apartment in three days, so not all causes of stress are cleared).
Anyway, on the continuing adventures of jossujb made me do it, I've been getting more Spirou & Fantasio albums recently. Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio (Kehän kuninkaat) and Tembo Tabou joined my collection from Kirjatori. I also strongly considered getting one of the omnibus editions in Swedish that contain all S&F stories in chronological order, but the price on those was a bit steep. Then I noticed that Semic's Egmont's webshop is selling their Tempo magazine, in which they've published the two first installments of the Une aventure de Spirou et Fantasio par... -series. Of course I had to get those, too. So now I've also read Yoann & Vehlmann's Les géants pétrifiés (Kivijättiläiset) and Frank le Gall's Les marais du temps (Ajan pyörteissä). The former is of course especially important as Yoann & Vehlmann have apparently been selected as the successors of Morvan & Munuera as the main artists of the series. Therefore it's a good thing I rather liked Les géants pétrifiés.
That's not to say there wouldn't have been elements I didn't like. The way the story jumped from place to place in the beginning was a bit too much (first we're in the Med, then in Champignac, then in Jakarta, but with the action taking place in New Zealand? WTF?) and in places the jokes were a bit bleh (I mean, Lord of the Rings? Right, funny in 2006. Already a bit old in 2010 and it'll only get worse with time). And for some reason I'm not entirely convinced with Yoann's art. I can't really put my finger on it though, because overall his style is likeable and his Spirou is by far the best I've ever seen. And speaking of Spirou himself, I really digged the way they've made him slightly younger (both in appearance and mentality) and the way they're clearly distinguishing his age from that of Fantasio. Obviously Spirou was younger than Fantasio in the early stories, but this seems to have been left in the sidelines since then.
Never the less, even with all the criticism I'm definately looking forward to more albums by the duo. And I'm hoping that with Tempo we'll get to see more of Une aventure de Spirou et Fantasio par..., as the stories not yet publiushed in Finnish also seem pretty damn good.
And now, just for the sake of it, a list of Spirou & Fantasio albums that I've read (and those I haven't). Albums I know I've read in bold:
Spirou et l'aventure
Spirou et Fantasio
Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio (Kehän kuninkaat)
Il y a un sorcier à Champignac (Sienevan velho)
Les chapeaux noirs (Mustat hatut)
Spirou et les héritiers (Taistelu perinnöstä)
Les voleurs du Marsupilami (Marsupilami on kaapattu)
La corne de rhinocéros (Sarvikuonojahti)
Le dictateur et le champignon (Palombian diktaattori)
La mauvaise tête (Kultainen naamio)
Le repaire de la murène (Hämäräperäinen hylky)
Les pirates du silence (Operaatio Hiljaisuus)
Le gorille a bonne mine (Kultakaivoksen gorillat)
Le nid des Marsupilamis (Marsupilamin perhe)
Le voyageur du Mésozoïque (Jättiläinen jäätiköltä)
Le prisonnier du Bouddha (Buddhan vanki)
Z comme Zorglub (Z niin kuin Zorbul)
L'ombre du Z (Zorbulin varjo)
Spirou et les hommes-bulles (Pienoismallit)
QRN sur Bretzelburg (SOS... Bretzelburg kutsuu)
Panade à Champignac (Vauvakuumetta Sieninevassa)
Le faiseur d'or
Du glucose pour Noémie (Triangeli iskee)
L'abbaye truquée
Tora Torapa
Tembo Tabou (Tambo Tabu)
Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba
Du cidre pour les étoiles (Omenaviiniä tähtiin)
L'Ankou
Kodo le tyran
Des haricots partout
La ceinture du grand froid (Uusi jääkausi)
La boîte noire (Musta laatikko)
Les faiseurs de silence (Hiljaisuuden salaisuus)
Virus
Aventure en Australie (Piko ja Fantasio Australiassa)
Qui arrêtera Cyanure?
L'horloger de la comète (Komeetan kelloseppä)
Le réveil du Z (Zorbulin aika)
La Jeunesse de Spirou
Spirou à New-York (Piko ja Fantasio New Yorkissa)
La frousse aux trousses (Kauhun kyydissä)
La vallée des bannis (Karkotettujen laakso)
Spirou à Moscou (Piko ja Fantasio Moskovassa)
Vito la Déveine (Haisaaren vanki)
Le rayon noir (Musta säde)
Luna fatale (Kohtalokas kuu)
Machine qui rêve (Kone joka näki unia)
Paris-sous-Seine (Pariisi aaltojen alla)
L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (Taistelu kuolemattomuudesta)
Spirou et Fantasio à Tokyo (Tokio)
Aux sources du Z (Zorbulin lähteillä)
Les géants pétrifiés (Kivijättiläiset)
Les marais du temps (Ajan pyörteissä)
Le tombeau des Champignac
Spirou, le journal d'un ingénu
Le Groom Vert-de-Gris
Seems I've somehow managed to concentrate on the more recent albums. Although I'm a bit uncertain about some of the earlier albums. I might have read some of the unmarked ones back in the day, and I'm not actually 100% certain about having read Le repaire de la murène.
Anyway, on the continuing adventures of jossujb made me do it, I've been getting more Spirou & Fantasio albums recently. Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio (Kehän kuninkaat) and Tembo Tabou joined my collection from Kirjatori. I also strongly considered getting one of the omnibus editions in Swedish that contain all S&F stories in chronological order, but the price on those was a bit steep. Then I noticed that Semic's Egmont's webshop is selling their Tempo magazine, in which they've published the two first installments of the Une aventure de Spirou et Fantasio par... -series. Of course I had to get those, too. So now I've also read Yoann & Vehlmann's Les géants pétrifiés (Kivijättiläiset) and Frank le Gall's Les marais du temps (Ajan pyörteissä). The former is of course especially important as Yoann & Vehlmann have apparently been selected as the successors of Morvan & Munuera as the main artists of the series. Therefore it's a good thing I rather liked Les géants pétrifiés.
That's not to say there wouldn't have been elements I didn't like. The way the story jumped from place to place in the beginning was a bit too much (first we're in the Med, then in Champignac, then in Jakarta, but with the action taking place in New Zealand? WTF?) and in places the jokes were a bit bleh (I mean, Lord of the Rings? Right, funny in 2006. Already a bit old in 2010 and it'll only get worse with time). And for some reason I'm not entirely convinced with Yoann's art. I can't really put my finger on it though, because overall his style is likeable and his Spirou is by far the best I've ever seen. And speaking of Spirou himself, I really digged the way they've made him slightly younger (both in appearance and mentality) and the way they're clearly distinguishing his age from that of Fantasio. Obviously Spirou was younger than Fantasio in the early stories, but this seems to have been left in the sidelines since then.
Never the less, even with all the criticism I'm definately looking forward to more albums by the duo. And I'm hoping that with Tempo we'll get to see more of Une aventure de Spirou et Fantasio par..., as the stories not yet publiushed in Finnish also seem pretty damn good.
And now, just for the sake of it, a list of Spirou & Fantasio albums that I've read (and those I haven't). Albums I know I've read in bold:
Spirou et l'aventure
Spirou et Fantasio
Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio (Kehän kuninkaat)
Il y a un sorcier à Champignac (Sienevan velho)
Les chapeaux noirs (Mustat hatut)
Spirou et les héritiers (Taistelu perinnöstä)
Les voleurs du Marsupilami (Marsupilami on kaapattu)
La corne de rhinocéros (Sarvikuonojahti)
Le dictateur et le champignon (Palombian diktaattori)
La mauvaise tête (Kultainen naamio)
Le repaire de la murène (Hämäräperäinen hylky)
Les pirates du silence (Operaatio Hiljaisuus)
Le gorille a bonne mine (Kultakaivoksen gorillat)
Le nid des Marsupilamis (Marsupilamin perhe)
Le voyageur du Mésozoïque (Jättiläinen jäätiköltä)
Le prisonnier du Bouddha (Buddhan vanki)
Z comme Zorglub (Z niin kuin Zorbul)
L'ombre du Z (Zorbulin varjo)
Spirou et les hommes-bulles (Pienoismallit)
QRN sur Bretzelburg (SOS... Bretzelburg kutsuu)
Panade à Champignac (Vauvakuumetta Sieninevassa)
Le faiseur d'or
Du glucose pour Noémie (Triangeli iskee)
L'abbaye truquée
Tora Torapa
Tembo Tabou (Tambo Tabu)
Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba
Du cidre pour les étoiles (Omenaviiniä tähtiin)
L'Ankou
Kodo le tyran
Des haricots partout
La ceinture du grand froid (Uusi jääkausi)
La boîte noire (Musta laatikko)
Les faiseurs de silence (Hiljaisuuden salaisuus)
Virus
Aventure en Australie (Piko ja Fantasio Australiassa)
Qui arrêtera Cyanure?
L'horloger de la comète (Komeetan kelloseppä)
Le réveil du Z (Zorbulin aika)
La Jeunesse de Spirou
Spirou à New-York (Piko ja Fantasio New Yorkissa)
La frousse aux trousses (Kauhun kyydissä)
La vallée des bannis (Karkotettujen laakso)
Spirou à Moscou (Piko ja Fantasio Moskovassa)
Vito la Déveine (Haisaaren vanki)
Le rayon noir (Musta säde)
Luna fatale (Kohtalokas kuu)
Machine qui rêve (Kone joka näki unia)
Paris-sous-Seine (Pariisi aaltojen alla)
L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (Taistelu kuolemattomuudesta)
Spirou et Fantasio à Tokyo (Tokio)
Aux sources du Z (Zorbulin lähteillä)
Les géants pétrifiés (Kivijättiläiset)
Les marais du temps (Ajan pyörteissä)
Le tombeau des Champignac
Spirou, le journal d'un ingénu
Le Groom Vert-de-Gris
Seems I've somehow managed to concentrate on the more recent albums. Although I'm a bit uncertain about some of the earlier albums. I might have read some of the unmarked ones back in the day, and I'm not actually 100% certain about having read Le repaire de la murène.