Spirou (magazine)
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Spirou magazine is a Belgian comics magazine. Started in 1938 as Le Journal de Spirou, it was an eight page weekly comics magazine with two new comics (the eponymous Spirou and Tif & Tondu (the Beard and the Bold), and a handful of American comics.
In the beginning, it was a large format magazine, available only in French and only in Wallonia. A few months later, a Dutch language edition called Robbedoes appeared as well. It still appears now (October 2005), with only a short break during World War II. Robbedoes was shelved in September 2005 though, after more than 3500 weekly magazines appeared.
During the years, Spirou changed its format a few times, and gradually got thicker, now averaging some 68 pages. It got distributed in most Dutch and French speaking countries, and for some years, editions in other languages appeared as well (notably in Spain and Portugal).
The magazines are also available as quarterly books, gathering thirteen consecutive magazines in one binding. 288 of those have been published as of September 2006.
Gradually, the American comics and reprints got replaced by new, European productions, and around 1950, almost all of the content was made especially for the magazine. The magazine is a mixture of short stories and gags, and feuilleton comics. The target audience is between 9 and 16 years, but many adults keep on reading it anyway.
A few pages, apart from the comics and the advertising, are always put aside for text contents and interaction with the readers (games, letters, silly jokes, etc.). Often a general theme is used to give the magazine some unity instead of being just a collection of unrelated comics, and this also gets reflected in the lay-out.
The most famous collaborators were Jijé, André Franquin, Morris, Peyo, Roba, Raoul Cauvin, (that formed the so-called "Marcinelle school"), Zep, and many many others. Together with Tintin magazine (founded in 1946), it was the home of the Franco-Belgian comics school until the seventies, when its importance declined. Still, Spirou sells some 100,000 copies every week, and many of the comics starting there become famous and/or commercially successful.
[edit] External links
- Official magazine site (in English, French and Dutch)
- 6 Bears.Com, Spirou Magazine (in French)
- BD Oubliées, Spirou Magazine (Forgotten comics), with a lot of pictures (in French)
- The Friends of the Spirou Magazine (in French)
