Instagram (@dupuis_bd)Éditions Dupuis have removed “Spirou et la Gorgone bleue” from sale.
Instagram (@dupuis_bd)
Éditions Dupuis have removed “Spirou et la Gorgone bleue” from sale.
BD – Uninhibited racism. The legendary series of comic Franco-Belgian Spiroubegun in 1938, continues to successfully exist on bookstore shelves. But in recent days, Internet users have pointed out the problematic representation of certain black characters from the albumSpirou and the Blue Gorgon by Yann and Dany.
In a volume released in September 2023, we can see black people drawn with monkey features. Warned by the video of an Internet user entitled “ The most RACIST comic book of 2024 », the podcaster specializing in comics Boidin first posted two panels taken from the album in a tweet with more than 2 million views, before following up with two entire panels to avoid a situation taken out of context.
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These drawings did not fail to provoke a reaction from Internet users, who were scandalized by the caricatured representation and the racism that results from it. But also the marketing time of the comic, on sale for more than a year.
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If the album does not belong to the main series of Spiroutaken over by the screenwriters Sophie Guerrive and Benjamin Abitan as well as the designer Olivier Schwartz since The Death of Spirou (2022), it is nevertheless part of the collection The Spirou of… from Éditions Dupuis. The latter offers the possibility for new duos to work on the universe of Spirou and Fantasio since 2006 and Spirou and the Blue Gorgon is, to date, the last publication.
The editor’s apologies, Dany’s other controversies
Contacted by HuffPostthe historical publisher of the series responded with a press release also posted on its social networks.
“This album is part of a caricature style of representation inherited from another era” indicates the Éditions Dupuis team, who say they “deeply sorry if this album could shock and hurt”. And to indicate that “more aware than ever of our moral duty and the importance that comics represent as a publisher and, more broadly, books in the evolution of societies”, the publisher fully assumes “responsibility for this error of assessment”.
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In an interview for Friends of Comicsat the time of the album’s release, the designer Daniel Henrotin known as Dany confided that he had already “had to marginally redo the drawing of certain black men who, it’s true, could seem a little too caricatured.” Internet users did not fail to note certain other of his drawings accused of racism.
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Concerning The Blue GorgonDaniel Henrotin defended himself in an article in Parisian. “I wanted to do like in the old-fashioned Spirou, make caricatures. I have caricatured both whites and blacks.” he pleads. The designer also apologized to the public: “I am deeply sorry if I could have hurt people: that was frankly not the intention… I sincerely apologize. »
Éditions Dupuis have, however, decided to withdraw the book from all points of sale.
Also see on HuffPost :
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