Spirou & Fantasio - 'La Vallée des Bannis'.
Janry is a Belgian comic artist who forms an inseparable duo with scriptwriter Tome. Tome and Janry had a very popular and innovative run on 'Spirou et Fantasio' in Spirou magazine during the 1980s and 1990s. Their stories featured high tech science fiction, more global adventures and the return of several iconic side characters from its 1950s and 1960s heyday. Tome and Janry's tenure drew favorable comparisons with the legendary André Franquin, who broke Spirou's title feature free from its more naive and improvised start under the reigns of Rob-Vel and Jijé in the 1940s. The duo also didn't shy away from parody, resulting in the gag-a-week feature about Spirou's more mischievous childhood, 'Le Petit Spirou' (1987- ), which has become a bestselling comic series in its own right. To some younger generations 'Le Petit Spirou' is even more popular than the original franchise!
'Le Petit Spirou'.
Early life
Jean-Richard Geurts was born in 1957 in Jadoville, in former Belgian Congo. He and his family returned to Belgium when he was eighteen years old. The young man showed an early talent for drawing, especially planes and other technological items. In terms of inspiration, Geurts ranks the comic artists André Franquin, Albert Uderzo, Gotlib and Bill Watterson among his favorites. He studied Industrial Design in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, near Brussels, for two years, where one of his teachers was Guy Brasseur. Among his fellow students were Philippe Vandevelde (Tome) and Stéphane De Becker (Stuf), who became his longtime friends and colleagues in later years.
Assistant to Francis and Dupa
Geurts began his professional career in the comic industry as an assistant of comic artist Francis Bertrand. He mainly participated in Bertrand's production for the Stone Age comic 'Die Pichelsteiner' in commission of the German Kauka Verlag. By the mid-1970s he was working with Dupa, whom he assisted on his signature series 'Cubitus' and on 'Chlorophylle', a funny animal series originally created by Raymond Macherot. Both comics ran in Tintin magazine. Janry for instance produced most of the artwork of the 1980 'Chlorophylle' episode 'Faits Divers'. During his period with Dupa, he began his longtime association with Philippe Vandevelde, who was also one of Dupa's co-workers. Both Geurts and Vandevelde additionally assisted Turk and Bob De Groot on 'Léonard', 'Robin Dubois' and 'Clifton'. Since Dupa was lending a helping hand to Michel Greg on his 'Achille Talon' comic, the two young artists joined in on this production as well.
'Chlorophylle', by Dupa and Janry.
Arrival at Spirou magazine
A career-defining moment for both Jean-Richard Geurts and Philippe Vandevelde was in 1979, when they delivered Dupa's contribution for a collective anniversary story for Jean Roba's 'Boule et Bill' to the editorial offices of Spirou magazine. They showed their own work to chief editor Alain De Kuyssche, who liked it so much that he offered them the opportunity to work for his magazine. In November 1980 the duo launched a weekly puzzle comic in Spirou's back pages, titled 'Jeurêka', which ran in the magazine throughout 1981. It starred explorer/detective John Perill. By then the artists had not yet settled on their "joint" pen names, and the feature was simply credited to "JR+PH". The mix of gag comic and puzzle feature was an early showcase of the author's humor and inventiveness. They arrived around the same time as another legendary duo, Yann and Conrad, who provided satirical and often controversial illustrations on the tops of Spirou's pages. While the latter two caused a revolution within the pages of the Catholic children's magazine, Tome and Janry had the most lasting impact and heralded in Spirou's modern age.
'Jeuréka' (Robbedoes #2243. 1981).
Spirou & Fantasio
In 1981 they became one of the new artist teams on Spirou's title comic 'Spirou et Fantasio', and began using their joint pen name Tome and Janry. Janry got his pen name as a contraction of his first name, Jean-Richard. His partner-in-crime Philippe Vandevelde picked Tome as a pun on Hanna-Barbera's famous cat and mouse Tom and Jerry. By 1980 Jean-Claude Fournier had been somewhat unceremoniously removed from the 'Spirou' comic. One of the reasons was a desired increase of story production, but the editors also had difficulties with the political tone in some of his stories. To establish a weekly presence of Spirou's title comic, the editors chose to split the production between separate author teams. Tome and Janry first exercised with a series of short stories. The first, 'La Voix sans Maître', was published in Spirou #2253 of 18 June 1981, months after they had created it! Longer stories were in the meantime created by Nic Broca and Raoul Cauvin, while Yves Chaland also drew a retro-style comic strip story in 1982.
'Qui arrêtera Cyanure?'.
Editorial politics
The young artists were caught in the middle of a power struggle between editor-in-chief Alain De Kuyssche and "conceptual director" José Dutillieu. De Kuyssche wanted Tome and Janry as lead artists, while Dutillieu preferred Nic Broca, his former assistant at the animation studio Belvision. Tome and Janry eventually took the plunge and demanded that publisher Charles Dupuis made a decision. Since both the readers' polls and heavyweight André Franquin were in favor of the young duo, they eventually got the job as the series' sole artists. Their take on the characters was very popular with the readers, since it was strongly reminiscent of Franquin. At first, scenario and artwork were a joint effort, but after a while, Janry became the artist while Tome focused on the scripts. The final story with artwork by both men was 'Qui arrêtera Cyanure?' (album 35). The duo however decided to make their entire production under the joint "Tome & Janry" byline to underline their close collaboration.
New York mobster Don Vito Cortizone was a recurring villain in Tome and Janry's Spirou stories ('Spirou à New York').
Spirou stories - 1980s
Tome and Janry's first serial, 'Virus!', commenced in issue #2305 of 1982. Twelve more followed until they left the comic in 1998. Their tenure marked the return of several popular side characters from the Franquin era, like villain John Héléna ('Virus!', 1982), the female reporter Seccotine ('Aventure en Australie', 1983), mad scientist Zorglub ('Le Réveil du Z', 1985) and Fantasio's evil nephew Zantafio ('Spirou à Moscou', 1990). The little town of Champignac with its colorful inhabitants was also a regular setting in their stories. This didn't make their stories a repetition of previous episodes however. Tome and Janry delivered well-crafted sci-fi and adventure plots with high quality artwork. Their stories anticipated on the hot topics of the time, such as biotechnology ('Virus!'), cybernetics ('Qui arrêtera Cyanure?', 1983), time travel ('L'Horloger de la Comète', 1984), Italian mobsters ('Spirou à New York', 1987) and cloning ('Machine qui Rêve', 1998). While their predecessors took Spirou, Fantasio and their pet squirrel Spip to mostly fictional countries, Tome and Janry let them visit actual places like Antarctica, Australia, New York and the USSR. They even included witty satirical depictions and references to things these countries and nationalities are known for, much like René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo did in 'Astérix'. Their diptych about the ficional country Touboutt-Chan and its "Valley of Banishment" however stands out as one of their strongest efforts. The first part, 'La Frousse aux Trousses' (1988), follows our heroes on their expedition through the Touboutt-Chan war zone in search of two missing explorers. In 'La Vallée des Bannis' (1989), Spirou and Fantasio are trapped in the aforementioned mysterious valley. It is one of the most spiritual and character-driven stories in the entire series, in which Spirou and Fantasio have to depend on each other to survive. The story has a strong emphasis on its protagonists' long friendship and slumbering competition.
Spirou & Fantasio - 'Machine qui Rêve'.
Spirou stories - 1990s
The 1990s brought more humor oriented stories like 'Vito-la-déveine' (1991) and 'Le Rayon Noir' (1992). Their final two stories for the main series presented a more mature and self-aware Spirou. 'Luna Fatale' (1995) toyed around with the lack of sexuality of the classic comic book hero. 'Machine qui Rêve' (1998) experimented with his immortality and infallibility. This final story was a true tour-de-force, with Janry dropping his comical drawing style in favor of a semi-realistic noir style in the tradition of Tome's other creation, the hard-boiled crime comic 'Soda'. Although the more realistic rendition of Spirou has been praised, it also caused controversy, not in the least because the hero is cloned, but also because it featured a more tormented Spirou instead of the free-spirited hero. This daring take on the character was endorsed by publisher Philippe Vandooren. His death in 2000 and Tome and Janry's departure from 'Spirou et Fantasio' make this album an oddball in the series. In hindsight the story is significant, because for the first time artists did something boldly different with a classic Belgian comic series. Throughout the next decades other classic Belgian comics franchises, like Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske', 'Jerom' and 'De Rode Ridder', would also receive more modernized adult spin-off versions. In 2006, the 'Spirou' series got a spin-off series as well, with each album created by different authors in their own personal styles. Tome and Janry were succeeded on the main series by José-Luis Munuera and Jean-David Morvan between 2004 and 2006 and since 2010 by Yoann and Fabien Vehlmann.
'Le Petit Spirou'.
Le Petit Spirou
Leaving the main series, Tome and Janry now had all the time to focus on their other project, the gag series 'Le Petit Spirou'. The origin of the childhood version of Spirou lay in a short story the duo made for the 45th anniversary of Spirou magazine, which was published in Spirou Album# 5 in 1983. In this story, the wise and all-knowing Oncle Paul (created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Eddy Paape in the 1950s), tells about the younger years of the famous bellboy. The young Spirou proved to be far less righteous than his adult incarnation. When the parody appeared in album format in 1987 it gained in popularity, resulting in a spin-off gag comic launched in the final issue of that year (#2594).
'Le Petit Spirou' features no characters from the main series, except Spirou himself. Some hints at his later-day adventures are given in some of the early gags, but these references were dropped when the series proved to be a mainstay and could continue on its own. Young Spirou lives with his parents and his grandfather, who are all dressed in the well-known bellboy uniforms. His main partners in crime are his best friend Antoine Vertignasse, the glutinous Nicolas Ponchelot and his love interest Suzette. He is also very close to his grandfather, a World War I veteran with an equally playful and frivolous nature. Many gags are filled with sexual innuendo, especially when Spirou and their friends are peeping at their sexy math teacher, miss Claudia Chiffre. The main victims of their escapades are Mr. Mégot, the drinking and smoking gym teacher, and father Angelusse, the town's devout abbot. 'Le Petit Spirou' has an odd anachronistic atmosphere too. Some elements are definitely old-fashioned, like the town abbott (complete with out-of-date costume) and Spirou's grandfather's World War I past. Yet for the most part the series is set in our modern age, with references to television, cell phones and video games. The first album was published by Dupuis in 1990, and each album consists traditionally of a short five-page story and a series of gags.
Assistance
To keep up with their workload, Tome and Janry have received assistance from several co-workers over the years. The first was their old friend Stéphane De Becker, who became the colorist for all the duo's projects, starting with the 'Spirou' episode 'Le Réveil du Z' (1985), until his unfortunate death in 2015. With the launch of 'Le Petit Spirou', young artists were attracted to help drawing with the weekly gag page. The three friends set up shop in Tome's appartment in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, where they were first joined by Bruno Gazzotti (in 1988), and then by Dan Verlinden (since 1993). Eric Closter, Yves Urbain, Adam and Ralph Meyer have also worked at Tome and Janry's atelier. With their own background as assistants in mind, Tome and Janry felt they should credit both Gazzotti and Verlinden for their contributions. When Verlinden did most of the work on a 'Petit Spirou' gag, his name is even mentioned first at the bottom of the page. The authors also supported their assistants in doing their own projects.
'Le Petit Spirou'.
Passe-moi l'Ciel/Poussin 1er
As a scriptwriter, Janry teamed up with De Becker (a.k.a. Stuf) for the launch of another puzzle feature, 'Jeux d'Enfer' (1988-1990), initially using the pen name "Gurtz". The concept was similar to that of 'Jeuréka', but this time the setting was in the hereafter. To be allowed entrance to Paradise, the recently deceased have to correctly answer Saint Peter three questions, otherwise they are directed to hell. The erstwhile Catholic magazine Spirou had opened its doors to more morbidly themed comics during the 1980s, most notably Marc Hardy's gravedigger comic 'Pierre Tombal' and Philippe Bercovici's hospital humor series 'Les Femmes en Blanc', both written by Raoul Cauvin. Stuf and Janry's black humor feature was even the magazine's second comic series situated in Heaven; Malik and Cauvin's 'Cupidon' was also launched in 1988. By 1990, the puzzle element was dropped and the series continued as the gag feature 'Passe-moi l'Ciel' until De Becker's death in 2015. The gag version of the comic was collected in seven albums between 1999 and 2015. In 2013 Janry additionally teamed up with Franco-Belgian playwright Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt for the gag comic 'Les Aventures de Poussin 1er', about a young chicken who struggles with existential questions. The first album was published in 2013; the second followed in 2015.
Continuing solo
The sudden death of their close friend Stéphane De Becker on 22 July 2015 was a heavy blow to both Tome and Janry. It put most of their ongoing series temporarily on hold. On 5 October 2019, Janry had to endure another shock, when Tome too died of a heart attack. It took a while before the artist was able to continue. In 2020, he began submitting new gags of 'Passe-moi l'Ciel' to Spirou, this time created by him alone. Continuing 'Le Petit Spirou' without Tome was more difficult. The two men had worked their entire career as an inseperable team, and Janry felt working on their joint creation on his own "weird" and "traumatizing". In February 2021, Spirou ran Janry's first solo short story, 'Je l'Appelais Divine' (issue #4323). To support him, Maryse Dubuc and Jacques Louis assisted with the story structure and dialogues. In an interview with bfmtv.com, Janry stated that he would continue 'Le Petit Spirou' in his own pace, and always with his best friend's quality standards in mind.
'Poussin 1er'.
Graphic contributions
Janry was one of several artists to make a graphic contribution to 'Baston Labaffe no. 5: La Ballade des Baffes’ (Goupil, 1983), an official collective parody comic of André Franquin’s 'Gaston Lagaffe’. He paid tribute to Nikita Mandryka in the collective comic book 'Tronches de Concombre' (Dupuis, 1995).
Legacy
Tome and Janry's impact on Spirou magazine and its publisher Dupuis is immense. Besides the main series, they also provided the magazine with regular promotional illustrations, announcements, and cover illustrations for its quarterly omnibus collections. Their 'Spirou et Fantasio' stories formed the basis for the animated TV series about Spirou, of which 52 episodes were broadcast by Canal J (1993) and TF1 (1994-1995). 'Le Petit Spirou' was adapted into an animated TV series in 2012. A live-action comedy movie about the character was written and directed by Nicolas Bary, and released on 27 August 2017.
As the artist of its mascot, Janry's art was the the standard bearer of Éditions Dupuis for over twenty years. While he is obviously a follower of Franquin and the other classic masters of the Franco-Belgian school, Janry's dynamic and comical brushwork has served as an inspiration for other artists in its own right. Traces of Janry's influence can be seen in the work of Ralph Meyer, Stédo and the Dutch artist Gerben Valkema. Since 1995, Janry is also a member of The Boys Band (Dessinée), an all-star band of comic authors, which also featured Yvan Delporte, Bruno Gazzotti, Fabrizio Borrini, Batem, Midam and others.
In May 1996 'Le Petit Spirou’ received its own comic book mural in the Boulevard du Centenaire/Eeuwfeestlaan, designed by G. Oreopoulos and D. Vandegeerde, as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route. Another series by Janry with its own mural in Brussels is the series 'Passe-moi l'Ciel', which can be seen in the Rue des Minimes / Minimesstraat since July 2002, also part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route.
Tome and Janry in the 1980s. Photo © Jan Nackaerts.