FRANCE 3 NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE – THURSDAY JANUARY 29 AT 10:50 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
The name of Jean Doisy is not unknown to enlightened comic book fans, who are even a little keen on history. Firstly because he was the first editor-in-chief of the newspaper Spiroufounded in 1938 by the Belgian editions Dupuis. Then because it was he who, in 1939, gave birth to Fantasio, a fanciful and blundering dandy destined to become a few years later the alter ego of Spirou, the character in the bellhop costume created by Rob-Vel. We also owe to Doisy the authorship, with Jijé, in 1941, of a detective named Jean Vallhardi, whom numerous screenwriters and cartoonists would then pass from hand to hand (René Follet, Jean-Michel Charlier, Eddy Paape, André-Paul Duchâteau, etc.), before sinking into oblivion.
Jean Doisy would also have fallen there if heritage work had not been carried out in recent years to restore his past as a resistance fighter during the Second World War. Thus this documentary by Thomas Zribi and Cyprien d’Haese which is based, in particular, on the research carried out by Christelle and Bertrand Pissavy-Yvernault in The true story of Spirou (Dupuis, two volumes, 2013 and 2016), a voluminous and fascinating dive into the archives of the Dupuis house. From a right-wing Catholic emanation, it had nonetheless hired Doisy, a non-member communist activist, at the head of Spirou. The occupation of Belgium by Nazi forces from May 1940 led the former journalist – real name Jean-Georges Evrard – to “use” the newspaper as cover, but also as a propaganda tool aimed at his young audience.
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