Il y a un sorcier à Champignac

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Spirou et Fantasio #2
Il y a un sorcier à Champignac

Cover of the Belgian edition

Publisher	Dupuis
Date	1951
Series	Spirou et Fantasio

Creative team
Writer(s)	Franquin with Jijé Scenario by Jean Darc
Artist(s)	Franquin

Original publication
Published in	Le Journal de Spirou
Issue(s)	#653 - #685
Date(s) of publication	1950 - 1951
Language	French
ISBN	ISBN 2-8001-0004-4

Chronology
Preceded by	Quatre aventures de Spirou et Fantasio, 1950
Followed by	Les chapeaux noirs, 1952

Il y a un sorcier à Champignac by Franquin, is the second album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the first to tell a long intricate story in what would become the Spirou tradition, in contrast to the previous short format stories. After appearing in segments in Le Journal de Spirou, it was released as a complete hardcover album in 1951.

This work introduces several key characters in the series, and the village of Champignac-en-Cambrousse (a name derived from the French word for mushrooms, and 'cambrousse' meaning rural backwater).

1 Story
2 Background
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In There is a Sorceror in Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio go on a bicycle camping trip to the country and end up near the village of Champignac-en-Cambrousse. They meet its pompous mayor and rustic inhabitants, and an aloof local landowner, the Count of Champignac. Strange phenomena are affecting farm and wild animals, and the frightened villagers blame a gipsy who is passing through. Spirou and Fantasio, however, discover that the real culprit is the Count, deeply involved in creating strange concoctions from mushrooms, and they rescue the vagabond from a lynch mob. Later, the Count creates a drug that within a limited time will endow superhuman strength, which a gangster steals to create mayhem.

[edit] Background

This album indicates an evolution in Franquin's line management from his previous drawing style, to a new treatment of characters and movement. Franquin's new Spirou is now distinct, and no longer an effort to mimic Jijé's Spirou as precisely as possible. As it is Franquin's first truly long format story (created gradually in 2 page installments over 32 Spirou issues) its dramaturgic construction may considered as one shorter story with a separate bonus story added to the end, with the intial one being the seminal work.

Jijé is credited as co-author of the script, following a scenario by Jean Darc, alias Henri Gillain, Jijé's brother, who is attributed with the conception of the Count of Champignac and his eccentric mushroom creations.^[1]