Paperback
Authors: Franquin
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: May 2022
ISBN: 9781800440647
£7.99 Incl VAT
Gomer, friend of animals – his mischievous domestic cat and gull, but also the residents of the local zoo who all eagerly await his visits. Gomer, the adventurous chef, with his … unusual dishes cooked always in the wrong places at the wrong time. Gomer, the office boy whose mere presence can spell doom for a contract … and let’s not forget Gomer the athlete! Whichever one is your favourite, in any case, they’re all hilarious!
How do you review a humorous comic album? If you write "I love how ---- says this to Gomer and it turns out to be something else because Gomer miss-heard"... well, not very satisfying but it is hard to explain a gag you find funny but someone else might say "mediocre -I preferred---" and you did not think their choice was the best. I have watched comedians tell jokes I thought were hilarious and only a small portion of the audience laughed.
I wrote some humour strips for comics. I had a deadline and submitted them but, being honest, I thought they were unfunny but I had to earn a living! The editor thought the scripts were hilarious. I still did not like them but...
You may ask what this has to do with reviewing the latest Gomer Goof? A lot really. You can't really fault the scripting or jokes/humour and to me that is talent. To produce 9 comic albums of 48 pages each and make each one make the readers chuckle is incredible work. Weekly comics in the UK had long running humour strips but these were one or two pages each week so maybe 52 pages over a year. Not sure what frequency the Gomer Goof albums are published in France but that is still 438 pp of humour (I just checked with a calculator!).
Of course, Delporte adds some text so that helps.
Maybe Franquin does not use a script but gets the idea and puts pencil to paper and away he goes. That would be pretty awesome in itself but let's assume he uses a script (it makes me feel less small 😂😂). There are little touches in each strip that look almost as though the thought came to Franquin "That would look good" but I have no idea how he works so....
Then you think about it and you realise that, apart from the one page per album of legal stuff, Franquin has drawn (that we have seen so far in English) 429 pages of art that make you smile, chuckle or laugh out loud. No sex, no over the top violence, no super hero costumes just a Goof named Gomer and his every day weird life.
Franquin deserves a medal.
Now, do I recommend this title? Let me just check my notes............
YES!
Youngster or adult you should find something in this for you and once you have finished readeing say "Thank you Franquin!"
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