What is shocking? The representation of black characters, the use of stereotypes with big lips, noses, big hands, etc. And sexist representations of women. So many elements which greatly displeased the author of a video on TikTok entitled “The most racist comic book of 2024”posted online on October 29 and commented on numerous times. “When you look at those of white people, you recognize humans… But when they are black characters, they clearly look like monkeys! In 2024, we can’t do that! It’s abuse”she denounces.
A late controversy
What does not fail to amaze in this affair is the timing. Spirou and the Blue Gorgon was released a year ago. At the time, no one seems to have been offended by the design, the album having been well received by critics. With our colleagues from Evening, Dany said she was amazed and didn’t understand anything about it. He denies any racist or sexist intentions. “I never had any intention of mocking or denigrating anyone, neither women nor people of color. The design of this album was part of the homage to the classic comic strip, that of Spirou by Franquin, The Rhinoceros Horn or The Gorilla looks good… […] I hear that you can’t draw like that anymore these days. I answer that humor and caricature of the line are part of the DNA of the Belgian school of comics”, he confides.
And Dupuis and Dany had nevertheless anticipated the risks of criticism. In an interview given to Paris Match in 2023, the latter explained that he had to rework his black women characters. “It was only black women that I agreed to redraw, because I was told that they had too big lips. Wanting to avoid controversy, I gave in.”
Collateral damage?
Confirmation in The Parisian. Julie Durot, general director of Dupuis since 2021 explains: “We must put this comic book in context: the contract was signed more than 10 years ago, by people who are no longer in charge,” she added. Since my arrival, we have repeatedly requested changes to its designer, Dany, is a man over 80 years old: he did not see how these drawings, which are caricatures, were shocking. We undoubtedly made a mistake in agreeing to publish it.
For his part, The World notes that the reproaches addressed to Dany are reminiscent of those made against Bastien Vivès, the comic strip author accused of advocating pedophilia. The controversy shook the Angoulême festival in 2022. “That Dany, 81 years old, is one of the favorite cartoonists of Bastien Vivès is perhaps not unrelated to the outbreak of this affair”, writes the French newspaper.
Incest, child crime, censorship: comic book author Bastien Vivès and the Angoulême festival in the storm
