Gaston
Lagaffe, "the hero without a job" is employed at the Journal
de Spirou office where he does many thing excepting his work. He
appeared in Spirou’s comic strip (n° 985) in 1957, the
28 of february. he came wandering in one week, claiming to be the
magazine's big hero.
Gaston
is lazy and an occasional blunderer, finding a way to set fire to
the fire extinguishers, or flooding the office, for example. He
spends the majority of his time trying to avoid work by hiding in
a closet, or even by just simply sleeping on the job…
His gaffes gave him his surname.
But
the character is also resourcefulth : he invents gadgets in order
to make work that much easier. He is a musician - I may say he thinks
he is musician. He has created some rather fantastic musical instruments,
the most important of which is the "gaffophone". He also
plays (awfully), among others, the guitar, the tuba, the trombone,
and the car horn organ.
Gaston
has a passion for ecology and adores his little animals : a hyperactive
cat, a seagull, a goldfish, and several mice. But, because his apartment
is too small, he must keep all of his animals at the office. This
becomes more annoying when he brings in a cow or a pig that he won
in a contest, especially when the animal tries to eat Gaston’s
colleagues’ important papers…
A
born tinkerer, it sometimes takes courage to continue driving his
"Gaffomobile" jalopy, a 1928 Fiat 509 decorated with a
“sporty” checkerboard pattern.
Mad
inventor, researcher, handyman, music lover, foodie... Gaston’s
talents and qualities grow over time to slowly reveal a generous,
sensitive and ingenious man whose creativity knows no bounds. Gaston,
then, is in fact Franquin’s alter ego, a fictionalised but
revealing self portrait.
Gaston
superstar
Gaston
Lagaffe is known all around the world. His stories are traduced
in more than 15 languages : german, swedish, Italian, finnish, icelandic,
and even in esperanto… And he isn’t called Gaston in
all this countries : in spain Gaston is tomas elgafe, in norwege
Viggo
German : Gaston
Swedish : Gaston
Italian : Gastone
Dannish : Vakse Viggo
Finnish : Niilo Pielinen
Greek : Sergi Grapes
Spannish : Tomás Elgafe
Norwegian : Viggo
Icelandic : Viggó Vidutan
Dutch : Guust Flater
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