Les chapeaux noirs

Graphicnovelbox| title= Spirou et Fantasio #3 Les chapeaux noirs
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caption=Cover of the Belgian edition
publisher=Dupuis
date=1952
series="Spirou et Fantasio"
origlanguage=French
origpublication="Le Journal de Spirou"
origissues= #617 - #635 #575 - #588 #686 - #692 #636 - #652
origdate=1949 - 1950
origisbn= 2-8001-0005-2
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transpublisher=
transdate=
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writers=Franquin and Jijé
artists=Franquin and Jijé
colorists=
previssue= "Il y a un sorcier à Champignac", 1951
nextissue= "Spirou et les héritiers", 1952

"Les chapeaux noirs", album in the Belgian comic series "Spirou et Fantasio", released in 1952. The album contains the longer story "Les chapeaux noirs" written and drawn by Franquin, and three shorter stories, "Mystère à la frontière" by Franquin, and "Comme une mouche au plafond" and "Spirou et les hommes-grenouilles" by Jijé. All the stories were previously serialised in the comics magazine "Spirou" between 1949-50.

tory overviews

In "Les chapeaux noirs" ("The Black Hats"), Spirou and Fantasio go on assignment for "Le Moustique" and travel to USA, on assignment to report on the status of Wild West. Upon arrival they are disappointed to find a modern culture, but by chance meet a man who directs them to Tombstone, a town with all the western myths intact.

In "Comme une mouche au plafond" ("Like a Fly on the Ceiling"), Spirou surprisingly finds himself levitating in his apartment. This phenomenon turns out to be caused by the wizard neighbour whom Spirou and Fantasio must outwit in order to stop his mischief.

In "Les hommes grenouilles" ("Spirou and the Frog-Men"), Spirou and Spip take the train to meet Fantasio in the Mediterranean village "Cassis-sur-Mer" where he currently lives in his boat while trying his luck in the tourism industry. But as crime flourishes abundantly in the area, they eventually find themselves in a dangerous maritime adventure.

In "Les chapeaux noirs" ("The Border Mystery"), the heroes investigate a case currently reported in the papers, hoping to expose a smuggling ring responsible for bringing into Belgium a new drug, "Hicoine".

Background

The title story draws upon Franquin's experiences in USA, when he joined Jijé and Morris on a journey to absorb Americana. As those two harvested a great deal of material for their western series "Jerry Spring" and "Lucky Luke", Franquin limited his USA inspired work to the shorter story "Les chapeaux noirs". Upon completing it, he went directly to work on "Mystère à la frontière", another short story featuring a fairly harmless drug, and from there started work on "Il y a un sorcier à Champignac". Since this became the launch of the series' stories told in long, in-depth context, this last prior work marks the end of the "Spirou" short story period.

References

* [http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/auteurs2/gillain.htm Jijé publications in "Spirou"] and [http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/auteurs2/franquin.htm Franquin publications in "Spirou"] BDoubliées fr_icon

External links

* [http://www.spirou.com/spirou/albums.shtml Spirou official site album index] fr_icon
* [http://www.franquin.com/spirou_fantasio/albums_spirou.php Franquin site album index] fr_icon