Review by Frank Plowright

Even without knowing the background, there’s a difference to Goof-Off at Gomer Corral. More so than for a long time André Franquin is relying on others to supply the ideas he works into strips, always credited, a fair amount of strips are only half pages, or even single tier, and there’s quite the dark tone to a few of them. Part of the reason is rather than collecting a year’s worth of strips as the earlier Gomer Goof collections do, the work here spans several years from 1974 to 1978.

The reasons are several. After so long on the same strip Franquin wanted to explore other ideas, and collaborating with his longtime friend Yvan Delporte on a new humour magazine Trombone appealed. It enabled him to work through bleaker humour concepts prompted by recurring depression that slowed his work rate, eventually collected in English as Die Laughing, and finding writing easier than drawing, he began a series of stories about the witch Isabelle, as yet unavailable in English. It all led to vastly fewer Gomer strips appearing in Spirou.

With an awareness of the background it’s possible to speculate about the strips reproduced here. Is it coincidental that companionship and friendship are far stronger themes that usual? There have been strips of Gomer and Miss Jeanne’s innocent dates, but here Gomer has a continuing romantic fantasy about her involving them lost at sea. Gomer’s friend Jules also appears more often than previously, he and Gomer palling about and working on projects jointly. Also, is a sequence of gags about building walls from the books in the Spirou archive significant? There are also more pointed gags targetting editor Prunelle, which is explained by Franquin not entirely at home with a change of editors at Spirou. In terms of layouts, many more pages featuring eight panels or fewer on a page, and the top half page of the sample art is dark indeed for a Gomer Goof strip aimed at children.

However, looking at Goof-Off at Gomer Corral without considering any of the above displays amazing cartooning and continued capacity to mine new material from old subjects, such as the constantly frustrated attempts to sign Masmaeker’s contracts. That’s what counts, and although this isn’t peak Gomer Goof, by any other standards it’s very good indeed.