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Émile Bravo’s Le Journal d’un ingénu inaugurated a growing trend of setting Spirou , Fantasio, and friends in WWII times. Bravo’s acclaimed work was followed by the first instalment of a history of Spirou that also contributed to fuelling the interest in retro settings for new albums related to Spirou’s universe. In this article I consider such retro albums as a whole and argue that WWII is only one of the many anchors used by authors to fill a gap in the publication history of Spirou , that as time passes, authors rely increasingly on Spirou’s recovered history and on new content from retro Spirou albums to anchor their work, and that, ultimately, such works are more interested in Spirou itself rather than in history per se.

This article considers Émile Bravo's screenprint, Spirou à Bruxelles, in order to analyse the relations that existed between the two dominant styles of comic book drawing in Belgium during the mid-twentieth century: the ligne claire style associated with Le Journal de Tintin and the Marcinelle school characterised by artists affiliated with Le Journal de Spirou. Working outward from the specific details of this image, the article situates Spirou within the history of Belgian children's publishing, and the world of modernist and surrealist painting as it can be encapsulated in the figure of René Magritte. The article suggests that the study of line has been historically overlooked by comics studies, and suggests ways by which this absence might be rectified.

  MUCH comes from France that I derive pleasure from - New Wave cinema, Gauguin's masterpiece Where Do We Come From?, Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Paul Belmondo, haute couture, Cabernet Sauvignon, escargots, Flaubert, Serge Gainsbourg, croissants, Quiche Lorraine, and of course, Tin Tin, that famed boy detective comic book character created by Herge. I could go on endlessly about the wonders the French have bestowed upon the world but I'm way too generous in holding back from exposing the ignorance and lack of sophistication so many of you would recognise in yourselves. [Emile Bravo] is famed for creating the character of child adventurer Jules, for which he won the Goscinny Award for Best Young Scenarist. Occasionally aided by competent translation from Remi Yahya- Ishmael, the French Embassy's Press attache, Bravo expressed his fascination with creating comic books for children. Excerpts:

When the queen's magic mirror declares that Snow White is the fairest of them all, the young princess flees and ends up with seven squat bears that are not happy to see a princess. In an effort to get rid of her, they decide to send one squat bear to find a prince to marry her.