Spirou and Fantasio

Spirou et Fantasio (Spirou and Fantasio) is one of the most popular classic Franco-Belgian comics. The series, which has been running since 1938, shares many characteristics with other European humorous adventure comics like The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix. It has been written and drawn by a succession of artists. Drawing: Fournier - Franquin - Janry - Munuera - Nic - Roba - Yoann. Scenario: Cauvin - Fournier - Franquin - GREG - Morvan - Tome - Vehlmann - Yann.

Spirou and Fantasio are the series' main characters, two adventurous journalists who run into fantastic adventures, aided by Spirou's pet squirrel Spip and their inventor friend the Count of Champignac. If he kept his origins a striking red coat bellboy Spirou is an adventurer. Always accompanied by his friend Fantasio and Spip, his favorite squirrel, Spirou fight villains of all kinds around the world. Thus he will fight against the terrible evil scientist Zorglub or pirate John Helena, he will face Italian mafia and Chinese triads in New York or he'll break in Palombia the secret of a mythical animal: the Marsupilami. 

Little Spirou

Le Petit Spirou (Little Spirou) is a popular Belgian comic strip created by Tome and Janry in 1987. The series developed from La jeunesse de Spirou (1987), a Spirou et Fantasio album in which Tome and Janry (at the time the authors of the series) set to imagine Spirou's youth. It was developed into a spin-off series shortly afterwards and the authors have focused on it ever since the controversy created after their final Spirou et Fantasio album, Machine qui rêve (1998). New albums are among the bestselling French-language comics, with 330,000 copies for the latest one.

In addition to continuing to develop the character in the spirit of previous Spirou et Fantasio author Franquin, in this series Tome and Janry paid homage to Franquin's manner of animating the gag's signature.
This series details the antics of the character as an elementary schoolboy. A lot of the gags center around the character's interest in the opposite sex, most notably he and his pals coming up with ways of spying on the girls' showers and dressing room. Other topics concern religion and the contradictions and absurdities of the adult world. It is generally acknowledged that, psychologically speaking, the character in Le Petit Spirou has little in common with the clean-cut adult he will become.