Gaston Lagaffe in the spiral of moral rights

The announcement by Éditions Dupuis of a new Gaston Lagaffe album drawn by the Canadian author Marc Delaf, to be published in October 2022, was a bombshell at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and did not fail to move fans of the character created by Franquin in 1957, divided between nostalgia and dilemma about the sacredness of the character and the work.

But do Éditions Dupuis have the right to revive Gaston Lagaffe for new adventures when his author and creator Franquin disappeared in 1997? His work is obviously protected by copyright and its exploitation is therefore controlled.

If Éditions Dupuis holds the economic rights on the existing work and the character, the copyright, both Belgian and French law, includes a second powerful component: the moral right, which is inalienable.

Franquin’s daughter, Isabelle Franquin, his sole heir and beneficiary, is currently responsible for the implementation of this moral right.

She recently announced, through her counsel, that she had applied to the interim relief Judge of the French-speaking Court of first instance (TPIF) in Brussels to prevent any media coverage of the announced album. A procedure seems to be underway on the merits to decide on the legality of this new album. Mrs Franquin has made it known that « her father has always expressed during his lifetime, in a continuous and repeated manner, his wish that Gaston should not survive him under the pencil of another artist ».

In this context, and unless an amicable agreement is reached between Éditions Dupuis and Isabelle Franquin, it seems that the future of the announced new album is not very promising, for the respect of the author’s will throught time.

− Eléonore DAUPHANT, IP Attorney and partner at Mark & Law