'' QRN sur Bretzelburg'' (''Eng. Lit.'', ''QRN over Bretzelburg''), written by Franquin and

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadi ...

, drawn by Franquin with assistance by Jidéhem, is the eighteenth album of the ''

Spirou et Fantasio ''Spirou & Fantasio'' (french: Spirou et Fantasio, wa, Spirou eyet 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 comics, European ...

'' series. The story was initially serialised in '' Spirou'' magazine under the name ''QRM sur Bretzelburg'' over an unusually long period (including a break in 1962), before a delayed hardcover album release in 1966.

Story

In ''QRN over Bretzelburg'', trouble stems from Fantasio's amazingly small transistor radio which gets wedged stuck inside the

Marsupilami ''Marsupilami'' is a comic book character and fictional animal species created by André Franquin. Its first appearance was in the 31 January 1952 issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Spirou''. Since then it appeared regularly in th ...

's nose. Apart from the grief and restlessness caused to all nearby by the unstoppable radio, the device jams the transmissions received by Marcelin Switch, a neighbour and radio enthusiast, who claims that this puts the life of King Ladislas of Bretzelburg in grave danger. While Spirou and Switch take Marsupilami to the clinic for nose surgery, Fantasio wearing a bathrobe and slippers in the wrong place at the wrong time is abducted by secret Bretzelpolizei who mistake him for Switch. Leaving the Marsupilami to recover in the hospital, Spirou, Spip and the nervous Switch travel to the dictatorial state of Bretzelburg, determined to rescue Fantasio, currently being tortured by the enthusiastic Dr.Kilkil. There, the team, reunited with the Marsupilami who has recovered uncannily fast and followed them across Europe, deal with a very unusual political situation...

Background

Franquin has explained that he started ''QRN'' intending it to be another Zorglub story, but that this was vetoed by publisher

Dupuis Éditions Dupuis S.A. () is a Belgian publisher of comic albums and magazines. Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French ...

, who had seen enough of the character for the moment. Lost for ideas, Franquin called Greg to help come up with a new plot. Even with this help, Franquin was forced by an early bout of depression to abandon the story half-way through and return to it later. Franquin realised at that time that he would not carry on with ''

'' for much longer. In established comic book tradition, this album features apparently identical twin policemen similar to

Thomson and Thompson Thomson and Thompson (french: Dupont et Dupond ) are fictional characters in ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. They are two incompetent detectives who provide much of the comic relief throughout the s ...

from ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comi ...

'', this time in a stereotypically German incarnation. In one scene, the angry King tells them to take their hats off in his presence, assuring them that they run no risk of brain colds.

Edits

When first published in '' Spirou'' magazine, the story was named ''QRM sur Bretzelburg''. The title was changed from "QRM" to "QRN" between the serialisation and the book publication. The magazine also featured scenes which were edited out for the book edition: *In the opening, Spirou runs around the house desperately switching off Fantasio's loud-playing radios. He even goes so far as mistaking the air conditioner, the

toaster A toaster is a small electric appliance that uses radiant heat to brown sliced bread into toast. Types Pop-up toaster In pop-up or automatic toasters, a single vertical piece of bread is dropped into a slot on the top of the toaste ...

and the flash camera for radios. *The Marsupilami causes chaos when he wanders around town with the miniature radio jammed in his nose. A commentary on a football game matches his moves as he gets around the various people in his way, faces a policeman (goalkeeper in the commentary) and a goal is struck when the pursuing Spirou and Fantasio collide with the officer. *Later, in Bretzelburg, Kilikil forces Fantasio to walk around the jail's exercise yard with shoes that are far too small for him.''Spirou'' #1308, May 1963 (This takes place after the scene where Fantasio is shown banging on the cell door and complaining about having no shoes; the shoes can be seen when he is moved to another cell next to the kitchen.)

Themes

In this story Franquin highlights the

arms trade Arms trade may refer to: *the global markets for any product of the arms industry *Small arms trade *Illegal arms trade (arms trafficking) See also *Arms Trade Treaty *Arms control *Nuclear proliferation * Chemical weapon proliferation *Arms race ...

and how it encourages unnecessary conflict between nations in the pursuit of profit. He also satirises the effect on the local economy with people forced to

pedal A pedal (from the Latin '' pes'' ''pedis'', "foot") is a lever designed to be operated by foot and may refer to: Computers and other equipment * Footmouse, a foot-operated computer mouse * In medical transcription, a pedal is used to control p ...

to move the bus due to fuel restrictions; the lack of food in the shops; and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

s being worn as clothes. The weapons themselves are also shown as useless:

oil barrel A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

s are stuck together to appear like

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s and grenades are made from food tins with the contents still inside. One might also in general see a de facto satire over life in then contemporary totalitarian states in especially

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

, like e.g.

DDR DDR or ddr may refer to: *ddr, ISO 639-3 code for the Dhudhuroa language *DDr., title for a double doctorate in Germany *DDR, station code for Dadar railway station, Mumbai, India *' (German Democratic Republic), official name of the former East ...

. (Both stereotypical Germans and actual spoken German appear in the story.)

References

Franquin publications in ''Spirou''
BDoubliées ;Footnotes

External links

Spirou official site album index

Franquin site album index
{{Franquin Comics by André Franquin Spirou et Fantasio albums 1966 graphic novels 1966 in comics Comics set in Europe Comics set in a fictional country Works originally published in Spirou (magazine) Literature first published in serial form