Belgique - Brabant wallon - Limal - Cubitus - 01

''Cubitus'' is a Franco-Belgian comics series, and the basis for the ''Wowser'' cartoon series appearing in the United States. ''Cubitus'' was created by the Belgian

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

Dupa, and features Cubitus, a large anthropomorphic dog, who lives with his owner Semaphore. Cubitus is known as ''Dommel'' in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, ''Muppelo'' or ''Pom Pom'' in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, ''Teodoro'' in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, ''Zıpır'' in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and Доммель in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. His name derives from the old anatomical name of the

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

bone, supposedly derived from the Greek ''kybiton'' (elbow).

Synopsis

The series tells the story of Cubitus, a good-natured large, white dog endowed with speech. He lives in a house in the suburbs with his master, Sémaphore, a retired sailor, next door to Sénéchal, the black and white cat who is Cubitus' nemesis. A vast majority of the album publications collect single page gags, but a few gather collections of shorter stories or, in rare cases, one long story throughout the entire album. Some of the single gag albums or short story compilations are thematic, with for instance in "''Cubitus illustre ses ancêtres''" revisiting history of humankind, "''L'ami ne fait pas le moine''" being pastiches of fellow authors from '' Tintin'' magazine or ''Les enquêtes de l'inspecteur Cubitus'' where he is a fictional police inspector.

Characters

*Cubitus: Hero of the series, he is a white dog with a large belly, a black snout and yellow tail. Initially a dog with hair covering the eyes, Cubitus ended up becoming still more anthropomorphic. Nearly entirely human in behaviour, he walks on two legs, has hands instead of paws, and is able to perform any human action, although he retains his canine love of bones. *Sémaphore: A retired sailor who is the "Master" of Cubitus, even if sometimes the relationship of master and dog can be reversed. In the series, Semaphore's role is mainly to create inventions that are intended to be functional and aid his friends, but in the end lead to trouble. *Sénéchal: A black and white cat, close neighbour and Cubitus' worst natural enemy, with whom he has an ongoing rivalry. In longer stories he may be Cubitus' ally. *Ventenpoupe: an old friend of Semaphore, and a swindler.

Side characters

*Manuel de Cotalos Y Mucho Gusto, the ghost of Semaphore's improbable Sidecar outfit' pannier.

Publication history

''Cubitus'' first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Tintin'' on April 16, 1968. The series gained immediate popularity, and began album publication in 1972. After several years of gags and album publications, it became the title strip for a magazine of its own. The first publication of ''Cubitus'' was published by

Le Lombard Le Lombard (), known as Les Éditions du Lombard () until 1989, is a Belgian comic book publisher established in 1946 when '' Tintin'' magazine was launched. Le Lombard became part of Média-Participations since 1986, alongside publishers Darg ...

in December 1989, though it proved short-lived, lasting only six issues. In 2005, the series was relaunched by Pierre Aucaigne (scenarist), and Michel Rodrigue (artist) under the title ''Les nouvelles aventures de Cubitus''.

Bibliography

Dupa albums

# ''Du meilleur tonneau'' (1972) # ''Un oscar pour Cubitus'' (1973) # ''3e service'' (1974) # ''Tout en caressant Cubitus'' (1975) # ''Chien sans souci'' (1976) # ''Alerte au pédalosaure'' (1977) # ''Cubitus illustre ses ancêtres'' (1977) # ''La corrida des hippopotames casqués'' (1979) # ''Pour les intimes'' (1980) # ''Heureux qui, comme Cubitus'' (1981) # ''Raconte-moi, Cubitus'' (1982) # ''Tu le fais exprès ou quoi?'' (1983) # ''L'ami ne fait pas le moine'' (1984) # ''Cubitus et la boîte qui parle'' (1984) # ''Cubitus, tu nous fais marcher'' (1985) # ''Cubitus, chien fidèle'' (1986) # ''Cubitus, pas de salades'' (1986) # ''Cubitus, est-ce bien sérieux?'' (1987) # ''Cubitus, quand tu nous tiens!...'' (1988) # ''Cubitus, remets-nous ça'' (1989) # ''Toujours avec deux sucres'' (1989) # ''L'esprit égaré'' (1989) # ''Les enquêtes de l'inspecteur Cubitus'' (1990) # ''Cubitus, donne la belle papatte'' (1990) # ''Tout ça c'est des histoires'' (1991) # ''Cubitus, chien sans accroc'' (1991) # ''Cubitus se met au vert'' (1992) # ''Chat, ch'est du chien!'' (1992) # ''Copain toutes catégories'' (1993) # ''Cubitus fait toujours le beau'' (1993) # ''Cubitus, au poil près'' (1994) # ''Cubitus et les cumulus de Romulus'' (1994) # ''Cubitus mon chien quotidien'' (1995) # ''Un bouquet garni pour Cubitus'' (1996) # ''Chien indispensable'' (1997) # ''L'héritage du Pastaga'' (1998) # ''Cubitus ne mord jamais'' (1999) # ''Si tous les gags du monde...'' (2000) # ''Cubitus, ça n'arrive qu'à toi!...'' (2001) # ''Tu te la coules douce...'' (2002)

''Les Nouvelles Aventures de Cubitus''

# ''En avant toute !!'' (2005) # ''Un chien peut en cacher un autre'' (2006) # ''En haut de la vague !'' (2007) # ''Tous des héros !'' (2008) # ''La Truffe dans le Guidon!'' (2009) # ''Mon chien à moi !'' (2010) # ''Le chat du radin'' (2012) # ''La guerre des boulons'' (2013) # ''L'école des chiens'' (2014) # ''Cubitus a tout inventé !'' (2015) # ''Super-héros!'' (2016) # ''Vu à la télé'' (2017)

Short films

In 1977, the strip was adapted into an animated short film

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

by the Belgian studio Belvision, featuring the voices of André Gevrey, Georges Pradez and Guy Pion. It was released on VHS by Regie Cassette Video in the 1980s as a part of ''Les héros du journal de Tintin'' ("The Heroes of Tintin"), a compilation of animated short pilots adapted from comics from the ''Tintin'' magazine by Belvision, and broadcast on Radio-Québec's Ciné-cadeau on December 29, 1984 and January 1, 1986, and Télétoon in 2000. On November 28, 1984, the strip was adapted into three animated sequences on ''La bande à Bédé''.

Anime

In 1988, the strip was adapted into a Japanese cartoon series named ''Don Don: Domeru to Ron'', which was re-titled as ''

Wowser "Wowser" is an Australian and New Zealand term that refers to someone who seeks to deprive others of allegedly immoral and sinful behaviour, such as drinking, smoking and gambling. Critics of wowsers typically describe them as prudish and self-ri ...

'' for US audiences. Dubbed by

Saban Entertainment BVS Entertainment, Inc., previously known as Saban Productions, Saban Entertainment and Saban International, is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. Founded on April 24, 1980, as a music production company by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, it ...

, it is the only part of ''Cubitus'' that has been translated into English. In 2011, there were plans to adapt the strip into a new 3D computer animated series. The series was produced by Ellipsanime and Storimages.

Impact

* Cubitus and Sénéchal appear on ten self-adhesive stamps launched by the French Poste in September 2006. * A statue of Cubitus, by Yves Cauwenberghs, was erected on 3 October 2002 at Limal, where Dupa spent the last 30 years of his life. * A mural painting of Cubitus can be seen in Brussels.

Sources

''Cubitus'' publications in Belgian ''Tintin''
an

BDoubliées
List of albums on Bedetheque.com

Cubitus profile
on Hyphen comics * https://web.archive.org/web/20080628212141/http://www.bdparadisio.com/scripts/detail.cfm?Id=290

References

External links

Cubitus
on Le Lombard
Cubitus
fan site {{in lang, de Belgian comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1968 Lombard Editions titles Comics about anthropomorphic dogs Comics about anthropomorphic cats Bandes dessinées 1968 comics debuts Gag-a-day comics Humor comics Surreal comedy comics Fictional Belgian people Belgian comics characters Male characters in comics Anthropomorphic dogs Comics adapted into animated series Comics adapted into television series Metafictional comics Fiction about rivalry Comics set in Belgium Comics about talking animals Slapstick comedy