Gil Jourdan

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (June 2010) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 4,741 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Gil Jourdan]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Gil Jourdan}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Gil Jourdan is a Belgian detective comic strip created by Maurice Tillieux. It is a combination of mystery, adventure and humour.

From left to right: Libellule, Jourdan and Crouton on the cover of an omnibus edition

Origin and premise[]

In 1956 the Belgian comic magazine ceased publication. Felix, the adventures of a young bespectacled detective written and drawn by Maurice Tillieux, was among the casualties, but returned in Spirou magazine as Gil Jourdan, though without the glasses.

Jourdan made his first appearance in a rather original manner: in issue 962 of Spirou, the bungling police Inspector Crouton takes wisecracking burglar Libellule out of prison in order to proceed to a reconstruction of a theft for which he has been arrested. Libellule is then snatched from right under Crouton's nose by a young man named Gil Jourdan. Jourdan is a private investigator in need of a big break and he thinks that Libellule's burglary skills could be useful in exposing a gang of popaïne [sic] smugglers.

Once the smugglers' ring had been captured, the trio of Jourdan, Libellule and Crouton would proceed to handle other cases which sometimes took them from France to South America and the Middle East, Libellule and Crouton providing the comic relief which contrasted with Jourdan's earnest nature. Looking on was Queue-de-Cerise, Jourdan's secretary who sometimes also helped out in the investigations.

Main characters[]

Clockwise from top left: Gil Jourdan, Libellule, Inspector Crouton and Queue-de-Cerise.

Publication and legacy[]

First appearing in Spirou magazine, Jourdan's adventures were then published in book form and even as omnibus editions which included short stories and other Tillieux detectives like (an FBI man in the 1930s), (the original Jourdan) and (another detective).

In later years the drawing was entrusted to the artist while Tillieux stuck to the writing. Tillieux' death in a car accident in 1978 brought an end to the series, though a number of short stories by other artists were drawn and published in homage to him and Jourdan some ten years later.

Notes on some of the stories[]

A short story La poursuite (The Pursuit) was published in issue 1316 of Spirou in 1963 and acted as a prequel to the series. In it Crouton makes several desperate attempts to arrest Libellule. This story takes place before either of them meets Jourdan.

Jourdan's early adventures were banned in France by the censor, who objected to the portrayal of the French police, represented by Crouton, as bungling, incompetent no-hopers. Crouton later became a more efficient police officer, even if he was sometimes a bit slow on deductions. The ban was later lifted.

La rue perdue (The Lost Street), published in 1978, was set in 1953 and was thus yet another prequel to the series. The story is also notable for being published in the quarterly magazine Tintin Special (see Tintin magazine), Spirou's main competitor. Sadly and ironically it was also Tillieux's final Jourdan adventure.

Stories[]

To date four of Jourdan's adventures have been published in English. Below is a list of the French titles, their year of publication, an English translation of the titles and a brief description. They are listed in order of publication.

By Tillieux[]

Post-Tillieux[]

The series ended in 1978 following Tillieux's death. Ten years later published the comic book L'Hommage à Gil Jourdan - Les enquêtes de leurs amis ("Homage to Gil Jourdan - Their Friends' Cases") with the approval of Tillieux's family. It featured Jourdan and his colleagues in adventures written and drawn by other writers and artists, including several leading ones such as Pierre Seron, Turk, and Tillieux's former assistant Stephen Desberg. The stories also featured some of the crooks from the Tillieux period returning and seeking revenge. Tillieux had been notable for not using the same enemy twice. The cover was drawn by François Walthéry.

English translations[]

In August 2011, Fantagraphics published a translated volume, collecting the third and fourth volume of the original series.

In popular culture[]

In the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels the permanent exhibition brings homage to the pioneers of Belgian comics, among them Maurice Tillieux and "Gil Jourdan".

Gil Jourdan is among the many Belgian comics characters to jokingly have a Brussels street named after them. The Rue des Bouchers/Lange Beenhouwersstraat has a commemorative plaque with the name Rue Gil Jourdan/ Guus Slim straat placed under the actual street sign.^[1]

In May 2009 a wall was dedicated to Gil Jourdan in the Leopold I-straat/Rue Leopold I 201 in Laeken, Belgium as part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route.^[2] There are also two mural paintings dedicated to the series in Auderghem, one in the Rue du Vieux Moulin/Oudemolenstraat and the other in the Rue Emile Idiers/Emile Idiers straat.

Sources[]

External links[]

• Dupuis page for Gil Jourdan collection (in French)
• English fan page
• Tillieux rarity books - Elan publisher - Editions de l'Elan (french)
• Large Tillieux fan site (in French)