Euro Previews — ‘Gomer Goof Volume 11: Goof-Off At Gomer Corral’ — More Of The Comedic & Comic Genius Of Franquin

Gomer Goof, or Gaston Lagaffe as he’s known in Europe, is one of the absolute classic comedy comics, created by the genius of Andre Franquin. Volume 11 is, gloriously, more of the same…

More adventures with the magnificent creation of Franquin, the lazy, accident-prone (“Lagaffe” means “blunder” in French) innocent dreamer and anti-establishment icon who somehow walked into a job at Spiro all those years ago and where he’s continued to cause chaos and stress to all around him ever since.

Essentially, if you’ve read one Gomer Goof/Gaston Lagaffe album, you’ve read them all – but that’s no bad thing when those misadventures are so consistently and uproariously funny as Franquin manages to be every single album, altering little but still making the brilliance happen. And as for them all riffing off the same basic gags, you could say the same for Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, and so many other comic and comedic greats over the years, couldn’t you?

No, the joy of Gomer Goof is that Franquin always delivers with the comedy of the absurd, and it’s watching Gomer turn an everyday moment into the latest bit of chaos that makes every volume of this series absolutely essential reading.

Normally, I’d carefully go through and grab a few choice images for this part of the preview. But Gomer Goof by Franquin is simply so sublimely good and guaranteed funny that I’m just going to use a random number generator to grab a page… here you go, page 15, love this one, the comedic dexterity of Franquin, the ridiculousness of it all, the absolute Gomer logic, and the rich cartooning skills at play…

Here’s Cinebook’s blurb for this one…

‘Gomer Goof is a master loafer. He’s also a genius, if absent-minded, inventor. His laziness, his gadgets and his sheer bad luck create havoc at Spirou Magazine and drive his colleagues crazy – but he’s such a likeable guy!

When Gomer isn’t unwittingly sabotaging all work at Spirou Magazine, he naps at his desk and dreams of being a handsome, fearless action hero for Miss Jeanne – not realising that this is already how she sees him! But outside the office, out in the city streets, well, that’s Officer Longsnoot’s territory, and between him and gomer – and most importantly Gomer’s often apocalyptically tweaked car – a merciless war of nerves is waged every day!’

So we get 48 fabulous pages of Gomer in all his glory here tinkering with his alternative fuel car, causing chaos in the Spiro offices, dreaming of Miss Jeanne, loafing off, causing more chaos in the Spiro offices, really winding up the boss, training his gull (yes, his gull) to warn him when the boss is coming, getting in trouble with the constabulary over that damn car of his, destroying the Spirou offices to create car flaps in every door, really really winding up the boss, causing trouble with Officer Longsnoot, causing even more chaos in the office and newarly driving the boss to violence, and – well, you get the idea.

Again, back with the random number generator to show you that any page I pick would be hilarious – page 39…

You see, now that is just perfection on the comic page, the way Franquin masterfully works his characters, the lovely body language and facial expressions, the work done to set up such a ridiculous gag… beautiful.

Yes, every page and every panel is perfectly drawn by Franquin, every page has a gag that hits and hits again, whether it’s through Franquin’s masterful timing of the physical gag, his exquisite way with words for a verbal gag, or a combination of the two.

Frankly, Gomer Goof is one of those perfect every single time books – Franquin’s genius makes it so.

GOMER GOOF VOLUME 11 – GOOF-OFF AT THE GOMER CORRAL
Written and illustrated by Andre Franquin

Translated by Jerome Saincantin

Published by Cinebook on 28th March 2024

Now, a little preview of the first few pages of the book for you – time to start laughing…