Les voleurs du Marsupilami

Spirou et Fantasio #5 Les voleurs du Marsupilami
250x450px Cover of the Belgian edition
Date	1954
Series	Spirou et Fantasio
Publisher	Dupuis
Creative team
Writers	Franquin Jo Almo, idea
Artists	Franquin
Original publication
Published in	Spirou magazine
Issues	729 - #761
Date of publication	1952
Language	French
ISBN	2-8001-0007-9
Chronology
Preceded by	Spirou et les héritiers, 1952
Followed by	La corne de rhinocéros, 1955

Les voleurs du Marsupilami, written and drawn by Franquin, is the fifth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, resuming development of the Spirou universe where the previous Spirou et les héritiers left off. After serial publication in Spirou magazine, the story was released as a complete hardcover album in 1954.

Story

In The Marsupilami's Thieves, Spirou and Fantasio regret giving the magnificent animal they brought back from the Palombian jungle, the Marsupilami, to a zoo, and decide to free the animal again and return it to its original home. This plan fails because someone else beats them to the abduction, and another quest to find the Marsupilami begins. This journey brings them to the city of Magnana, and the fiendish Circus Zabaglione.

Background

As a direct (and slightly less fantastic) sequel to the previous album, Les Voleurs contain several memorable episodes, including the intermezzo at the border station, and Spirou and Fantasio's circus disguise act as "Cam & Leon", with some help from the science of The Count of Champignac.

Football player Valentin Mollet, introduced in this story, is another "shifting" character in Spirou et Fantasio. Initially a villain - he steals the Marsupilami for money to support his family - he repays Spirou et Fantasio for giving him a second chance and ends up saving the day.

Jo Almo, a pseudonym for Geo Salmon, is credited for idea work.

References

• Franquin publications in Spirou BDoubliées (French)

External links

• Spirou official site album index (French)
• Franquin site album index (French)