First, you're like, "Oh no! Zorglub again!And then we read La Fille du Z, and we love it. An excellent humorous adventure album that works from start to finish on a disheveled pace.
Zorglub, the emblematic enemy of Spirou
Zorglub was created in SPIROU & FANTASIO by Franquin and Greg in 1959 to be the villain of a pair of albums that, even today, serves as a reference in terms of humorous adventure comics tinged with SF. Unfortunately, instead of leaving him aside at the end of Z comme Zorglub/L'Ombre du Z (1959-60), the character was quickly distorted by Franquin himself in the vengeful and scatological Panade à Champignac (1968). Then, feeling compelled to establish some continuity after Franquin's departure from the series, Fournier continued to use the character in the insipid Faiseur d'or (1969). He then reappears, like a hair fallen into the soup, in the sympathetic and sparkling Tora Torapa (1973) to finally disappear … until Tome & Janry's clever tribute in Le Réveil du Z (1986).
Things should have stopped there, but between 2007 and 2011, Zorglub will appear systematically in all versions of SPIROU, becoming as invasive (and ridiculous) by his overuse as Olrik in BLAKE & MORTIMER, and demonstrating in passing a certain lack of originality and inspiration of the various authors. We see him back-to-back in Les Marais du temps (by Le Gall), Aux sources du Z (by Morvan & Munuera), Alerte aux zorkons and La Face cachée du Z (by Yoann & Vehlmann). Four particularly mediocre adventures, if not worse.
So, when it was announced by Dupuis that a new series was to see the light of day with Zorglub as the main character, we had reason to be skeptical, given the way it had been used until saturation in recent years. And then, it must be admitted that José Luis Munuera at the helm of the said series did not give hope for the best results, because the cartoonist had already distinguished himself in SPIROU & FANTASIO alongside Jean-David Morvan during the most disastrous period of the series since Nic & Cauvin (Paris sous Seine, Spirou in Tokyo, At the sources of the Z). In short, we did not expect anything from this first album entitled La Fille du Z.
La Fille du Z, a pleasant surprise
And yet! La Fille du Z is excellent. Munuera, not only artist, but also scriptwriter, offers us a dynamic and successful adventure in every way. The starting premise of never making a foray into the universe of SPIROU & FANTASIO (as long as it lasts) is always respected and allows the author to do what he wants and have fun, which leaves him freer. Its graphics, inspired by both cartoon and manga, which had absolutely no place in SPIROU & FANTASIO, is quite acceptable here and works very well for an independent and original series like this, even if it reuses a character from a highly coded iconic series. The universe of ZORGLUB, like that of PETIT SPIROU for example, is not that of SPIROU & FANTASIO. This is not the point, and unfortunately many will make the mistake of wanting to consider ZORGLUB as a pale spin-off of SPIROU & FANTASIO. Too bad for them.
Based on the original characteristics of Zorglub as defined by Franquin and Greg (namely a genius-megalo-blunderer), and forgetting the following drifts (Zorglub friend of the good guys, while at the base, he is the villain), Munuera can embroider around and does not deprive himself of it, going so far as to invent a girl who will try to awaken his consciousness to Good. The story is well done. It starts on a high and we do not really have time to get bored, especially since the dialogues are also effective and successful. Around these two main characters, we discover quality supporting roles (André, Zandra's boyfriend, and Fredorg, the "Jeeves-robot" of the great Zorglub). The villain of service is quite agreed but fulfills his function very well. And then, concerning the drawing, Munuera offers us some beautiful boxes, not to mention the two magnificent double-pages in which Zorglub summarizes his life. There is also the only nod to SPIROU & FANTASIO in a box with the Zorglhommes. If these are indeed represented, the context of Z is never alluded to as Zorglub.
When you finish reading, you have the banana. And we think we'd like to read another one like that, as dynamic and colorful.
Mission accomplished, Mr. Munuera. And look forward to the next one!
