BILBOQUET--Found in Translation

(The beauty of the Internet is that somewhere, somebody has the answer to any question.

In this case, my request for further information about the seminal French comic tabloid BILBOQUET has been been fulfilled by the kindly assistance of Michaël Dewally. Michaël, a dedicated French-born comic historian currently ensconced in America's Midwest heartland, has generously translated the text of L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD - les journaux illustrés 1934-1944 (THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS-The Illustrated Papers 1934-1944), a 2004 overview of French comics by Jean-Jacques Gabut.


L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD - les journaux illustrés 1934-1944
by Jean-Jacques Gabut
Michaël paraphrases Gabut's text (drawing his information from pages 28, 32, 105 – 106, 180 – 183 of the book) and brilliantly puts BILBOQUET into an understandable historical context. So let me step aside and turn this over to Michaël, our very own Auguste Dupin.)
________________________________________________________

"BILBOQUET was published by les Editions Montsouris. The first issue is dated February 6, 1938 and ran weekly for 48 issues before being absorbed into PIERROT. During its run, BILBOQUET published mostly US material. In all, les Editions Montsouris were an unlikely candidate to reprint Eisner’s work on "Les Boucaniers", a.k.a., "Hawks of the Seas".

Founded in 1880 when it first published LE PETIT ECHO DE LA MODE, a magazine targeted at female readers, Les Editions Montsouris was an old publication house that was dedicated to publishing few US materials in its three illustrated weeklies: PIERROT, LISETTE and GUIGNOL.


LISETTE #49 (Dec. 6, 1931)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD
by Jean-Jacques Gabut

LISETTE (started in 1921) published mostly text but notably carried "Little Anny Rooney" and GUIGNOL (1919) never ran any strips. PIERROT (1925), on the other hand, was more illustrated but focused on French and other European material, including work by Pellos, Liquois, Gervy, Stonkus, Le Rallic and Rob-Vel (creator of "Spirou").


PIERROT #10 (March 10, 1929)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD

In this context, the publication by Montsouris of BILBOQUET was an odd experiment and proved short-lived. One can conceive that the old house bowed to the pressure and the success of the other illustrated weeklies that published American material. Yet, by 1938, it seemed too little, too late which conceivably explains it short-lived tenure.


LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY #10 (Oct. 21, 1934)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD

Paul Winkler, creator of LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY (# 1 published on October 21st 1934), is responsible for the appearance of American material in France’s illustrated weeklies. Winkler not only got the rights to publish the Disney strips through Opera Mundi, the publication house he co-financed with Hachette, but he also struck a contract with William Randolph Hearst to distribute the King Features Syndicate’s material.


L’AVENTUREAUX #18 (Feb. 1936)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD

Thus began the revolution that spawned many imitators, starting with Winkler’s own ROBINSON (1936) and HOP-LA! (1937). Others were Libraire Moderne’s JUMBO (1935) and AVENTURES (1936) [Note: AVENTURES was the first to publish "Superman" in France as "Yordi"], Les Editions Mondiales ran HURRAH! (1935) and L’AVENTUREAUX (1936), La Société Parisienne d’Edition (S.P.E.) created both JUNIOR (1936) and L’AS (1937), and other lesser known titles also appeared.


"Futuropolis"
JUNIOR #86 (1937)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD

In light of this explosion of reprints, when Les Editions Montsouris thought to enter the fray, it seems that most US material was already under contract with one of its competitors. During its short run, BILBOQUET is known to have published "Hawks of the Seas" ("Les Boucaniers"), "Tailspin Tommy" (Jean Reid), a strip distributed by the smaller Bell Syndicate, "Captain Bilboquet" by Gene Ahern (presumably Ahern’s "Room and Board"*, a strip started in 1936 when King lured Ahern away from NEA), and "Polo L’Eclaireur Marin" by Léon A. Beroth (could it be "Don Winslow"?). [*excuse the interruption, but it looks more like an older reprint of Ahern's "Our Boarding House" to my eyes--Ken Q]


"Les Boucaniers" ["Hawks of the Seas"]
HURRAH! #199 (1939)
as reprinted in L'AGE D'OR DE LA BD

Success-wise, Montsouris’ lone American material magazine lagged its more illustrious competitors. While it is difficult to ascertain actual publication numbers, estimates are that, pre-War, the weekly numbers were: LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY (500,000), ROBINSON (400,000), HOP-LA! (300,000), HURRAH! (250,000), JUMBO (250,000), AVENTURES (250,000), JUNIOR (200,000), L’AVENTUREAUX (130,000), L’AS (100,000). BILBOQUET ran about 150,000 copies a week.

Upon the demise of BILBOQUET, "Hawks of the Seas" found a new home in HURRAH! from issue # 189 through 250 while "Sheena" ran (appropriately enough) in JUMBO for another publisher. Eisner’s "Hawks" was in good company since at the time HURRAH! was also reprinting: "Bob l’Aviateur" ("Scorchy Smith") by Frank Robbins, "Luc Bradefer" ("Brick Bradford") by Clarence Grey, "Gordon Fife" ("Gordon, Soldier of Fortune") by Carl Pfeufer, "King, Le Roi de la Police Montée" ("King of the Royal Mounted") by Allen Dean, "Myra North" by Ray Thompson, "L’imbattable Pinky" ("Radio Patrol") by Charlie Schmidt and "Tarzan" (dailies) by William Juhre.

One thing I find surprising is:

1)The book does a terrible job at listing the strips that ran in BILBOQUET. While it lists "Hawks of the Seas", it does not list "Tailspin Tommy", even though you have it documented in your issue. The book really emphasizes the larger print run weeklies. Interestingly, the author lists "Jean Bolide" by Forrest as having run in ROBINSON from issue 1 through 194. This can only be again "Tailspin Tommy" which then must have run in more than one weekly at a time.

2)"Tailspin Tommy" makes sense in BILBOQUET, being a strip from the smaller Bell Syndicate … but "Don Winslow", another Bell Syndicate strip, is all reprinted all over during the same period, i.e., "Don Winslow" appeared in L’AVENTUREAUX from # 1 through 245 and also appeared in LE JOURNAL DE MICKEY from # 171 through 257 (re-titled: "Bernard Tempête").

All in all, the appearance of this material in BILBOQUET is not surprising but the mix in the mag is odd (isn’t it always)."
________________________________________________________

Très bon, Michaël! And thank you once again, mon ami.

Eisner/Iger au Francais

I hadn't intended to revisit the Eisner/Iger shop anytime soon. After several posts about their WAGS work I figured to move on to other subjects. But a very recent addition to my very eclectic collection cried out to be shared.

The publication is entitled BILBOQUET, a curious choice since it refers to an ancient game of catching a tethered ball on a peg. Reinforcing the relationship, the tabloid's logo helpfully depicts the game's required equipment. The 8-page tabloid itself reprints various American comic strips, not unlike the British/Australian WAGS that has been the subject of several posts in these parts.


BILBOQUET #28
(Sunday, August 14, 1938)

This issue is apparently #28 and is dated (in French, of course) August 14, 1938. According to the smaller wording beneath the logo, BILBOQUET was published weekly and promised, "aventures" and "gaiete", which I assume you can figure out for yourself.

While BILBOQUET prominently featured the popular American strip "Jean Reid, l'audacieux"--literally, "Jean Reid, the Daring"--on its opening page (what's that, you never heard of "Jean Reid"? How about "Tailspin Tommy"?) it's the appearance of two lesser known strips that prompted my purchase of this in the first place.

(by the way, "Our Boarding House" becomes "Cap'tain Bilboquet", "Freckles and His Friends" mysteriously translates into "Grindeson Et Cie", in English, "Grindeson and Company", and best of all, William Ferguson's "Our Curious World" is bestowed with the refreshingly honest title, "Je Ne Sais Pas Tout" or "I Do Not Know Everything".)

The presence of the cowlicked haired youngster with large button eyes in the logo is the tip-off. That's "Scrappy", the Charles Mintz cartoon character that was the star of his own Eisner/Iger strip in issues of WAGS.

In full disclosure, I first found out about the "Scrappy" strip's BILBOQUET publication from Harry McCracken, former editor-in-chief of PC WORLD magazine, noted blogger and most significantly, the world's foremost authority on "Scrappy". McCracken's own acquisition of an album of collected BILBOQUET issues prompted his email to me a few years back asking if I had any details about the Mintz character's ties to the Eisner/Iger shop. Unfortunately at the time I had nothing for him, for it was several years before I bought my first WAGS and saw "Scrappy" among the other Eisner/Iger content.


Scrappy va au Guatemala
[Scrappy Goes To Guatemala]
If you look to the small notice in the bottom left panel, it grants the strip's copyright to "ag. francaise de presse" and not to Eisner/Iger's Universal Phoenix Feature's Syndicate, nor Editor's Press Service who handled its distribution, nor Charles Mintz, whose name is emblazoned on the strip in its WAGS incarnation.


Scrappy
WAGS vol. 2, #36
The same goes for "Les Boucaniers", the French name for Eisner's "Hawks of the Seas".


Les Boucaniers
[The Buccaneers]

The appearance of Eisner/Iger shop material in foreign language magazines has been known for a while. Most famously, Al Williamson wrote about the Spanish version of "Hawks" he read as a child in Columbia circa 1939, in his introduction to the Kitchen Sink book reprinting of the strip.

What is intriguing is that this French version appeared in 1938, not long after its WAGS publication. Since BILBOQUET was a weekly, it likely started in early February 1938, months before JUMBO COMICS hit the newsstands. Ironically, this means Americans were among the last to see the Eisner/Iger shop's output.

According to various Internet sources (caveat lector!), BILBOQUET only lasted into January 1939, at which time it was absorbed into PIERROT.

As always, dear reader, I welcome any further information on this subject.