Spirou #528
Spirou #528 (1948) is a genuine landmark in Franco-Belgian comics history because it opens the serialisation of 'Grand Rodéo' — the third Lucky Luke adventure by Belgian cartoonist Morris and the story that became the backbone of the character's second hardcover album, 'Rodéo' (Dupuis, 1951). Reviewers who have studied the complete Spirou run note that the art in this serial represents a marked stylistic evolution toward the leaner, more cinematically dynamic visual language that would define Morris's mature work. The issue also launches the Spirou run of Frank Godwin's American newspaper strip 'Rusty Riley' (published under the French title 'Jo Lumière'), one of the last significant waves of US syndicated reprint content before Dupuis's lineup became almost entirely European-produced — a transitional moment that captures the magazine's shift away from American imports and toward what would become the golden age of Belgian bandes dessinées.
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By the time Spirou #528 reached newsstands in the spring of 1948, editor Charles Dupuis was overseeing a weekly anthology that mixed homegrown European strips with licensed American syndicate reprints. Morris was producing Lucky Luke's pages single-handedly — writing his own plots (occasionally with uncredited input from his brother Louis 'Lode' De Bevere) and doing all the drawing — as part of the post-war creative circle at Dupuis that also included André Franquin and Eddy Paape. Notably, Morris, Franquin, and Jijé departed for a multi-year trip to the United States in August 1948, meaning 'Grand Rodéo' was begun just before that transatlantic journey that would profoundly reshape Morris's visual style and lead eventually to his collaboration with René Goscinny.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Lucky Luke serial: 'Grand Rodéo' begins its Spirou run with #528 (continuing through #545), written and drawn entirely by Morris (Maurice de Bévère).
- The 'Grand Rodéo' story was later collected as the lead tale in the second Lucky Luke hardcover album, titled 'Rodéo', published by Dupuis in 1951 and released in English by Cinebook in 2015.
- Jo Lumière (Spirou's French title for Frank Godwin's American newspaper strip 'Rusty Riley') begins its Spirou serialisation with #528 and continues through #700 — one of the last major US reprint series introduced to the magazine.
- Jolly Jumper (Lucky Luke's horse) is an ongoing presence in the Lucky Luke serial; his first-ever appearance was in 'Arizona 1880', published in the Almanach Spirou 1947 (December 7, 1946), not in this issue.
- Superman (Clark Kent, Lois Lane) — reprinting the Jerry Siegel/Joe Shuster US newspaper strip — ends its run in Spirou with #528, replaced by a British strip ('Les Aventures de Sam'); this marks the close of Superman's initial Spirou run.
- The issue also carries ongoing instalments of Jean Valhardi (drawn by Eddy Paape), Spirou & Fantasio (André Franquin), Buck Danny (Victor Hubinon/Jean-Michel Charlier), and Tarzan (Harold Foster/Burne Hogarth reprints, whose character's birth name is John Clayton II).
- Morris, Franquin, and Jijé left Belgium for the United States in August 1948 — only weeks or months after 'Grand Rodéo' was launched in #528 — a trip that would deeply influence Morris's art style and lead him to meet René Goscinny.
- Spirou #528 sits squarely in what critics have called the 'golden age' of the magazine (1945–1960), during which Dupuis's Belgian-produced content steadily displaced American reprints.
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