User:StellarDrift/Les Petits Hommes

Les Petits Hommes (English:The Small People) is a French-Belgian comic written by Pierre Seron and published by Soleil Productions. It premiered in edition 1534 of the magazine Spirou on 7 September 1967 and ran for 45 volumes until its conclusion in 2011.

Publication History
Soleil Productions debuted the comics in 1967 in Belgium. For a few years, the comics was published by Dupuis.

Evolution of the series
In the 1970s, the cartoon reflected the typical attitudes, style, and opinions of cartoons typical of the era. In the 1980s, Pierre Seron took the full artistic direction of his series and became the exclusive screenwriter. The drawing is modernized and the characters find their appearance almost definitive around this time.

In the 1980s, Pierre Seron took control of artistic direction of his series and became the exclusive screenwriter. The drawing became modernized and the characters' appearance improved dramatically.

Numerous characters change over time. Characters experienced the abandonment of the cartoon caricatures from the beginnings to stereotyped mentalities like Gilbert and Tarzan. De Lapaille and Lapoutre, the team-mates whose names form a play on words, were considered for removal but Pierre Seron chose to keep only Lapoutre. Dimanche and Cedille make their entry and will become companions, but with very different personalities. These characters discreetly but clearly demonstrate the ambition of Pierre Seron to distance himself from the-then prevalent traditionalist conception of comics destined to fall into disuse: a black character occupies a leading role and is by no plans the subordinate of the white hero (This type of ideology is on the contrary deliberately scratched in the albums with irony). Cédille changes in character from a caricature involving the feminine sexy female without a bit of common sense and proper judgement to the pejorative stereotype of a dumb blonde. As a counterpoint to these new modern heroes, Machiavellian, characterized as sadistic, megalomaniac and uncompromising, the Duc de la Fourrière offers a much-needed villain to the series.

Technology and aeronautics are constant throughout the albums. The series orients toward science fiction, allowing flexibility and dynamic to flourish in a futuristic sense.

Author
From the 1980s, Pierre Seron impresses his personality and style on the albums. The author defines his own codes: now ensuring the drawing and scenario of his albums, he unites the two into a single concept by inventing the "desnario" suitcase.

In particular, The Planet Ranxerox is read by holding the album not in the usual way but as a calendar, and where the color heroes discover a world photocopied in black and white in which they appear as "visual bugs" and disrupts the established order. In the next album Le Trou blanc, where the concept is pushed even further: the album is almost monochrome and the heroes are more lost than ever in a post-apocalyptic Dantesque universe that is without issue, in a certain way.

Tchakakahn, a parallel of the adventure of the little men, takes place another story between the boxes of the album: two children have fun playing balls, the remote control car or to let go a mouse that ends up devouring Completely the boxes of the story at the end of album. There exists a melting-pot that evolves Renaud and his friends in a virtual universe full of computer images as well as duels, which presents an abyss: Renaud discovers there on the boards of a comic book cartoonist the story that he is simultaneously working on.

The author includes a personal touch with the cover page of the album: The cover page does not include an illustration taken from the album, but an unpublished illustration playing on a comic and offbeat register, gladly winking at the theme. This practice is not original: the cover of most Franco-Belgian comic strips typical of the 1950s to the 1960s commonly employ this technique.

The reader also appears in the second period of the series: a small boy representing the typical sample of the series readers who comically comments on the avatars of the heroes: it is however not at all an invention of Seron, since one already finds this type of incrustation in the last spirou of Franquin or in those of Fournier. His point of view is strictly that of the spectator: he himself engages in no action, but is willing to challenge the author in order to criticize his current situation and choices!

Lecteur is only one aspect of the author's taste for the diversion of codes and the mise en abîme scripts. Though originally a classical series for youth, Les Petits Hommes quickly became a personal laboratory where the author invented all sorts of artistic processes.

Names of places and characters
Though Belgian by birth, Pierre Seron seems to exhibit a certain affection for the picturesque names of certain French localities, from which he is largely inspired to name the fictitious places where the little men live, some of which include Eslapion d'Espalion, Ravejols Of Marvejols or Bourg-en-Bresse.

The names of the characters are often also more or less explicit references. The Franco-Belgian comic strip of the 1970s was characterized by a number of clichés, including the surname of the hero, supposedly evoking high moral qualities or the triumphant modernity of the Trente Glorieuses: Michel Vaillant, Marc Dacier, Vic Vidéo, etc. It is with irony that Pierre Seron gives his hero the name of the flagship of the French automobile industry, Renault (despite the spelling slightly modified, with the author himself confirming the reference in La Planète Ranxérox). Lapaille and Lapoutre refer to an evangelical precept. Demanche recalls the character of Friday in the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and the novels of Michel Tournier, and evokes the myth of the good savage, while it is ostensibly the most civilized of the band. Before becoming a prominent figure, Cédille initially appears as a mad doll, a luxurious flourish as the cedilla may seem, a diacritical sign of the written French language. Moreover, his name evokes that of another cartoon heroine equally futile, although in a different genre: Virgule de Guillemets the dulcine of Achille Talon. La Fourrière evokes nothing sympathetic by its name, and it actually enters the universe of the Little Men as a maleficent who puts them in cages. The name of Dr. Hondegger (although close to Heidegger's surname) remains an enigma.

Main Series
Albums are collected together and published starting in 1972.

Soleil Series
These are a series of five albums compiled by the publishers and was previously unpublished in the "junior" collection.

Centaur
Renaud and other small men also appear in the story Kelvinhathor III of the series The Centaurs of the same Seron. This is the 2nd crossover between the 2 series with the story The Golden Volcano.

Synopsis
The comics focuses on the small village of Rajevols. A researcher finds a fragment of meteorite in his garden. What he does not know yet is that his discovery will upset the lives of all the inhabitants of the village. This piece of meteorite has the effect of reducing the size of any person who comes into contact with it. It does not stop there since a simple physical contact with an affected person has the same effect.

As a result, all the human beings in the village have shrunk to minuscule proportions! The little men then had no choice but to create a new city of their size: Eslapion.

Thanks to Dr. Joachim Hondegger, the young men quickly benefit from highly advanced technology, enabling them to overcome all the difficulties they face. This freedom and power allows them to experience numerous wild adventures.

Characters

 * Régis Renaud
 * Hero of the series. Gaston Lagaffe has curious black and white hair surmounted by a single hair in the form of an antenna (the object of occasional gags and jokes). He often is seen wearing futuristic outfits . A full-time hero, he is characterized by his uprightness, generosity, and courage. He has flaws that manifest into qualities seen as as somewhat of a comedian, a party animal, and angry person.. In the community of small men, he is responsible for the safety of the caves of Eslapion and its inhabitants. Incidentally, he is an ace at flying in aviation.


 * Cédille
 * Appeared in the album Petits hommes et hommes-mones, she immediately becomes the second female role that will now stick to the Basques of Renaud in all her adventures. Sexy, ingenuous (even gourd), angry, resentful, crampon possible, blue flower ... she is both adorable and unbearable. Its great specialty is to get ingrained by playing underground passengers.


 * Dimanche
 * Tranted, it means "Sunday". Appeared at the same time as Cédille, he embodies the archetype of the cultured black. Educated, philosopher, fatalistic, he sometimes plays the role of the conscience of the group and offers a counterpoint to Renaud's burned head and Lapoutre the rascal. As for Cedille, who represents all his opposite, he supports it so badly, and these two do not miss an opportunity to send themselves little bitter-sweet sentences. He expresses himself in chastened language but does not pronounce the "R".


 * Lapoutre
 * Faithful friend of the quasi beginnings of the series, he passes through various roles during this one. Lapaille will not change over the course of the comics, while Lapoutre will develop over the albums a character more and more assertive. Aside from that that he is a good comrade, courageous (even if he must be pushed a little at the start), jovial, and apparently seductive because, it is revealed that he is related to some of the prettiest Petites Femmes.


 * Lapaille
 * Lapaille, along with his Alter ego de Lapoutre, at the beginning of the series, their two names recall a famous parable spoken by Jesus in the sermon on the mountain, in the Gospel according to Matthew : "How can you say to your brother," Brother, let me take off the straw that is in your eye ", you who do not see the beam that is in yours? Compared to Lapoutre, Lapaille never developed a very thorough psychology and would always remain a secondary adjuvant. Nevertheless, he is seen to return in a recurring manner as a sympathetic and jovial companion, though not always brilliant with exemplary courage.


 * Dr. Joachim Hondegger
 * Dr Hondegger in the series plays a decisive role in the resolution of the catastrophes. He often is at or near the origin. An archetype of the sorcerer's apprentice, he presents himself as always helpful and invents potions with more or less controlled effects. Full of energy, wacky humor, and jokes, Dr. Hondegger comprises the archetype of the mad scientist.


 * The Duc de la Fourrière
 * He's a bit anti-doctor Hondegger. Contrary to his alter ego, he is evil, shameless, ambitious, megalomaniac and sadistic. His genius is expressed in a very different way from Dr. Hondegger, who is rather good at chemistry and biology. The two do not oppose each other directly.

Inspirations
In 1999, Éditions Joker began publishing a series entitled Les Petites Femmes. The licentious spirit of Pierre Seron, often present at the second degree in Les Petits Hommes, is expressed this time without restraint. Despite its name, the series is not at all a spin-off of the Petits Hommes, nor is it a series for the youth. In fact, the comic's atmosphere is a very erotic in nature with the constant references to the anatomies of its protagonists, both male and female. The protoganists indulge in engage in vies on enchanting tropical islands, exploring all possible sexual fantasies, without anything to lose.

Editions


 * 1) The Little Women and the Holy Template (1999)
 * 2) The Little Women ... with Feathers (2000)
 * 3) The Little Women and the Heads of Node (2001)
 * 4) "Messiah" the return (2005)
 * 5) In Search of the Small Breast (2007)
 * 6) V.D.Q.S. (2009)