Episode 75: Collecting Spirou
The publisher of Spirou Journal, in its earliest days, came up with a plan to not lose money of comics returned from the newsstands.
He’d collect them, instead.
It’s a system that has lasted for 80 years now, and that’s what I’m talking about in this special 75th episode of the Pipeline Comics podcast.
Previously, on this website, I wrote about how Pilote Journal did its collections. Spoiler: They copied Spirou’s system:
“The Surprising Way They Collected Pilote Journal“
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I’m not sure Dupuis actually invented the reliure (recueil = row-coy), older magazines from earlier decades were also collected, I have some of the turn of the century ones, La semaine de Suzette started in 1905 and is available in similar collected volumes, Lisette started in 1921, same thing. Coeurs Vaillants in 1929 I think, and I’m pretty sure there were a few more, where the founders of Spirou got their start.
This page might give you an idea.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_p%C3%A9riodiques_de_bande_dessin%C3%A9e
As opposed to Tintin mag which had 2 editions in french, each with country-specific ads, Spirou only had one but progressively abandoned pure belgian references to invest in the french market in the early 50s. Reliures were a big part of the catching up, for me and many other collectors, as they were easily available in second-hand bookstores and market stands. This is how we discovered many classics.
My oldest Spirou reliure is number 12 and I have two versions of 94, same cover but with different sizes and contents so that is a mystery for another day.
Did Le Journal de Tintin ever put their magazines into collections at all? Just like Spirou and Pilote did at all?
Yes they did. It was a common practice for most periodicals for many years over here, and a more affordable fashion to follow and collect them.