7 /10 1 Votes
Series Spirou et Fantasio Date of publication 1959, 1971 Date 1974 | 3.5/5 Goodreads Writers Franquin
with Greg Originally published 1974 Preceded by Tora Torapa Publisher Dupuis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Artists Franquin
with Jean Roba Published in Le Parisien Libéré,
Spirou magazine Issues Unknown,
#1721 - #1723, #1420 Followed by Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba Similar André Franquin books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tembo Tabou, written by Franquin and Greg, drawn by Franquin and Jean Roba, is the twentyfourth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series, and the twentieth under Franquin's authorship. The story was initially serialised in Le Parisien Libéré in 1959, and later in Spirou magazine, before it was published, along with the Marsupilami story La Cage, as a hardcover album in 1974.
Contents
Story
In Tembo Tabou, Spirou and Fantasio find themselves on another expedition travelling upstream an African river, in search of vanished American author Oliver Gurgling Thirstywell. Events become increasingly more strange when they discover red elephants, befriend a pygmy tribe, learn of Marsupilami's love of eating warrior ants, and confront a gang of "protection racket" thugs who cultivate meat-eating plants.
The story The Cage cronicles an awful day at work for intrepid poacher Bring M. Backalive, obsessed with capturing a living sample of a baby Marsupilami, who learns the cost of angering a Marsupilami father.
Background
The title story of this album was produced in the period between the making of Spirou et les hommes-bulles and QRN sur Bretzelburg.
Trivia
In the 1970s, Swedish publishing house Carlsen Comics deemed the story's contents to be racially offensive, and the album was never published in Sweden. However, it was published in Denmark by Interpresse. The story was later published in Sweden in book form, included in the collected series of Franquin's Spirou,