Characters / Spirou And Fantasio The Main Duo

Main Character IndexThe Main Duo | Allies | Antagonists | Champignac Citizens

The duo

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In General

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• Brains and Brawn: They're both intelligent and Badass, yet Fantasio, with his Gadgeteer Genius side, may be a bit less physical. At least, this is how he describe their duo in the movie.
• Celibate Hero: Fantasio is a bit more into women than Spirou but always finishes by privilege his career. Meanwhile Spirou is more of a Chaste Hero, but some stories implies it's because he's picky, or faithful to The One That Got Away.
• Chick Magnet:
  • Ironically for Spirou, given the Celibate Hero entry, despite it being mainly shown in the last 20 years (and in one-shots). Girls tend to be attracted, with or without the feeling is reciprocal. In Le petit Spirou, there were Suzette, Zoé, Marine and Ludivine. In the main series, there were Luna ^note Also in the second animated series in her case, Iorana, Seccotine, Miss Flanner and Blythe. In one-shots, there were Tian (Les géants pétrifiés), Kassandra and Mieke (Hope against all odds), Audrey and Ursula (Le groom vert de gris), Louise Garoin (La grosse tête), Gisèle (La lumière de Bornéo), Momo (Spirou à Berlin) and Elena (Pacific Palace). In the second animated series, there is the Uhr queen, but Spirou literally ran away from her marriage proposal.
  • Fantasio was sometimes into girls who did not love him back. Like Madeleine (in Hope against all odds), Louise (La grosse tête), and Elena (Pacific Palace). But usually his feelings are mutual. With Ororéa and Noa Noa in the main series, in adaptations and one-shots, with Seccotine (too). In others one-shots, there were Mr.Calloway 's assistant (Les géants pétrifiés), Glu-Glu, Ursula and Aniota (Le groom vert de gris), and Clothilde (Fantasio se marie). Not to mention all female passengers in Panique en Atlantique.
• Distressed Dude: Both been kidnapped, imprisoned, and tied up many times. Fantasio a little bit moreso.
• Famed In-Story: They're not just reputed reporters, Spirou is the official mascot of the magazine of the same name. As a result, people can read their stories in comics and tend to recognize them easily.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Their usual way to defend themselves when confronted to bad guys, which often happens. They've been trained to boxing in the first album (Four stories), and in Hope against all odds, it's a boxing champion who shows Spirou how to hit with a right hook from under. Anyway and throughout his story, Spirou used said right hook with devastating effects.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: They usually live together with common possessions (like cars). Sometimes girls enter their lives, but no matter if the stories with them go good or bad, they never last and the duo stay together alone.
• I Know Karate: In the short story La foire aux gangsters, Soto Kiki, a Japanese bodyguard (actually a yakusa), once teach them judo. Since, it became handy to improve their usual fighting style.
• Improbable Hair Style: Fantasio's Idiot Hair and Spirou's tuft of hair.
• Intrepid Reporter: They're reporters, and certainly intrepids.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Zantafio used zorglwaves to erase from Spirou and Fantasio's memories the fact that they had a Marsupilami as a pet, from Le faiseur d'or on in 1968. In La colère du Marsupilami (2015) though, they finally recover their memories of him. Zantafio teased Spirou on the fact that he may have made him forget others persons and events, like if Spirou got married for instance. But as far as we know, it was indeed a joke.
  • Time Travel shenanigans made Spirou forget the events of Paris-sous-Seine and Aux sources du Z along with Miss Flanner's existence. Fantasio is the only one to remember her, presumably because he went back in time to Retcon those moments.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • For the first 60 years of his existence, Spirou was mostly in his bellboy uniform. Since, he's usually seen in tennis shoes, blue jeans, and a red top.
  • Between The '60s and The '90s, Fantasio was the most often in his combo blue jacket-black pants- red bow tie. Since Turn of the Millennium, he's rather in a dark blue suit with a tie.
• Meaningful Name: In Walloon dialect, Spirou means squirrel, or a mischievous young boy, which Spirou was at first. And Fantasio was created to bring, well, fantasy in his life.
• Only One Name: If they are refered to by their last names, or nicknames, stay a riddle for ages.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Spirou and Fantasio are usually dressed in spades of red and blue, albeit with inverted temperaments, the collected and rational one being Spirou, the headstrong and wild one Fantasio.
• La Résistance: Both are resistants in the real life résistance network "Comète", in stories set during WWII (Le groom vert de gris and Hope against all odds). They have, in both stories, the occasion to protect Jewish citizens, help lost British and American parachutists, and barely avoid imprisonment and executions. ^note In Real Life, the first editor in chief's magazine, Jean Doisy, was actually a resistant known as Le fureteur, and Spirou's magazine was suspended between 1943 and 1944 by the occupying forces for being too subversive. The first fan club of Spirou had then a code of honor that inspired some young readers, inciting them to be resistants as well. Two paid it of their life, like related in the comics Les amis de Spirou. In QRN sur Bretzelburg and Des haricots partout, Spirou and Fantasio join and help resistants of dictatorships in Bretzelburg and Catung, respectively.
• Vague Age: Bellboys were usually 15 to 25, and cub journalists usually no older than 25 either (what Fantasio is in many stories, as he still has to prove his worth). Sometimes Fantasio is hinted to be the eldest, notably in the the movie where actors are 10 years apart. Also in Hope against all odds, Fantasio has to circulate with a fake certificate protecting him from Compulsory Work Service. Said work was compulsory for men between 21 and 50, meaning he is more than 21. In the meantime, Spirou (who's canonically between 12 and 18 during the war's years in this story) is "a bit too young" for this work according to Gestapo agents who then let him go. Bad guys in general tend to call Spirou a "kid", and the narration sometimes describes the duo at a young age. In Les chapeaux noirs, Fantasio states that Spirou is a bit young to drink alcohol. Since, the duo is a bit older in the main series, and around the same age. They are shown as being of the age of drinking alcohol and driving cars, so they can be anywhere between 18 and 30. This is lampshaded in Spirou chez les fous. When asked for an age related discount when he's buying a train ticket, Spirou thinks that he cannot remember how old he is.

Spirou

Voiced by: Vincent Ropion (1992 series), Laurent Vernin (2006 series)

Played by: Sacha Pinault (Le petit Spirou, 2017), Thomas Solivérès (Les Aventures de Spirou et Fantasio, 2018)

The main character of the series, a young and adventurous bellboy, later reporter, involved in various adventures with his Best Friend Fantasio.For tropes applying to him in Gaston Lagaffe, see here.

• The Ace: He can defeat outnumbered bad guys, can pilot planes, the fantacopter or mini submersibles, is skilled at boxing and diving, survived many perils (including surfing on a tidal wave, with his hands tied behind his back) all while being intelligent, and a Nice Guy.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • In the movie, he's a pick pocket with Sticky Fingers, ^note He steal his uniform, jewelry, wallets, a car, plane tickets and even Spip, found in a plane's transportation cage, during all the movie's duration describing the bellboy job as "being a lackey". Spirou's Only in It for the Money attitude is his initial motivation to run after the kidnapped Champignac, who possess a mushroom worth millions, then stay only because Fantasio suggest to pay him for. He tend to have a With Friends Like These... attitude with Fantasio, is a big Deadpan Snarker, have a It's All About Me and I Work Alone behavior, going as far of making Zorglub fall in his Lava Pit with no qualms, despite the latter survives the experience. Spirou theoretically redeems in the end, but seeing him abandon his job without warning don't make him look quite responsible. As the original Spirou was more prone to pursue pickpockets than being one himself, it can explain for a good part the movie under performance.
  • In the one-shot La grosse tête, big time. First, Spirou do a home invasion to read the novel Fantasio is working on (a biopic adapting La mauvaise tête album), instead of simply asking the latter (and not taking no for an answer). Once the book is adapted and becomes a success in theaters, Spirou goes through Acquired Situational Narcissism, despite being usually modest, all with an Entitled Bastard attitude. It results in Spirou starting to date Louise Garoin, despite he knows Fantasio is currently pinning on her, and while not being this much into Louise to begin with. A far cry from his Shipper on Deck habits when Fantasio is involved with women, or Spirou Single-Target Sexuality's attitude towards his rare love interests. Also, despite his Chronic Hero Syndrome, Spirou is now indifferent to the fate of Bretzelburg, while this country experiments an even worse military dictatorship than in QRN sur Bretzelburg. Spirou, Fantasio and the Count then accidentally swallow a Truth Serums concocted by the latter and experiment a Brutal Honesty moment. Even after the effects wear off, Spirou stays mad at Fantasio and argue with him constantly, while openly dismissive of him and his journalistic ambitions.
• Adaptational Wimp: Still in the movie, Spirou prefers at first running in front of Gantagwa's policemen. When confronted to Marie, it seems for a second that Spirou will use his Good Old Fisticuffs, but he renounces, and throw suitcases, the fantacopter, then Spip at her. She clearly has the upper hand anyway, and it's Spip, of all people, who won the brawl and saved Spirou. Later on, when facing Zorglub, the later have no difficulties to simply throw away Spirou like a rag doll.
• Batman Grabs a Gun:
  • Every time she showed up, Miss Flanner tended to make Spirou act out of character. In Paris sous-Seine , she provoke Spip's apparent death and while she gloats about her absence of regrets, Spirou punches her, making it the first and last time he Would Hit a Girl. It's even worse in Aux sources du Z , as in the end, Fantasio discovers that Spirou chooses to stay in the past, to marry Miss Flanner and to never interact again with his friends. While said friends are usually all that count to him, and they still do since Fantasio apparently went back in time to erase those events .
  • Still in Aux sources du Z there's the Forceful Kiss Spirou gives to Seccotine. In the main series at least, he did not show any attraction towards her before or after this scene, despite stating that "he always wanted to do that". If anything, it was Seccotine who seemed attracted to him in Machine qui rêve. It was also contradictory with both Spirou apparent asexuality and Nice Guy attitude, who won't exceed consent. ^note To say the least, it resembles more to Fantasio to do that to Seccotine, if he wanted to shut her up.
  • In the beginning of La femme Léopard, Spirou is briefly The Alcoholic despite being usually The Teetotaler who Can't Hold His Liquor. And barely in legal age to drink alcohol, as he states in the meantime that he is too young to be something else than a bellboy. Granted, he's drowning his sorrows after learning Audrey's disappearance. Thus it express how much of a concern it is to him. Spirou give up drinking at the end of the album.
  • In the live-action movie, he goes a lot against his own codes as well. In it, Spirou is a thief (despite usually honest), a loner who reject first Fantasio's friendship (despite his usual Undying Loyalty to him), greedy (while selfless originally, with a Screw the Money, I Have Rules! policy), a Deadpan Snarker (while usually a Nice Guy), self-centered (while originally helpful), and he's running away from fights (despite usually courageous to the point of recklessness). In the second part of the story, he Took a Level in Kindness, yet deserts his job and tries to kill Zorglub despite his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy. These changes were not well-received and were certainly a major factor in the movie under performance.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: If Le Petit Spirou is taken into account. As a child, Spirou was a Dirty Kid (he provides the page image), and an unruly brat who made sometimes destructive practical jokes. Nothing of this remains when he's an adult, as he since become a law-abiding Chaste Hero.
• Berserk Button: Just don't threat Spip if you want to live. In the short story L'héritage, Spirou wakes up in a room of his uncle's old house after being chloroformed. He spotted a stuffed squirrel and, red with anger, Spirou started to threaten the bandit who dared doing this...until the actual Spip showed up, indicating that the stuffed one was another squirrel. In La vallée des bannis , Spirou watches out to avoid Fantasio presence as the latter, plagued with murderous rage, try to kill him. However as soon as Spirou hears Spip's screams of terror, he rushes right in this direction forgetting all carefulness, allowing Fantasio to knock him out. In Paris sous Seine, Spip seems to have drowned, and Spirou swears that he responsible for Paris's flooding won't get away with it, and that Spip's death must be avenged. When he faces said responsible, Miss Flanner, Spirou punches her despite his Wouldn't Hit a Girl policy and the fact that she's an old, terminally ill woman.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Unfortunately for Spirou, all villains know that, to make him cooperate, they must take Fantasio or Spip (The Count of Champignac and Seccotine to a lesser extend) in hostage. But God helps bad guys once Spirou's friends are out of danger despite the fact that he's usually a nice, forgiving person. As evidenced by his Berserk Button above, offenses towards Spirou's pets infuriate him particularly. In La colère du Marsupilami, Zantafio gloats about how the Marsupilami was desperate to be abandoned by brainwashed Fantasio and Spirou. The latter punches Zantafio in the face in retaliation, yelling that the Marsupilami was their friend.
• The Cape: Spirou is already usually a helpful person with a Chronic Hero Syndrome, in a distinctive costume. But he fits the trope with a T in Supergroom, as a Non-Powered Costumed Hero, despite the costume not including a literal cape.
• Character Tics: During Franquin's run, Spirou had a tendency to chew on things and fidget with his foot when agitated or anxious.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Spirou is supposed to have normal strength, yet, it's easy for him to deliver a Megaton Punch or defeat outnumbered bad guys.
• Chaste Hero: This is lampshaded in Luna Fatale, when Don Cortizone discovers that his men are decimated because of the Love Potion of a female Triad agent. Deciding that Spirou is the only one he knows who can resist such a Honey Trap, he forces Spirou to go undercover and investigate. And it works. Also in The dark face of the Z, the actress Blythe Prejowleski ask Spirou to trash her hotel suite, in order to let her keep an image of a temperamental prima donna. Moments later, Blythe Prejowleski ask Spirou to follow her again in her room, but with apparently different ideas in her mind. However Spirou don't get it at all and trash the new suite again before leaving, not realizing that it was not what Blythe wanted from him.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Spirou usually helps those who need it, and can't suffer injustices committed in front of him. In QRN sur Bretzelburg, Marcellin Switch must refrain Spirou from intervening, and thus attract attention, after they witnessed an arbitrary arrest. In Dans les griffes de la Vipère, Spirou is disguised and on the run, yet an old lady requires to be helped to cross the street. Spirou assisted her to do so, and it turned out that the lady actually needed to see him up close. Right after that, she denounces him. In the parallel series Hope against all odds, Louis and Suzanne, two kids that Spirou happen to know, are arrested and put in a train for deportation as they're jewish. Spirou first witnesses it, tries to intervene, and when asked by guards if he's jewish, he answers that he does (it's a lie) in order to be deported with the children. It could have ended badly if Spirou did not happen to have a knife, used it to open the train window and escape with the two kids.
• Costume Evolution:
  • For the first 30 years, Spirou would wear the full uniform at all times except in bed or bath, or in a few occasions like diving or going on exploration. And yet, he stopped working in an hotel as soon as 1940, two years after the publication began. It was justified in that the distinctive costume helped to identify the character, and that red attracts attention.
  • Except for a short period in Fournier's run where he would be in a civilian (yet mostly red) outfit, for the next 30 years, Spirou would wear the bottom of the uniform mixed with a civilian top (white pullover with a red jacket). This version ditched the gloves. He wore this in the first animated series too, except that the cap was dropped.
  • From the 2000's on, he started to go full civilian. In Morvan and Munuera's run, Spirou was usually in blue jeans, tennis shoes and a red top to keep the color scheme. It was the case too in the second animated series, except the pants were red.
  • Yoann and Vehlmann's run subverted this. Normally, Spirou would wear civilian clothes in their stories too (most often blue jeans, a red jacket, black shirts and tennis shoes). However, in each album, he ends in the full uniform for one reason or another, from contractual obligation to be given nothing else to wear. In one -shots, he could wear the uniform or not Depending on the Writer.
• Costume Inertia: As said above, Spirou would wear his full uniform for 27 years after stopping being a bellboy (and partially for 30 more years) . In one-shots, he wears it or not depending on the context. In stories set in the past (like Hope against all odds and Le groom vert de gris), it's justified as they focus on the period when Spirou still worked in a hotel. In other works, Spirou is still a bellboy (Panique en Atlantique and Pacific hotel) for some reason. In Panique en Atlantique, he explains that he needs to pay his bills. Sometimes, there are in universe explanations, such as in Hope against all odds, where Spirou decided to wear his uniform at all times in remembrance of Kassandra, who liked him in it. In the movie version of Le petit Spirou, he decides to be an adventurer instead of a bellboy, yet he will keep on wearing the uniform. Once again his girlfriend liked it, but the costume pleased Spirou as well.
• Custom Uniform: Between 1967 and 1998, Spirou would keep the pants, shoes and cap of his original uniform, but with a white pullover and a red jacket, and without the gloves.
• Depending on the Writer: Spirou's personality could fluctuate over years, still globally the same, but with preoccupations that could change a bit. During the Fournier and Yoann/Vehlmann runs, he had ecologist concerns (about the nuclear danger in the first run and sustainable development in the second). Of course, this reflected the author's own concerns. He's also more or less Hot-Blooded, and this last trait tended to show up recently. Morvan/ Munuera and Yoann/Vehlmann runs have the most of his Beware the Nice Ones moments, where he can lose his temper completely. In the Yoann/Vehlmann one, was also when he tended to snark the most. In The dark face of the Z, when asked about the utility of his moon base, Zorglub answers that Earth pollution will sooner or later push humanity to relocate in space. Spirou sarcastically answered that his time would have been better used to decontaminate Earth first.
• Determinator: Did Spirou already searched for stolen car plans in a rhinoceros horn, in the savanna? Certainly. Did he follow for miles an inflated rubber mask, then tried to get it back (and a compromising briefcase) on a cliff? At the risk of falling when free climbing ( and he does fall, getting a three months Easy Amnesia in the process), all in order to clear Fantasio's name? He did. Did Spirou try to get out of the valley of banished with Fantasio, who was under a Hate Plague and actively tried to kill him ? You bet. Did Spirou, while 100 feet into the sea depths, try to get back to the surface to warn Fantasio that the guy with them on their boat was Vito Cortizone, despite not having air anymore? He did that too. Did he try to get back a sucked up Spip into the dark immensity of the flooded Seine (and under hostile robots's attacks), having to renounce only when Fantasio dragged him away? It happened. Did Spirou try to find back the Marsupilami into the vast jungle, just because he did not want the latter to feel left behind? Once again he did, to the point that even Fantasio did not find that it was reasonable, and tried to get Spirou back to the civilisation after tied him up.
• Fiery Redhead: This last trait showed up essentially from the 2000's on, as Spirou used to be more prone to get angry in Morvan/Munuera and Yoann/Vehlmann runs. In the first run, he was by far the most violent, daring to punch a woman, while his fights with bad guys resemble No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. In the second, he can get remarkably angry, notably in Alerte aux Zorkons, when he yells a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to both Zorglub and Champignac, prompting the latter to remark: "That boy has a temper".
• Iconic Outfit: Spirou's uniform, that stayed on him for way more long time than justified by his functions. The reason was, apart from the fact that red attracts attention, the distinctive costume was ideal as well to stay in memories.
• Ideal Hero: He has a strong sense of honor, pushing him to refuse to kill anyone and even goes as far as Save the Villain if necessary. A good example is in Dans les griffes de la Vipère, where Spirou was literally bought by an evil MegaCorp. He tries to run away from it and take refuge in Champignac. However, as the corporation agents harass Fantasio, Seccotine, the Count and even Champignac's inhabitants at large to get him back, Spirou decides to give himself up to the agents. What matter to him, is the promise that his friends would be left alone, despite his only fault was to neglect to read the fine prints on his contract.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: As mentioned above, he's upright, and his first fan club had a strict code of honor (that could be his in most aspects). ^note It recommended to be frank, straight, to have guts, be disciplined, faithful to God and country, friend of the weaks, be useful, knowing to do without, not being afraid to get their hands dirty but keep a clean heart, always in a good mood. In L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir, Zantafio touches an Artifact of Doom that wake up an hostile army of zombies, given that he is impure. But the touch of a "wise man" can stop this, and Tanzafio assures that only Spirou can do that. And effectively, when he touches the artifact, it makes all zombies fall asleep.
• Last-Name Basis: In some stories, it's hinted that "Spirou" is actually his last name. In Machine qui rêve, Fantasio wonders why nobody ever addressed them by their first names, and what Spirou first name can be (jokingly suggesting old fashioned ones). In Le petit Spirou, his parents and grandparents are referred to as "Mr./Mrs. Spirou", hinting that it is this family's name.
• Mistaken for Servant: Throughout his story, it happened to Spirou more than once because of his uniform. Other people tended to either ask him to carry their luggage when they spotted Spirou into a hotel lounge, to press the lift button if they shared the same cage, or thought that the friends he was with had a servant in livery. A 80's short story even lampshade this, as Spirou is dragged by the doorman into a luxury hotel one Christmas night, while he happened to go by. The doorman mistook him for a local staff member, and since then, Spirou prefer to wear either a customized version of the uniform or civilian clothes (albeit the most often in red).^note Franquin parodied it in a 1976 poster, where Spirou arrives (in uniform) as a guest in a luxury hotel, and warns he'll kick the first one who'll call him a bellboy.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Depending on continuities, his past could have been described very differently. None has been designed as official so far.
  • In his first apparition, Spirou was a Golem Born as an Adult from a Portal Picture. In his first strip, the director of the Moustic Hotel searches for the best bellboy possible, but applicants do not give him satisfaction. Instead, the director go straight to Luc Lafnet (co-creator with Rob-Vel) and ask the latter to draw such a bellhop.Then the artist sprinkles him with "eau de vie", making Spirou coming out of the picture. Currently, this version is mostly decanonized, making the character fully human. In 1983, in the story La jeunesse de Spirou, this was dismissed as « pure fantasy ». In 2005, in L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir, Spirou tell the story of coming out from a Portal Picture to his psychiatrist as a recurring nightmare he has since his teenage years.
  • In WWII stories such as Hope against all odds and Le groom vert de gris, Spirou is orphaned. In the first story, he grew up in an orphanage since he was a baby, not even knowing if his parents were dead or abandoned him. In the second, he states that his parents are dead and he never met them either, forcing him to work at a very young age. It's probably the case in the movie too, as the Count deduces that Spirou never met parental authority right after their encounter. Later, Fantasio asks what Spirou's parents are thinking of him being a pickpocket, and he does not answer. If his parents died or abandoned him is once again left to interpretation.
  • The short story La jeunesse de Spirou showed for the first time Spirou as a child, in a rather unique way. He still has a Mysterious Past, as he was abandoned as a baby in front of a luxury hotel. But a couple of bellhop workers adopted him, and Spirou goes to school with all the friends and foes he had later. This past was later rewritten differently in Le petit Spirou , by Tome and Janry, the same authors than the present version, which canonicity is now uncertain.
  • In Le petit Spirou, for the first time, Spirou was raised by his biological parents and had even an extended and numerous family (the most prominently present being his grandparents), whose all members wear the same uniform as him. There is no doubt he is with his natural parents, due to Strong Family Resemblance, but also because a strip shows Spirou being born. Albeit it's a story told by Grand-papy, and he assures that Spirou was born with his cap on his head. Of course, the latter doubts the truthfulness of this story.
  • The movie adaptation of this series even stress the fact that everyone, from father to son, was a bellhop in Spirou's family. He's expected to respect the tradition, and feel overwhelmed by the burden of the heritage, due to his desire to be an adventurer instead. In the album L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir, Spirou is invited by his psychiatrist to speak about his childhood. He then said he was getting along well with everybody, but his gymnastic teacher. It sounds exactly like Mr. Mégot, being a first hint in the main series that adult Spirou did have the childhood described in Le petit Spirou.
  • The album Fantasio se marie presents a unique version of his past. In it, Spirou pretends to be orphaned, but his mother is actually alive. She's a Rich Bitch, and Spirou rebelled against his original environment. He was ashamed about the way his grandfather made a fortune (by denouncing others people during WWII, then take their goods).It pushed Spirou to cut all ties, go and take a bellboy job while Rejecting the Inheritance. If he must see his mother again, he wears his old uniform ("a lackey uniform", according to her) just to piss her off.
  • In "Fondation Z", an Elseworld story Recycled In Space, Spirou lives this time in a distant future, his parents work for the administration, Seccotine is his sister, and the Count of Champignac their grandfather. This story turned out to have been a Prequel all along. With Fake Memories, Spirou is sent to a reproduction of Earth in The '50s, along with similarly brainwashed Fantasio, Spip, Zantafio, Zorglub, Seccotine, and the Count. Spirou apparently forgot his blood ties with the latter two, and his parents entirely as they were not sent there. It explain his Mysterious Past for a good part.
• Never Bareheaded: From 1938 to 1998, as he would not wear his cap only when sleeping or bathing, and sometimes indoors. Exaggerated in Le petit Spirou, where Grand-papy once assured that Spirou was born with his cap on. His parents were even worried at first when they did not spot the hat immediately! However, Grand-papy is hinted to be an Unreliable Narrator.
• Nice Guy: Spirou is usually courteous and peaceful, as well as sensible, and nice in general. Many people thought he is even too straight for his own good. In Hope against all odds, Mieke mocks him by calling Spirou "Mr. Virtuous", while implying that you cannot stay pure during a war. In Paris-sous-Seine, Miss Flanner affirms Spirou is a true nice guy rather than just too nice, still, he shall not apologize to someone who just wronged him, it could just become worse after.
• Non-Powered Costumed Hero: In the spin-off Supergroom, Spirou, as the titular character, is dressed in a customized version of his bellboy uniform (and with a mask), and uses gadgets such as the fantacopter to help citizens. However, he sometimes enhances himself with the X1 or X4 to increase his force or intelligence.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: In stories where "Spirou" is not his last name, it's usually a nickname. At least, that's what he states in the movie. In Hope against all odds, he's Named by the Adaptation as his birth name is revealed to be Jean-Baptiste. Yet, at the Moustic hotel, Entresol, the tyrannic doorman, is also named Jean-Baptiste. That's why Fulgence, the bellboy already in service at the hotel, is horrified to hear his new coworker's name. He also spotted Spip in a cage, who was then named Spirou. But Fulgence joked that Jean-Baptiste should be the one named Spirou, as he owns a "spip" (squirrel in walloon) and is a redhead ("roux", in french). Finally Jean-Baptiste renounced to be an homonym of Entresol and decided to pay homage to Fulgence, fired right after his own appointment, by only responding to Spirou name from now on.
• Outdated Outfit: His uniform, to the point that he provides the page image. When the creator, Rob-Vel, was a liner stewart in The Roaring '20s, bellboys, or rather bell's cabin boys as they were called in the navy, would wear such a red uniform. However, it was already out of fashion from The '40s on. It was kept on Spirou as the costume was intrinsically tied with him.
• The Paragon: This is how Jean Dupuis, his devoted christian original editor, defined him. Jean Dupuis thought American comics were too subversive, and the first Spirou fan club came with a code of honor to follow strictly.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He 's usually smaller than Fantasio, and sometimes people mock him by remarks on his height such as calling him a "gnome" or "puny". Plus he was only three feet tall at 8, according to Le petit Spirou. And still, you would not like to meet his Megaton Punch.
• Red Is Heroic: There is the usual color of his clothes, but also his hair color to boot.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: In many instances:
  • In Le Gorille a bonne mine, Doctor Zwart tries to corrupt him with gold nuggets from his mine. Spirou throw them away, before punching the doctor.
  • In Spirou et Fantasio à New York, Spirou declines the million dollars he just won, when he discovers it comes from The Mafia.
  • In Fantasio se marie, it's revealed than Spirou ran away from his rich family, Rejecting the Inheritance, and taking the low paid job of bellboy initially. He was ashamed by the way his grandfather made a fortune, denouncing people then despoiling them of their goods during WWII.
• Shipper on Deck: Usually, Spirou willingly gives a hand to Fantasio when it comes to ladies.
  • In Vito la déveine, as stated above, he gets wasted with a captain in Papeete despite Spirou Can't Hold His Liquor in his own admission. Actually, the captain needed to be distracted while Fantasio was busy flirting with his assumed girlfriend, Noa Noa. Spirou confesses it, and tries to takes the heat by suggesting to the captain to hit him (Spirou promises to not defend himself) to unwind. But the captain finally brushed it off, stating that he always felt that Noa Noa was more into Fantasio than himself.
  • In the movie, Spirou quickly identifies Fantasio and Seccotine's relationship as Belligerent Sexual Tension. After Spirou opened his eyes on the fact, he then recommended to Fantasio to confess to her. But they find themselves in Zorglub's secret lair before this happens. Then, everyone but Spirou is frozen by the zorglwaves. Spirou decides to take the case in hands and pull Fantasio and Seccotine in a liplock position before he reverses the waves' effects. Getting back to their senses is quite a surprise for Fantasio and Seccotine, but they quickly go along with the situation and keep on kissing.
• The Teetotaler: Spirou never drink alcohol usually, to the point that he once dared to order orange juice in a saloon full of drunkards patrons in Les chapeaux noirs, or milk in a russian bar (where it is vodka for everybody else). When he have to accept glasses to be polite, it tend to go directly to his head. Like whisky in Le gorille a bonne mine (where Spirou states he not used to it), and vodka in Spirou chez les soviets where he must accept a glass under the menace of hearing a little girl playing violin. Or a homemade Gargle Blaster in Alerte aux Zorkons, which makes Spirou (but also Fantasio, to be fair) immediately drunk. He once gets drunk too in company of a captain in Vito la déveine, but only by friendship for Fantasio. Spirou states on this occasion that he never drinks usually, as he can't stand alcohol.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • Spirou has such a policy, evidenced in Luna Fatale. The latter is Trigger-Happy, and kills any Chinese mafioso who shows up. Horrified (especially when he learns that she killed more than one guy), Spirou, stating that he'd rather have "the whole China on his back than blood on his hands", prevents Luna from shooting once again. Then he asks her to give him her revolver. Granted, a Triad member then taunts Spirou, assuring he won't dare to use it, but he shoots using angles that cannot wound the mafiosi, forcing them to retreat.
  • In Hope against all odds, despite Spirou has not come of age yet, he is reluctant to join the Belgian army as suggested by Fantasio, due that it is the soldier's job to kill their enemies. They finally join La Résistance, and must blow up a train full of nazis soldiers who came in reinforcement after the D-Day landings. But Spirou insists on blowing up a bridge instead to stop them, before the train drives on it. In the last volume, Spirou stops Mieke from killing a German soldier, who is just an unwilling teenager (it's even on the cover).
  • In fact it often goes as far as Save the Villain when needed, and Fantasio only managed once to make him renounce it in Vito la déveine, as Spirou worried that Chinese mafiosi may have been wounded by a bomb explosion. But Fantasio, depressed, convinces him to finally directly return to Papeete and let bandits deal with it.
  • This respect for life extends to animals as Spirou prefers to chloroform rhinoceros rather than kill them to find plans in the horn of one of them. Tembo tabou states that Spirou and Fantasio are not hunters and never killed animals.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • First, Spirou is loyal to his Love Interests (the first girl he had a relationship with) when he has one. No matter if the girl is someone he met for a short period of time ( a few weeks for Kassandra in Hope against all odds, five minutes for Audrey in Le groom vert de gris), or only happen to learn her name after her departure in Kassandra's case. After that girl vanishes without a trace, no matter if others such as Mieke or Ursula hit on him, Spirou just won't care. When they both come back with severe PTSD, needing time before indulging into a relationship, Spirou accepts to faithfully wait for them in both cases, despite it apparently take years.
  • Same thing with his friends. Under a Hate Plague, Fantasio is in a murderous rage in La vallée des bannis. Others would left him behind (then maybe send help later), but Spirou persist into evacuate Fantasio at the same time than himself from the valley, despite the repeated attempts of Fantasio to kill him. And then there is the Marsupilami. Spirou and Fantasio learn years after that they sold him to a Palombian collector after being brainwashed into doing it. They check on site, and learn that the Marsupilami ran away and joined the jungle. And yet Spirou insists on finding him back, in order that the latter will be assured he was not abandoned willingly. In front of the task's impossibility, Fantasio let Zantafio gives a shot of sleeping serum to Spirou, then tie him up to bring him back home forcibly.
• Working-Class Hero: Bellboy used to be a low-paid job that required no qualifications, explaining it was often done by children and teenagers. Prequel stories such as Hope against all odds and Le groom vert-de-gris make no mystery of Spirou being in dire straits, to the point he can't afford clothes other than his uniform in the first story. Even after he quit to join journalism, and presumably is better paid, he kept the uniform, and thus the working class image (it's even on purpose in Fantasio se marie).

Fantasio

Voiced by: Patrick Guillemin (1992 series), Sylvain Goldberg (2006 series)

Played by: Alex Lutz (Les Aventures de Spirou et Fantasio, 2018)

The Deuteragonist and Spirou's best friend, always by his side since 1943. He's a fellow journalist and often plagued with bad luck.For tropes applying to him in Gaston Lagaffe, see here.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the one-shot Fondation Z that has a Recycled In Space setting, Fantasio was a badass, serious stealth agent with a strong inspiration from Han Solo. According to him, his memory was erased because he was a criminal or a "deviant", then he was reprogrammed with a new, cold and implacable personality. Fantasio then goes on a quest to recover his old personality. It fails as Fantasio is sent, after a second Laser-Guided Amnesia, and with Fake Memories, to a reproduction of Earth in the The '50s. However, if his personality was left untouched this time, he has since recovered the real one, more of a unlucky goofball.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the Live-Action Adaptation, Fantasio is dragged outside a hotel by security guards and don't even resist, despite being usually skilled at fighting.
• A Day in the Limelight: In 2011, a series centered on Fantasio's youth started in Spirou's magazine, showing him as a teenager rather than a kid like Spirou in Le petit Spirou. Turned out that Fantasio's parents were divorced, that he had a younger (to be born) sibling, and Zantafio and him got along well then. But the series was quickly canceled, and was not edited in albums due to being too short.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: Fantasio being more into women, he's sometimes shown (especially in one-shots) going farer with them than Spirou. He's notably the only one of the duo implied to have sex (with Glu-Glu and Ursula) in Le groom vert de gris, or to get engaged ( not for long) in Fantasio se marie. Still, Spirou kissed a woman first in 1995 (the titular character in Luna Fatale). Meanwhile and paradoxally, for years, none of Fantasio's flirt/girlfriend/one night stand/bride kissed him for real. Only on the nose (by the assistant in Les géants pétrifiés, or Ursula) , on the cheek (Ororéa in Le gri-gri du Nikolo-Koba, and Glu-Glu, in Le groom vert de gris), or the forehead (from an air hostess under influence, in L'ombre du Z). In Le tombeau des Champignac, Seccotine also used the zorglwave trick to get kisses from Fantasio, but on the cheek. It would take as late as 2018 (more than a quarter of a century after Spirou), in the movie, and its tie-in comics Le triomphe de Zorglub, to see Seccotine giving Fantasio his first proper big damn kisses on the lips, in both stories. The authors of the comics even stated it was because they wanted the scene to go down in history.
• Best Friend: To Spirou; in fact, they are close to the point expressed in the Heterosexual Life-Partners entry.
• Blue Is Heroic: At first, Fantasio's jacket could be of any color, but always a cold one (like green or purple). By default, he adopted a light blue jacket between the The '60s and The '90s. Coupled with his red bowtie, it became his Iconic Outfit. It became a dark blue costume since, and his alternative clothes (such as swimsuits, coats, pajamas, wet or time-travel suits, kimonos...) tend to be blue by default too. Very likely, it was to mark contrast with Spirou's usual costume color.
• Born Unlucky: He's more prone than anyone else to hurt himself, fall, or be captured by the villains. He nearly worked as a lightning rod for Spirou, and Fantasio once lampshaded it in La vallée des bannis. He notably asks why, if they have to cross a desert, Spirou will get out of it with a godlike tan, while himself will be sunburnt.
• Character Catchphrase: At first, there was "Mille bombes !" ("A thousand bombs!") "Mille tonnerres !" ("A thousand thunders''! "Thunderation"!) in the English version) , or "Mille millions !" ("A thousand billions!"), but these tend to be abandoned since the The '70s.
• Characterization Marches On: Early in Franquin's run, Fantasio shifted from a total goofball to The Comically Serious. With the obvious irony of later having to handle total goofball Gaston Lagaffe.
• The Chewtoy: Depending on the Writer, he could more or less be this, especially in Franquin and Tome and Janry's runs. Those were the runs where he suffered the most Amusing Injuries. But in general, a lot of plots were launched on the basis "Bad things are happening to Fantasio", whether he's framed for theft, kidnapped, brainwashed (or must pretend to), etc.
• Cloudcuckoolander: As his name suggests, he was initially this, his tendency to create bizarre inventions being the most characteristic trait. During the WWII era, he was depicted as a zazou (an european equivalent to being a pachuco), which indicated a quite eccentric personality. Since, Characterization Marches On, and these characteristics have been given to Gaston Lagaffe, while Fantasio became more serious.
• Compressed Vice: In some runs, Fantasio sometimes display addictions he never had beforehand. In the album set in Tokyo, he's a total shopaholic, at least for manga related products. In Yoann and Vehlmann's run, he was a workaholic, to the point that he took his laptop computer in the deep jungle in La colère du Marsupilami, in order to not miss emails.
• Deadpan Snarker: Fantasio sometimes comes off as this, notably in Franquin and Tome and Janry's runs. In the very beginning of Panade à Champignac , Spirou enters the redaction of the journal, in a complete mess because of Gaston Lagaffe 's antics. Spirou encourage Fantasio to stay calm, but the latter answers by asking how it possible given all Gaston's goofs, that he proceeds to enumerate. In La vallée des bannis, Fantasio disapprove Spirou's idea to explore the valley instead of trying of running away from it, by ironize on how the situation would look dangerous for anybody else than Spirou. To Fantasio's credit, he's been already bitten by the mosquito who'll infected him with Unstoppable Rage at this point.
• Depending on the Writer: To some authors (mostly, Franquin, Tome&Janry and Emile Bravo), he is a Bumbling Sidekick who slow down action with more or less important blunders, including provoking World War II by insulting a German diplomat in ''Hope against all odds'' , while hurting himself frequently. To others (notably Yoann and Vehlmann), he's a borderline Hyper-Competent Sidekick. Spirou would likely be dead if, in their album Le Groom de Sniper Alley, Fantasio did not save him from a giant rolling metallic ball at the least second. Moments later, he have the "Eureka!" Moment that lead them straight to the treasure. Plus he rarely displays clumsiness in this run, except in La colère du Marsupilami album, but because his antics have to coax the Marsupilami, like the first time they met.
• Disguised in Drag: Fantasio dons the same old lady disguise on three occasions (In a short story, in Diary of a naive young man, in Spirou in Berlin), most often for infiltration purposes. That's the case in one of the episodes of the second animated series, where Fantasio disguises as a young woman to infiltrate an all girls college. In Spirou et Fantasio à Moscou, near the end, the duo must go unnoticed into the Bolshoi theater. Spirou ends in a Mephisto disguise, and Fantasio as a ballerina. In the album Une famille heureuse, Fantasio and Spirou must escort incognito to southern France an artificial brain, hidden in a mechanized doll that will pass for their daughter. They must themselves pose as her parents, and Fantasio, much to his dismay, is chosen to be the wife.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He was initially this, having notably the Fantacopter to his credit. In the Le groom vert-de-gris continuity, he made a car motor that worked with frying oil, precursor prototypes of a car radio and a computer, and a high pressure washer that projects paint. It tended to be forgotten over time, except first by Nic & Cauvin in their run. Fantasio will use discoveries made by three scientists to construct the "aspison" (which can absorb any sound), or a kind of flying saucer, the Fantabulle. Also in the run by Tome and Janry, as Fantasio invent shoes equipped with sucker pads on soles, to walk on ceilings in La frousse au trousses, or repair a wrecked steam locomotive in Adventures Down Under with a plane motor. However, he's often a Bungling Inventor, the Fantacopter nearly sets an attorney's office on fire, and emptying the aspison produces sounds as destructive as a bomb. Meanwhile, the sucker pads sometimes drop. Or Fantasio ruins a day of work repairing the castle of Champignac's roof, with those same suckers. It's likely, too, that Fantasio was overshadowed over the years by others, even more prolific other gadgeteers such as the Count and Gaston Lagaffe. Still, Fantasio kept an interest in technology and collect gadgets such as miniature radio sets or cameras hidden in a wrist watch or a pipe.
• Gentleman Thief: His superhero persona in Supergroom, Fantastik, has this theme. The costume ressemble Arsène Lupin 's, and he uses gadgets such as his fantacopter, or soporific bombs.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Especially in stories where he is a beginner in journalism, in order to prove his worth (or prove he's better than Seccotine). Anyway, it pushes Fantasio to introduce himself in dangerous dictatorships (Catung, East Germany, USSR...), or staging a fake burglary in a department store. Not to mention his idea to disguise as a gorilla in order to take photos of those animals from an unpublished angle.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: This latter trait showed up from Franquin's run on. Some people apparently infuriate him solely by their presence, like Seccotine and Gaston Lagaffe. But many things can go on his nerves due to being a Nervous Wreck. Fantasio is nearly constantly angry in the album L'heureuse famille due to being Dragged into Drag, which led others characters to suspect he's a man. And after being lost in the titular valley in La vallée des bannis , he was nearly already, due to the situation, in a state of Unstoppable Rage even before the venom of a mosquito that infected him with Hate Plague took effect.
• Has a Type: Maybe, as the two girls he was flirting with in the main series (Ororéa and Noa Noa) were of Polynesian descent. Also, given his attraction to Seccotine, Louise Garoin, Ursula or Mr Calloway's assistant in one-shots, Fantasio certainely have a thing for blondes, too. Or even for girls with a glue name. In Le groom vert de gris, his girlfriend is nicknamed Glu-glu, and her resistant Code Name is Cléopâtre ("Cleopatra", a French brand of glue). Just like Seccotine, that also used to be the name of a brand of glue.
• Idiot Hair: He always has nine hairs that point out.
• I Have Your Wife: Fantasio has been captured a couple of times, most often in order to blackmail Spirou. Granted, he often managed to escape by himself.
• I Just Want to Be You: As said prior in the Born Unlucky entry, it's not easy to be Overshadowed by Awesome when he's paired with an Ideal Hero such as Spirou. Fantasio acts the most often as he doesn't mind or does not notice. Yet, in La vallée des bannis, the enraging mosquito's venom pushes him to Brutal Honesty. Fantasio states how unfair it is that he's the only one who suffers Amusing Injuries, and, despite he always been around, and lived the same adventures, he retires no glory as the magazine they are in is named after Spirou. In Vito la déveine, Fantasio is depressed and admits to Vito Cortizone that Spirou is a "true hero" (described by Vito as determined, straight, dynamic, and virtuous), not like him. Fantasio's depression comes from the fact that a girl from Papeete, Noa Noa, was apparently more into an adventurer type captain than himself. Fantasio then regrets that he is a not quite seductive kind of "clown", and despite years of adventuring together, Fantasio seems stuck in the shadow of his best friend. However Fantasio is wrong: back in Papeete, turn out that Noa Noa was more into him, praising his humor.
• The Klutz: To life threatening levels sometimes. He already broke a leg and an arm (in separate occasions), not to mention being put in plaster up to his eyes after falling in the stairs in L'horloger de la comète. Spirou lampshaded it in Les pirates du silence, after Fantasio tripped on a basket full of apples and made Spirou fall from a ladder. Spirou sarcastically remarks that he always admired Fantasio's skill. However it tends to be abandoned since the Morvan and Munuera's run on, where he displays way more dexterity.
• The Lancer: In addition of being Spirou closest ally, he's also his Foil, being nervous, bad-tempered, and unlucky, while Spirou is calm, nice and an ace.
• Last-Name Basis: According to Machine qui rêve, where Fantasio wonders in the beginning why nobody ever addressed him by his first name.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • In Le voyageur du mésozoïque, Fantasio catches a big cold in the very beginning, and it distracts him a lot. Despite he is seen, with the main cast, on the cover watching with excitation the baby dinosaur breaking the shell of his egg◊; Fantasio was actually not present in story. In fact, he's the only character to never notice a giant beast that does impressive damage (despite him sitting on his tail once). In the end, when Spirou announces that the dinosaur's getaway was finally settled out, Fantasio answers: "A dinosaur? What dinosaur?"
  • In Supergroom, Fantasio fails to realize that the title character is Spirou. Hilariously, the latter did not try to hide the fact. He even points out evidence in front of Fantasio (like having the same red hair, the same bellboy costume, the same fantacopter and same pet squirrel, than the superhero). But Fantasio won't connect the dots , thinking that the fact that Supergroom has constructed the same Jet Pack than him, or possesses a squirrel also named Spip, is a Contrived Coincidence.
• Married to the Job: The apparent reason why Fantasio is single, in Vito la déveine, he states that he's too often all over the earth, busy with journalism, to indulge into a relationship. In Yoann and Vehlmann's run, it's to the point he's a workaholic, unable to not consult professional mails, including in deep jungle.
• The Misophonic: Not only Fantasio once designed the "aspison", destined to make sounds disappear, but in fact, he seems to not bear the smallest, yet irritative sound. Like, in QRN sur Bretzelburg, the sound of Doktor Kilikil rubbing his beard the wrong way. Unfortunately for Fantasio, it inspire the latter into torture him by using sounds such as a the grinding sound of a chalk on a board, or of a fork on a plate.
• Nervous Wreck: In front of dangerous or overwhelming situations (and he faced a lot), Fantasio will lose his temper, or will become straight depressive. Doktor Kilikil identifies him as a quite nervous person right after they met, and uses the information against him as stated above. In general, Fantasio can't stand Sensory Abuse, and it's used against him by everyone who knows this Achille's heel. In Spirou à Berlin, he's imprisoned by Zantafio, and the violent lights of the cellar go on and off at irregular intervals. It soon makes Fantasio go crazy (he can't see what he's doing without lights, and can't sleep when they are on).
• No Smoking: In on-screen adaptations, Fantasio gives up his habit to smoke pipes, very likely to keep series and movies appropriate to younger audiences.
• Pajama-Clad Hero: Fantasio is often prone to this:
  • In QRN sur Bretzelburg, Fantasio is kidnapped while wearing pajamas, a dressing gown, and having lost his slippers in the process. He quickly regrets it due to how cold his prison cell is.
  • In Qui arretera Cyanure? (Who'll stop Cyanure?), Fantasio is woken up by a phone call for help by Catenaire, and jumps in his car in pajamas to save him. Cyanure captures Fantasio immediately after, making him finish the whole journey in his pajamas.
  • In Le réveil du Z ("The awakening of Z"), Aurélien de Champignac teleports Spirou and Fantasio in 2062, while it was past bedtime and Fantasio was already in his pajamas.
  • In the universe of the mini serie La femme léopard (The leopard woman), the titular character forces Fantasio, in the middle of the night, to do a round trip in car between Brussels and Paris. Which explains why, a few hours later, Fantasio interviews existentialists while in his pajamas.
• Paparazzi: Fantasio tendencies to Going for the Big Scoop can go so far. In Les pirates du silence, Fantasio visits Incognito City, where stars and billionaires live away from journalists. Taking photos is forbidden, but Fantasio carries on regardless thanks to cameras hidden in his watch and pipe. In Diary of a naive young man, he tries to infiltrate (including by being Disguised in Drag) the Moustic hotel to take photos of a famous boxer and his fashion designer mistress. In Panique en atlantique, he embarks on a cruise boat without a ticket, in order to take photos of the actress Marinella Cabotini, and her new boyfriend. In this story, Fantasio tends to value his camera more than his own life.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Initially, that was the reason why Fantasio was introduced in the story to begin with. In Vito la déveine, he lampashaded it, deploring this status. Meanwhile, ironically, Gaston Lagaffe is his own Plucky Comic Relief.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Fantasio is, of course, the wise guy to the Straight Man Spirou, usually. He highlights this ace by contrast, being a Walking Disaster Area, whether because of Fantasio blunders, clumsiness, bad luck, or malfunctioning inventions. However and at the same time, in the editorial board context, Fantasio is the Straight Man (and often the Only Sane Employee of the board) to his wise guy Gaston Lagaffe. The difference lies in the fact that Spirou reacts with leniency to Fantasio's antics, while the latter will be infuriated by Gaston's. If they are compared to classic clowns duos, Spirou would be the White face (or sad clown), and Fantasio the August, who turns himself into the White face when confronted to his August Gaston. In the 20th century, clowns trio were launched and added "contra August" to the mix, he's an in between in behavior. In this interpretation, Spirou=White face, Fantasio=contra August, Gaston=August.
• Stay in the Kitchen : Fantasio can be a bit chauvinist when it comes to Seccotine (as women were rare in investigative journalism in the The '50s, when she first appeared). In La corne du rhinocéros, he even hoped that working as a reporter did not prevent her from learning how to cook. 50 years later, Fantasio is still like this, as in Paris-sous-Seine, he and Spirou spot Seccotine who vainly tries to force a police barricade to investigate the flow. Spirou reminds him that they can, on their side, as they have an advantage. Fantasio answers that it is because they're men. Actually, Spirou meant that they have an amphibian vehicle.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The movie and the tie-in comics, Le triomphe de Zorglub, were this, as Fantasio usually look not likely to get the girl in the end. Yet, the two stories end with Seccotine kissing him, and presumably them having a Relationship Upgrade after that. Furthermore, in Le triomphe de Zorglub, Seccotine delivers him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech right before. According to the authors, it had to be taken to a meta-level, as they consider Fantasio as a hero, despite a clumsy one.
• Younger Than They Look: Fantasio is always depicted as (more or less) balding, and is described as such too. However, this usually affects men older than 45, and Fantasio does not seem to have reached this age yet. Fantasio may suffer precocious baldness (it can affect men as young as 20), and it won't be surprising given how unlucky he is.

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