QRN sur Bretzelburg

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Spirou et Fantasio #18
QRN sur Bretzelburg

Cover of the Belgian edition

Publisher	Dupuis
Date	1966
Series	Spirou et Fantasio

Creative team
Writer(s)	Franquin with Greg
Artist(s)	Franquin with Jidéhem

Original publication
Published in	Le Journal de Spirou
Issue(s)	#1205 - #1237 and #1304 - #1340
Date(s) of publication	1961 - 1963
Language	French
ISBN	ISBN 2-8001-0020-6

Chronology
Preceded by	Spirou et les hommes-bulles, 1964
Followed by	Panade à Champignac, 1969

QRN sur Bretzelburg, written by Franquin and Greg, drawn by Franquin with assistance by Jidéhem, is the eighteenth album of the Spirou et Fantasio series. The story was initially serialised in Le Journal de Spirou under the name QRM sur Bretzelburg over an unusually long period (including a break in 1962), before a delayed hardcover album release in 1966.

1 Story
2 Background
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Story

In QRN over Bretzelburg, trouble stems from Fantasio's amazingly small transistor radio which gets wedged stuck inside the Marsupilami's nose. Apart from the grief and restlessness caused to all nearby by the unstoppable radio, the device jams the transmissions received by Marcelin Switch, a neighbour and radio enthusiast, who claims that this puts the life of King Ladislas of Bretzelburg in grave danger. While Spirou and Switch take Marsupilami to the clinic for nose surgery, Fantasio wearing a bathrobe and slippers in the wrong place at the wrong time is abducted by secret Bretzelpolizei who mistake him for Switch. Leaving the Marsupilami to recover in the hospital, Spirou, Spip and the nervous Switch travel to the dictatorial state of Bretzelburg, determined to rescue Fantasio, currently being tortured by the enthusiastic Dr.Kilkil. There, the team, reunited with the Marsupilami who has recovered uncannily fast and followed them across Europe, deal with a very unusual political situation...

[edit] Background

Franquin has explained that he started QRN intending it to be another Zorglub story, but that this was vetoed by publisher Dupuis, who had seen enough of the character for the moment. Lost for ideas, Franquin called Greg to help come up with a new plot. Even with this help, Franquin was forced by an early bout of depression to abandon the story half-way through and return to it later. Franquin realised at that time that he would not carry on with Spirou et Fantasio for much longer.

In established comic book tradition, this album too features apparent identical twin policemen, this time in a stereotypically German incarnation.

Although Bretzelburg is obviously a fictional country, QRN is a genuine code used in amateur radio transmissions. The title was changed from QRM to QRN between the serialisation and the book publication.