Although best known for the Adventures of Tintin, in the 30's Hergé also wrote a series of 310 short comic strips known as "Quick et Flupke" about two street urchins in Brussels. "Quick" was the name of a friend of Herge; "Flup" in Flemish is the diminutive for Philip and "ke" means little so Flupke means "little Philip." The two boys unintentionally cause trouble, often aggrivating their parents, neighbors, shopkeepers, and the police.
The Quick & Flupke strips (called "gags" in Europe) were published in black and white on the pages of "Le Petit Vingtième", a weekly youth supplement to the conservative Catholic newspaper, "Le Vingtième Siècle". The supplement, which included two pages of Tintin and two of Quick & Flupke, appeared every Thursday starting in January 1930 and continuing until May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium.
From time to time, the Quick & Flupke strips were gathered together in books, 5 in total of 88 to 96 pages each. The first two books were published by the Editions du Petit Vingtième while the last three and all the subsequent books were published by the Casterman publishing house. Volume 1 (1930) was reprinted as a replica book in 2011. Some of the strips were also republished in the 50's in Tintin magazine, conceived by Raymond Leblanc, this time colored by Studios Hergé.
Hergé eventually abandoned Quick & Flupke in order to spend more time on The Adventures of Tintin, his more famous series. Over the years, most of the strips were colored by Studios Hergé and published in two series of books, both titled Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke by the Casterman publishing house. Series 1 (serie) was 10 books of 30 pages each published between 1949 and 1961. This series plus an additional volume 11 was reprinted in the mid to late 60's with solid color covers without background stars. Series 2 (recueil) was 6 volumes of 62 pages each published from 1975 to 1982.
In January 2008, Euro Books India (a subsidiary of Egmont, UK) released English translations in softcover form of all 11 titles that were originally written by Hergé. Currently, these are available only in India, although Egmont planned to gradually release them in the UK. Two of them (#4, Under Full Sail, and #12, Fasten Your Seat Belts), were released in 2009. Interestingly, these translations by David Radzinowicz are different from the India English translations, which are not attributed to any specific person. More books were to have been released in the UK in 2010-11, but none were.
The Quick & Flupke strips (called "gags" in Europe) were published in black and white on the pages of "Le Petit Vingtième", a weekly youth supplement to the conservative Catholic newspaper, "Le Vingtième Siècle". The supplement, which included two pages of Tintin and two of Quick & Flupke, appeared every Thursday starting in January 1930 and continuing until May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium.
 |
| 5 out of 11 Q&F comics in English... |
Hergé eventually abandoned Quick & Flupke in order to spend more time on The Adventures of Tintin, his more famous series. Over the years, most of the strips were colored by Studios Hergé and published in two series of books, both titled Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke by the Casterman publishing house. Series 1 (serie) was 10 books of 30 pages each published between 1949 and 1961. This series plus an additional volume 11 was reprinted in the mid to late 60's with solid color covers without background stars. Series 2 (recueil) was 6 volumes of 62 pages each published from 1975 to 1982.
 |
| Translated by Kuntal |
~ ~ ~ *** ~ ~ ~
In this post I have translated and uploaded one of the "Quick & Flupke" comics, "Pranks & Jokes" in Bengali ("ঠাট্টা আর তামাশা"). In this book, in most of the conversations I have tried to convey the sense of the text, instead of following the 'literal translation'. Hopefully readers will find this classic humor strips quite interesting and funny, and will keep on laughing along with the hilarious adventures of two street urchins, Quick and Flupke, like the way I did. |
| Pranks & Jokes (in Bengali) |
