François Walthéry signed serigraph : Tribute to Franquin

Gaston Lagaffe is a comic book character created by André Franquin. He first appeared in Le Journal de Spirou on March 7, 1957, as an employee of the journal, although no one knows who hired him. Gaston has the particularity of not belonging to any specific comic strip and is presented as an unemployed hero!
His main characteristics include being dreamy, lazy, lethargic, and terribly clumsy. He avoids work, loves sleeping above all, and despite his numerous blunders often creating absurd situations, he always manages to get out of them without too much trouble.
Franquin created Gaston to be a European incarnation of the American "beatnik." The novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac (also published in 1957) portrayed this indolent being, dressed in jeans rather than a suit, not revering work, eco-friendly before its time, loving animals, and not made for obedience...
It's evident that Gaston fully embodies this portrait! His love for animals (mainly cats and seagulls) is well established, and his disdain for parking meters and law enforcement, in general, is legendary!!!
This apolitical anarchist who wishes above all to live at his own pace and be happy is a character much more revolutionary than he may seem at first glance... Obviously, Franquin's devastating humor is at the heart of Gaston's adventures, but he is also a true UFO in the midst of the proactive heroes of Franco-Belgian comics in the 1960s.
From Michel Vaillant to Blueberry, from Tintin to Corto Maltese or Asterix, all are busy winning, rescuing widows and orphans, and even saving a people of Gauls (already resistant)! While Gaston has no particular ambition outside the pursuit of his quiet little life!! A precursor to the May '68 Generation, Gaston, through his enduring success, is now an icon of comics and popular culture, in the best sense of the term!