Franquin's Gaston Lagaffe drives a Fiat 509
07/06/2012
The Belgian comic artist André Franquin (born on January 3, 1924, died on January 5, 1997) had a weakness for cars. That's why you can always clearly recognize the make and model of the vehicles in his stories. Most of them are French models from the 60s and 70s.
One of his main characters, the bulbous-nosed slob and misunderstood genius Gaston Lagaffe from the comic series of the same name, is an employee of the Carlsen publishing house, which also publishes the Gaston stories for German-speaking countries in real life. Gaston appeared in various publications from February 1957 until Franquin's death - including the Fix und Foxi magazines. In the German editions, he was also known as Jo-Jo for a time
Gaston doesn't drive a French car, but a Fiat 509 from the 1920s. This means that most of the time he doesn't drive, but stands in the absolute no-parking zone - which gives him an "intimate" friendship with policeman Knüsel. What's more, Gaston interprets the traffic rules very freely.
As he can't afford a car radio, he sometimes plays the guitar and steers with his knees, which degenerates into a freewheeling style adapted to the rhythm of the guitar, which other road users can only avoid by making breakneck evasive maneuvers. The black and yellow paintwork with chequered flag stripes suggests that this is a cab. But every time Gaston picks up a passenger, something is guaranteed to go wrong and everyone swears they will never ride with him again - only to do it again at the next opportunity and thus deliver a new episode.
The Fiat 509 usually only transports its owner's home-made instrument, the Gastophone. A stone-age looking harp that should only be played very far away from inhabited areas, otherwise it would break windows and drive the audience mad.
But Gaston sets his priorities differently anyway and doesn't understand all the fuss. For example, a family of mice lives in one of his files and is allowed to feast on the documents. As a running gag throughout the series, most of the documents are important contracts that business partner Bruchmüller is always prevented from signing at the last minute because of Gaston.
Gaston's attempts to make the world a better place always end in disaster - for the others. The francophone Belgian Franquin was therefore well advised not to let his lovable anarchist drive a French car...
By the way, we have described the Fiat 509 in a detailed article.
