Gaston

Gaston Lagaffe is a Franco-Belgian comics character created by Andre Franquin. He first appeared in the magazine Spirou on February 28, 1957, initially as a minor recurring figure used to fill empty space in the publication.

Gaston is a chronically lazy, accident-prone office junior who works at the Spirou magazine editorial offices. His surname, Lagaffe, translates to "the blunder," which perfectly describes his approach to every task. He spends his time inventing bizarre contraptions, napping, playing music badly, and creating chaos that regularly devastates the office. His colleagues, particularly the perpetually frustrated Fantasio and contracts manager Prunelle, bear the brunt of his disasters.

What began as a minor gag feature grew into Franquin's signature work. He eventually left the Spirou et Fantasio series to focus entirely on Gaston. The strip ran in Spirou from 1957 until shortly before Franquin's death in 1997. Gaston is enormously popular across Europe, particularly in France and Belgium, and has been translated into over a dozen languages. The series was revived in 2023 by the artist Delaf.