Marsupilami

Marsupilami
Marsupilami shouting his catchphrase
Publication information
Publisher	Marsu Productions (since 1987)
First appearance	Spirou magazine (31 January 1952)
Created by	André Franquin

Marsupilami is a comic book created by André Franquin, first published on 31 January 1952 in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. Since then it appeared regularly in the popular Belgian comics series Spirou et Fantasio until Franquin stopped working on the series in 1968 and the character dropped out soon afterward. In the late 1980s, the Marsupilami got its own successful spin-off series of comic albums, Marsupilami, written by Greg, Yann and Dugomier and drawn by Batem, launching the publishing house Marsu Productions. Later, two animated shows featuring this character, as well as a Sega Genesis video game and a variety of other merchandise followed. The asteroid 98494 Marsupilami is named in its honour.

The name is a portmanteau of the words marsupial, Pilou-Pilou (the French name for Eugene the Jeep, a character Franquin loved as a kid) and ami, French for friend.

Marsupilami's adventures had been translated to several languages, like Dutch, German, Greek, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and several Scandinavian languages. More than three million albums of the Marsupilami series are claimed to have been sold by Marsu Productions.