Inspector Canardo is a comics series created by the Belgian artist

Benoît Sokal Benoît Sokal (28 June 1954 – 28 May 2021) was a Belgian comic artist and video game developer, best known for his comics series '' Inspector Canardo'', and the ''Syberia'' adventure game franchise. Biography Benoît Sokal was born in Brussels ...

. He was named after the French noun ''canard'', which means "duck".

History

Sokal created the character Inspector Canardo after graduating from

Institut Saint-Luc The Institut Saint-Luc () is an arts school in Brussels, Belgium. It consists of six departments, with a total of 2,200 students and 430 employees, spread over five locations in Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, Belgium, Saint-Gilles. History The school ...

, at the age of 20. He first drew his comics for the magazine ''

À Suivre ''À Suivre'' or ''(A SUIVRE)'' (English translation: "To Be Continued") was a Belgian comics magazine published from February 1978 to December 1997 by the Casterman publishing house, and was preceded by a "0", or test, issue in October 1977. A ...

'', but after the comic became popular, they were published as

albums An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Casterman Casterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, 90 kilometres southwest of the centre of Brussels, Belgium. History The company was founded in 1780 by Don ...

Characters

Canardo

The eponymous character and the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

of the series, Canardo is an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

strange duck who has a career as a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...

. While he is seldom seen on paid assignments, he tends to end up in dangerous situations everywhere. He is also often used as a

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous chess piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn or The Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pa ...

in bigger schemes because of his expendability. He suffers from severe personal problems, including vast consumption of

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

to forget the unfortunate events he has gone through. While Canardo is quite skilled both in armed and unarmed combat, he is more of an

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin and history The term ''everyman'' was used ...

than a traditional hero. Canardo has died, at least seemingly, several times. Most of these happen in the comics written for ''

''. In the first incident, Canardo is about to be

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

by an angry crowd when he falls in a pit filled with urine, where he supposedly drowns. In the next comic, he is alive and well. Later, he is shot to death after being tricked by Clara. Canardo jokingly refers to this incident in the next comic, claiming that the "blood" was actually tomato sauce. In the last short comic, Canardo commits suicide, although this presumably happens chronologically after all other adventures. In the album ''La Fille qui rêvait d'horizon (1999)'', Canardo's

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

collides with Rasputin's motorbike, causing an explosion that is implied to have killed both Canardo and Rasputin.

Clara

One of the first recurring characters in the series, Clara is a

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

stork whose lust for power has led her to do extreme things. In her first appearance, she uses Canardo to kill a mobster cat named Fritz, resulting in Canardo being shot. Despite the hostility between the two, they apparently have romantic feelings for each other, although this is less evident in Clara's later appearances. Like Canardo, Clara has survived several evident deaths.

Rasputin

Rasputin is a huge, violent evil mystic cat who lives in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. He and his band of raiders have terrorized Siberian villages for years. Rasputin is obsessed with immortality, and has his assistant prepare numerous medicines to slow down his natural aging. When he learns that one of his supposedly dead daughters is alive, he decides to abandon his potions and instead find the daughter and make her his successor. After the plan fails, he blames Canardo, sparking hostility between the two.

Albums

0. Premières enquêtes (1979)

English title: ''First Investigations'' This album is a compilation of the shorter comics originally published in a comic book magazine, ''

''. The loose story arc includes Canardo attempting to solve various crimes, him being used as a tool of political scheming, as well as the complex relationship between Canardo and Clara. The story arc ends tragically when Canardo, now married and settled down, kills himself outside the pub by shooting himself in the head. These comics featured humans, who are considerably larger than the animal characters, and don't seem to notice the anthropomorphic traits of the animals. Humans were seen rarely in the other albums.

1. Le Chien debout (1981)

English title: ''A Dog's Life'' Canardo isn't the main protagonist of this album, but rather a background influencer, or

Éminence grise An ''éminence grise'' () or gray eminence is a powerful decisionmaker or advisor who operates covertly in a nonpublic or unofficial capacity. The original French phrase referred to François Leclerc du Tremblay, the right hand man of Cardina ...

. The story features a dog working to stop a mad doctor who performs animal experiments, while investigating the murder of his girlfriend, for which everyone blames him. This is one of two albums that were officially published in English, under two different titles: ''Shaggy Dog Story'' and ''A Shabby Dog Story''.

2. La Marque de Raspoutine (1982)

English title: ''The Mark of Rasputin'' Rasputin, an evil mystic whose raiders have plagued Siberian villages for years, sends a messenger to Europe to find his daughter. After the messenger gets injured by Rasputin's enemies, Canardo, inspired by the beauty of Rasputin's daughter, agrees to help escort her to Rasputin. Matters are complicated by Clara, who is Rasputin's mistress, who isn't willing to share Rasputin's love with his daughter, and is willing to do anything to stop the reunion. Rasputin, one of Canardo's enemies, appears for the first time in this album.

3. La mort douce (1983)

English title: ''A Silent Death'' Canardo, depressed after the trip to Siberia, witnesses a brutal homicide as Bronx, a bear, kills a customer of the pub despite normally being harmless, being too stupid to be angered. The violent outburst is caused by

Lili Marleen "Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis powers, Axis and ...

, a song sung by a pub singer. Canardo sets off to find Bronx and discover the connection between the song and Bronx's behavior. This is one of two albums that were officially published in English, as ''Blue Angel''.

4. Noces de brume (1985)

English title: ''The Return of Rasputin'' Rasputin is found alive, although weak and blind. When he is being transported in a wagon by a father and a daughter in East Europe, Rasputin escapes, causing the local population to equip themselves with firearms and begin hunting for this beast. This album is the last to feature humans. The story is somewhat more mystical than in other albums, for example featuring a

pact with the devil A deal with the Devil is a cultural motif exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, as well as being elemental to many Christian traditions. According to traditional Christian belief about witchcraft, the pact is b ...

5. L'Amerzone (1986)

English title: ''The Kingdom of the White Birds'' See also

Amerzone ''Amerzone'' (also known as ''Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy'', ) is a first-person fantasy graphic adventure game published by Microïds and designed by Benoît Sokal, who based it on his 1986 '' Inspector Canardo'' comic strip ''L'Amerzone'' ...

6. La Cadillac blanche (1990)

English title: ''The White Cadillac''

7. L'Île noyée (1992)

English title: ''The Sinking Island''

8. Le Canal de l'angoisse (1994)

English title: ''The Canal of Anguish''

9. Le Caniveau sans lune (1995)

English title: ''The Gutter with No Moon''

10. La Fille qui rêvait d'horizon (1999)

English title: ''The Girl who Dreamed of the Horizon'' Canardo's car breaks, forcing him to stay in a service station that is soon attacked by motorist gangsters, led by Canardo's enemy, Rasputin.

11. Un misérable petit tas de secrets (2001)

English title: ''A Filthy Little Pile of Secrets'' Canardo is tasked by a family to locate the gold bars their late grandfather stole from the Nazi government during his

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

days. Canardo is given a portable time machine (a rare occurrence of futuristic elements in the comics) to help him discover the location of the gold.

12. La Nurse aux mains sanglantes (2002)

English title: ''Innocent''

13. Le Buveur en col blanc (2003)

English title: ''The White-Collar Sot'' Canardo attempts to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a respected wine critic.

14. Marée noire (2004)

English title: ''A Black Tide'' An oil tanker Canardo is on is attacked by a revolutionary faction, who threaten to release the oil into the ocean unless their demands are met.

15. L'Affaire belge (2005)

English title: ''The Belgian Affair''

16. L'Ombre de la bête (2006)

English title: ''The Shadow of the Beast'' Canardo is on a bus trip, which is interrupted when one passenger shoots the driver, and threatens to detonate the bus and the people inside it with a bomb tied to his waist. The criminal is fickle, and Canardo as well as the other passengers are having a hard time not aggravating him.

17. Une Bourgeoise fatale (2008)

English title: ''A Lethal Gentlewoman''

18. La Fille Sans Visage (2009)

19. Le voyage des cendres (2010)

20. Une bavure bien baveuse (2011)

21. Piège de miel (2012)

22. Le vieux canard et la mer (2013)

23. Mort sur le lac (2015)

24. La Mort aux yeux verts (2016)

25. Un con en hiver (2018)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canardo, Inspector Belgian comic strips Comics about anthropomorphic ducks Comics about anthropomorphic animals Fictional private investigators Fictional Belgian people Fictional alcohol abusers 1978 comics debuts Bandes dessinées Comics set in Belgium Comics characters introduced in 1978 Detective comics Belgian comics characters Male characters in comics Comics about talking animals Anthropomorphic ducks Fictional ducks Adult comic strips Belgian satire Satirical comics