Description:
Gaston – the office junior with a licence for chaos
Gaston, the office junior is a good-natured slob. He spreads chaos wherever he goes. Regular unsuccessful contract negotiations or the collapse of whole office blocks – you have to expect everything from Gaston: One accident leads to another. His creative but destructive inventions regularly make his colleagues see red.
Popularity and target group
With more than 300 licensed products Gaston is one of the most successful properties on the European licensing market (TV, comics, movies, merchandising etc.). Gaston holds the charm of a less-than-perfect hero. He never follows any convention, he spreads chaos and anarchy. Despite all this, he is good-natured, has a strong sense of justice and a great sense of humour. In short: Gaston is perfectly imperfect and a character people easily identify with.
Facts and figures
- Average brand awareness of more than 90%, over 200 newspaper articles on occasion of his 50th anniversary in France.
- Gaston is a 100% green hero and mascot of the UNO environment programme.
- With more than 30 million books Gaston is No 2 bestselling French comic series of all times.
- More than 30,000 members of the “Gaston-Club”, over 20,000 followers on facebook.
- The TV series Coup de Coeur enjoyed an average market share of more than 20% among 4- to 10-year-olds (France 3, January 2010)
Latest newsGaston has found his German publishing home at Carlsen Verlag in Hamburg. All 19 books of his collected catastrophes are available at bookseller’s shops and newsagent’s. In 2011 the first book of the spin-off series Gastoon was published by Toonfish Verlag from Bielefeld. Gastoon is Gaston’s little nephew. Together with his friends he makes his teachers’ life a misery and gives all adults a hard time. Gastoon appeals to a younger target demographic.
HistoryOn 21 April 1957 the ingenious legendary comic artist André Franquin created Gaston. Until his death in 1997 Franquin never stopped drawing new Gaston Gags. Gaston is considered to be one of the most influential and most popular classic comic series in Europe. Even today new publications to the cult character Gaston regularly hit the market.
Style guideAn attractive style guide with numerous high resolution images and backgrounds is available. Many hugely popular minor characters from the Gaston universe enable licensees to choose the perfect design for their products from a large portfolio of visual images.