Le souffleur
Real name: UnknownEyes: Black
Race: Human
Occupation: Prompter for comic book characters
Base of operations: A prompter's box that appears to be mobile.
Story: Le souffleur is the prompter who helps the comic book characters remember their lines, when they are on the job.
Continuity: Le Trou du souffleur
Publisher(s): Dupuis
First app.: Journal de Spirou #2565 (1987)
Creator(s): Paul Deliège
Country of origin: Belgium
Background notes: Le souffleur, the prompter, comes from a long line of prompters. Like prompters at the theaters aiding the actors, his job is to help the comic book characters remembering their lines. He is never seen in the comics, as he is removed from the margin in the final version of the story, but he was there, helping them when they forgot their lines.
The series started in Journal de Spirou #2565 in 1987 as a black and white comic strip. Later as the strip developed, colors were added, the writer and artist Paul Deliège stopped by on a regular basis and several of the characters from the series in Journal de Spirou also popped up from time to time. The series ran on a regular basis until #2948 in 1994, and in all the time it was never revealed what his name was or what he looked like, he was just a set of eyes in the prompter's box occasionally with an arm or a leg sticking out.
The series was one the series from Journal de Spirou that never really made it outside the magazine. An album containing 30 gags in black and white was published in 1990, apparently a give-away to professionals and costumers.
Examples (click to enlarge):
