Pif Gadget #397
Pif Gadget #397 belongs to one of the most significant children's comics magazines in European publishing history — a weekly that, under Éditions Vaillant, served as the original French venue for landmark strips including Rahan and, earlier in the decade, Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese. Appearing in October 1976, it sits within the magazine's mid-run maturity phase, after the editorial shift away from strictly self-contained stories (begun in December 1973 with issue #250) that allowed ongoing serial adventure to flourish alongside the single-issue format the magazine had pioneered. As a regular weekly during the 30th anniversary year of the Vaillant publishing lineage, it represents the editorial model — complete comic strips plus a physical toy gadget — that made Pif Gadget a template for children's press marketing across Europe. Its cultural weight derives from the magazine as a whole rather than any unique debut exclusive to this number.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Pif Gadget was the direct successor to Vaillant, a children's magazine whose roots traced back to a French Communist Party publication distributed illegally during the German occupation of France from 1942. By 1969, the relaunched weekly had formalised its signature format: a robust anthology of comic strips, each complete in a single issue, bundled with a physical toy gadget. By 1976, the magazine was in its 30th year of continuous publication (counting from the Vaillant era), with 76-page issues in an 18.5 × 27 cm format rotating through a large stable of artists and series managed by the Éditions Vaillant editorial team. Issue #397's gadget, documented by collector forums, was a magic-themed set called 'Les bâtonnets ensorcelés de Thurston' (Thurston's enchanted sticks), part of a consecutive run of magic-conjuror-themed premiums across issues #395–#400.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in October 1976 by Éditions Vaillant as part of the weekly Pif Gadget run; the 1976 volume ran from issue #358 to #407.
- Cover/gadget title recorded as 'Quand c'est fini, ça recommence' — following the magazine's convention of naming issues after their bundled gadget or cover feature.
- The bundled physical gadget for #397 was 'Les bâtonnets ensorcelés de Thurston' (Thurston's enchanted sticks), part of a consecutive magic-conjuror-themed gadget sequence spanning roughly issues #395–#400.
- Each 1976 issue ran 76 pages at 18.5 × 27 cm, published weekly by Éditions Vaillant, with the iconic red-and-white 'PIF' logo and yellow 'GADGET' banner on the cover.
- Rahan — the prehistoric-hero series written by Roger Lecureux and illustrated primarily by André Chéret — was a regular strip running throughout all 1976 issues including #397; it had been a fixture since Pif Gadget's launch in March 1969.
- The magazine's ongoing series roster in 1976 included Placid et Muzo (Jacques Nicolaou), Pif le chien, Gai-Luron, Arthur le fantôme justicier, and others, making each issue a broad anthology rather than a single-character comic.
- Pif Gadget's all-time print-run record of one million copies was set in 1970 and again in 1971 — well before #397 — establishing the commercial context into which this mid-run 1976 issue was published.
- The magazine was distributed not only in France but also across French-speaking Belgium and Canada, giving even routine issues like #397 a multinational French-language readership.
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Reprinted in Yps #407
Key issues in Pif Gadget
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