Gîbus (Lost 1960's Belgian Animated Series)

Gîbus is a 1965 animated series produced by the Belgian studio Belvision. It had 26 episodes of 6 minutes in length each.



The series was about the random adventures of a small stage magician named Gîbus (his name is French for the collapsible type of top hat stage magicians wear). He often confronts a large and brutish villain called Biceps.



The series was aired only a few times ever since its creation. According to some witnesses, the last time it was aired was in 1993 on French cable channel Canal J.

Gîbus never had a VHS release, or a DVD release in any form, and its episodes are now very hard to find. So far, only two episodes are available on the Internet.

Animation studio Belvision also created the first Adventures of Tintin animated series in the 1960s, so, when some of its episodes were released on VHS, they would sometimes come with an episode of Gîbus as well.

One contributor, The Reynard, remembers owning a very long time ago a VHS of two-part episode The Calculus Affair that came with a Gîbus episode, different from the two available online. However, he couldn't tell from the plot (Biceps impersonates a businessman to steal a crystal ball and a young female agent helps Gîbus thwart him) the episode title. It is likely there are more copies of the episode, since cable channel CFI (Canal France International) once aired the Calculus Affair episodes along with that same Gîbus episode.

There is also a VHS of the 1969 animated feature Tintin and the Temple of The Sun that included a Gîbus episode: Gîbus et les gogos (Biceps steals Gîbus' laughing hand puppets, the gogos, and turns them evil).

In order to avoid confusion with multiple other uses of the word "gibus", the series is frequently referred as "Gibus le magicien" (Gibus the magician) among watchers (not to mention the circumflex accent is very often ommitted).

List of known episode titles

 * 1) Gîbus est un héros ("Gîbus is a hero")
 * 2) Gîbus contre Biceps ("Gîbus VS. Biceps")
 * 3) Gîbus joue et gagne ("Gîbus plays and wins")
 * 4) Gîbus et le rhinocéros ("Gîbus and the rhinoceros")
 * 5) Gîbus vainqueur à Waterloo ("Gîbus wins Waterloo") - available
 * 6) Gîbus pique-nique ("Gîbus goes on a picnic")
 * 7) Gîbus contre le bonhomme de neige ("Gîbus VS. the snowman")
 * 8) Gîbus et Pharaon  ("Gîbus and the Pharaoh")
 * 9) Gîbus perd la boule  ("Gîbus gets crazy")
 * 10) Gîbus toréro  ("Bullfighter Gîbus")
 * 11) Gîbus et l'auto magique  ("Gîbus and the magical car")
 * 12) Gîbus et les pêcheurs de perles ("Gîbus and the pearl fishers") - available
 * 13) Gîbus contre le fakir  ("Gîbus VS. the fakir")
 * 14) Gîbus fait ses preuves  ("Gîbus proves himself")
 * 15) Gîbus et les gogos ("Gîbus and the gogos") - on Tintin VHS
 * 16) Gîbus au Texas ("Gîbus in Texas")
 * 17) Gîbus somnambule ("Sleepwalking Gîbus")
 * 18) Gîbus et l'île au trésor ("Gîbus and the treasure island")
 * 19) Gîbus 1er de cordée ("Gîbus leading the rope team")
 * 20) Gîbus au bal masqué ("Gîbus at a costume party")