The Inheritance of Bill Money

The Inheritance of Bill Money (L'Héritage de Bill Money in the original French) is a comic story possibly written by Blanche Dumoulin, Rob-Vel and/or Luc Lafnet, and drawn by Luc Lafnet with occasional help from Rob-Vel. It features Spirou, Entresol, and, in their debuts, Bill Money, Mr Papyrus, Jim Rascal, One-Eyed Joe and Doug Maggs. M. Papillon is mentioned but does not appear visually.
==Plot==
American businessman and Moustic Hotel guest Bill Money confides in Spirou what has been worrying him: his great-uncle Doug Maggs has bequeathed him his fortune, delivered to him at the rate of one million a month. But the oddball Maggs has left instructions in his will that Bill must spend the entire million by month's end, and, if he ever fails to do so, he will lose the lot to his slimy cousin Jim Rascal. Eager to go on an adventure of his own, Spirou gets himself hired as Money's personal secretary, and advises him to travel the world as a venue to spend the millions. But Rascal is on their heels…
===References===
*Bill Money buys the Moustic Hotel from M. Papillon.
===Continuity===
*The first serialized Spirou adventure, The Inheritance of Bill Money leads directly into The Lair of Sosthenes Silly (1939); indeed, Sosthenes Silly is sometimes lumped together with Inheritance as a single story.
==Behind the scenes==
This story was serialized from Le Journal de Spirou #28 to #11-39, over 21 weeks. It was reprinted in the Spirou par Rob-Vel collection of all of Rob-Vel's Spirou comics. It has not known an official English printing to this day.
Like Spirou's earlier one-pagers, The Inheritance of Bill Money was signed Rob-Vel but in truth mostly drawn by Luc Lafnet, though Rob-Vel still drew the illustrated "title strip" until around Page 10. It is not known precisely who wrote the story, though the artist's wife Blanche Dumoulin is a commonly-cited candidate, who may also have taken care of the lettering.
As detailed above, it is common to lump together The Inheritance of Bill Money and its sequel The Lair of Sosthenes Silly as a single story; though there is good arguments on both sides, and as always with long serials it ultimately arbitrary to establish exact cuts, this Wiki chooses the option to instead consider them separate stories, largely due to the two different main antagonists and to the different authorships.
Category:Stories
Category:Comic Stories
Category:Rob-Vel stories
Category:Luc Lafnet stories
Category:Blanche Dumoulin stories
Category:1938 stories
Category:1939 stories
Category:Spirou stories
Category:Entresol stories
Category:Bill Money stories
Category:Mr Papyrus stories
Category:Jim Rascal stories
Category:One-Eyed Joe stories
Category:Doug Maggs stories
Category:M. Papillon stories