The Marsupilami first appeared in the 50's comic book Spirou et les héritiers (Spirou and the inheritors) from the Spirou et Fantasio series, written and drawn by André Franquin in this era.

Discovered in the Palombian* forest, the Marsupilami is a yellow flecked mammal from the primates family. This animal has some really interesting characteristics: a very long tail, he is an amphibian, his babies comes from eggs and he can carry them in a pouch like the kangaroo. He also has the ability to repeat words, like a parrot, but he usually shouts Houba!. Therefore, he is a perfect mix of every cool animal. The one found by Spirou was a male 135 centimeters tall and weighing 32 kilos.

In the early 90's, Franquin started a Marsupilami series of his own, showing the normal life of this wild and mysterious animal. Disney also did an animated series with the Marsupilami, but they completely destroyed the character by giving him the ability to speak human language fluently.

* A fictional country, of course.