Aimé De Mesmaeker is a rich but very unfortunate businessman who always tries to sign a contract with the magazine Spirou, which, thanks to Gaston his crazy inventions or blunders always fails.
De Mesmaeker was created as a character by André Franquin for the ‘gag’ comic strip Gaston after his good friend and artist Greg advised him that a character of a businessman who repeatedly tries to sign a contract with the Belgian magazine Spirou but never succeeds because of Gaston his blunders or inventions which always lead to the destruction of the contracts, but also often cause harm to De Mesmaeker. Most strips end with De Mesmaeker storming out of the offices, promising that he will never do business with Spirou.
De Mesmaeker is named after Franquin’s collaborator on the series Jean De Mesmaeker (Jidéhem), Franquin’s collaborator on the series. He remarked that the character looked like his own father.