Your view on european comics?

[cribeilletguillaume]

Hi everyone today I want to ask a question that always "bothered" me :

First, I'm european (french to be exact) and to me european comics are a given, I grew with them (franco-belgian such as Astérix, Tintin, Lanfeust and Lucky luke, spanish (?) with Blacksad (wich I recommend the first two volumes if you don't know it)).

I know the influence of american comics and manga in europe, they are vastly represented in stores (altough obviously the main attraction are DC and Marvel for comics, a bit of Dark Horse too).

What I DON'T know is how well/bad export european comics, even in other european country like Germany, Sweden and all, lots of foreign authors pass through a french publisher actually. Even for school (I did one) we had lots of foreign student such as german, vietnamese, beninese, even a japanese (well this guy only wanted to leave Japan to be honest).

So could you answer to my curiosity ? Do you see a lot of european comics ? Do you read them ? like them ? What about the art ?

No pressure, I only want to know, you can say you despise it haha

(oh and since you should never miss an opportunity for self promotion, I do : Scavenger and Geek of the year )

[CaptainUfo]

I'm Italian, I've seen mostly european comics. I did study as a comic book artist, though, so maybe my point of view is a bit biased.
Many fellow Italian comic authors see the franco-belgian comic market as a kind of Eden. I have my fair share of european comics I adore. (yeah, Blacksad is wonderfull. The author is Spanish, but I believe it's been originally published in France). Most of the non Italian authors I admire the most are actually French: Uderzo, Dumontheuil, Loisel, Plessix, Wendling...

[cribeilletguillaume]

That explains stuff, the director of my former school wants to create a label for digital comics, for the last couple year he goes to Angoulême's festival to receive young authors project, lot of them are italian (well lot is a big word since he only comes back with ten or so projects but still, usually half are Italian)

[J.Lovelace]

I read european comics, and those are mostly Donald Duck and Paperinik comics :'D A lot of those are sold in Poland.
I remember I wanted to read Blacksad before but it wasn't available at that time, and then I just forgot about it XD
I never read Asterix, Lucky Luke, or Spirou and Fantasio comics, but I did saw the movies and cartoons, and I love them ♥
I do would like to read them if I can find them online.

[Kayke]

I'm American and I went to art school. In my comic classes we read and studied some European comics. The one I remember most vividly is Tintin because I really like the art and I found it influenced me a lot, but I know we read others as well. We also looked at European animation and illustration.

I can't think of any modern European (aside from British) comics I know of though, mainly I've seen the older ligne claire style comics. We do get a lot of modern French animation here though! Like 'Les Triplettes de Belleville', ' Un Monstre à Paris' and 'Une Vie de Chat' were popular and some french language cartoons have been dubbed for TV here.

[Chopythes]

Sweden is actually kind of good at (I believe there should be more tho) translating other European comics.
As a swede, I grew up with Spirou, Tintin, Astérix, Lucky Luke.

But there's also Enrique Fernandez, Guy Delisle (perhaps he's french-canadian? I forgot D: ) who has made some fantastic comics.
I mean, if you don't know who Enrique is, check it out! He has some amazing art and a lovely way of telling stories.
There's also children's comic called "Sisters" (Le Sisters) by William Cazenove.

Though, I'd say that it's mostly Tintin that has gotten an uprise in Sweden again (not sure why, maybe nostalgia?) as there's a lot of Tintin Merchandise around here :D

And the named ones has been a huge inspiration to me, I loved the humour, the art, everything<3
When I grew up, there was also a Lucky Luke (as well as Tinitin and Astérix) animated series and I loved to pretened I was Lucky Lukes shadow (hahah, silly 6yo me xD)

[CaptainUfo]

You see, the problem with the Italian comc industry is that untill the very recent surge of webcomics, it operated inside very strict boundaries. You have the realistic art stuff, which means Bonelli (you might have heard of some of their series, like Tex or Dylan Dog) and the cartoony stuff, wich means Disney. Up untill the early 90s there were comic magazines where authors could try something more personal (yet still with the distincion between realistic art and cartoony) and some minor series, but for the past 10-15 years if you want to earn money doing this job it means working for one of those two with few exceptions. Very few authors could start their own series, let alone try their own one-shot book. The French market is much more varied, more open to ideas.
Also, I swear it's true, I once had an Italian publisher (that I won't name here) telling me "if you can find a French publisher who does the first edition of your project, I'll take care of the Italian version". I didn't think kind things about him

[shazzbaa]

I'm American and I grew up on Tintin and Asterix! We would check them out from the library when I was little. I don't get the impression that they're COMMON, but apparently they're available in some places! But I don't know many others. Whenever I've seen European comic work I've always been impressed.

When I went to art school (SCAD) for comics we all had this impression that in America, a comic artist is treated like cheap entertainment; in Japan, a comic artist is treated like a rock star (complete with burnout lifestyle); and in France, a comic artist is treated like an Artist, that it was as respected as any other art, which we took to be the reason why the european comics we saw were often so beautiful with so much time put into them.
I don't know how true this is for the average creator in France, but that was the prevailing impression!

Though I never managed to go, there was a study abroad program at my school, and when the sequential art classes went to France they'd make sure to attend the International Comics Festival in Angoulême. European comics were DEFINITELY highly respected in my program.

[cribeilletguillaume]

Cartoon adaptation ? I will take it ! It's part of their influence after all

Yeah finding them online (legally) is a bit hard, French publisher are kind of slow on the whole digital thingy.

Finding illegally is also hard (and a bad thing !) wich is part of why I create this topic, I believe the more popular a thing is, the more it can be pirated haha (for example right now in France there is the comic Last Man that is getting really popular and you can't find it illegally so it made me wonder )

[MrKyleRose]

Hello there!

I'm an American and grew up during the "manga craze" of the early '00's. I never really got into manga that much until recently, but it definitely has had a major mainstream impact on America comics. Personally I've notice a large number of cartoonists around my age (mid-late 20's) seem to be heavily influenced by them. European comics so far have not had the same level of adoption here in the states but it seems to be going that way. I've even seen certain comics panels and lectures where it's been suggested that Bandes dessinées will be the next be import craze. I've seen a number of propionate Franco-Belgian comics (beyond the classics like Tin Tin and Asterix) works being translated and collected by American publishers lately. The biggest example is Dark Horse's upcoming collections of Mœbius' work.

In terms of my personal exposure I first heard about most European comics in art school. It seems most of the people who I've come across that are aware of European comics seem to be other cartoonists.

I've actually been trying to explore more European work lately and would love to hear additional suggestions. I will definitely check out Blacksad.

Thanks!

[cribeilletguillaume]

Enrique's comic "Aurore" is one of those comic I bought without knowing anything just because of the art, I also have one of Delisle book (and yep he is a french canadian)

As for Lucky Luke, haha, if it can please the 6 y.o. you, there is a story where the shadow wins its duel against Lucky Luke )

[MrKyleRose]

we all had this impression that in America, a comic artist is treated like cheap entertainment; in Japan, a comic artist is treated like a rock star (complete with burnout lifestyle); and in France, a comic artist is treated like an Artist,

I've come across this impression several times too. The one exception I would add would be the syndicated cartoonists of certain era's seemed to have a level of respect and recognition other american cartoonists didn't. I've heard this was especially true for the early continuity strips.

Which brings up a good question—do European comics have the same divide between syndicated "newspaper strips" and periodical "comics" (or graphic novels) or is that something specific to the states?

[cribeilletguillaume]

mmm, yeah it may be true for the artist part, both for its upside and downside haha

Enki Bilal did have an exposition in the Louvre so yeah, the big names are definitly respected (Boulet, Sfar, Vivès, Moebius...)
comic books are very popular because it must be one of the more common gift for children and teenager, it can even become a family "legacy"

the trouble begins when (average) authors are talking about bad they are paid and here comes the debate "but is comic book author a real job ?"...but yeah I guess this means they are perceive as artists too haha

but yeah usually when I tell people I want to be a comic book author, they find it cool

[cribeilletguillaume]

Cool to know ! (and yeah I heard recently that America discovered Dragon Ball in 1998, if you got everything in the same time, that must have hit you hard)

I know that Luc Besson is adapting Valerian and Laureline in a live action movie, maybe that will help too (don't fuck up Luc).

As for the suggestion, I have no idea which comic is translated or not but if you want to look up :

• Last Man (pic), a huge hit in France, referred as the first Manfra (French manga, did I tell you that manga hit France very hard too ? )

• Doggy Bags (pic), serie of short story, always punchy and violent (and with some historical facts that are very cool to know...but most of them are american so you might already know them)

• Lanfeust (pic), fun heroic fantasy saga

• Pinocchio (pic), by Winchluss, a (very) dark and (very) cool interpretation of Pinocchio

and if you want there is the blog of Boulet : http://english.bouletcorp.com/

[bakasama25]

Luc Besson? The guy that directed The Fifth Element and Taken? I'm very sure it's going to be a good movie.

About France being hit hard by Japanese pop culture. It's been a thing since the 70's with French dubbed anime and co-productions like The Mysterious Cities of Gold and Ulysses 31.

Just recently, their animated series are starting look and feel like anime.

[Jrej]

Hello there. I'm french too. It's good to see fellow europeans on Tapastic.
I grew up on french classics like a lot of you guys.
I love Tintin of course, Boule & Bill, Gaston Lagaffe...
I had a subscription to Picsou Magazine which had tons of cool content.
I feel that digital content is hard to break through in France. Artists seem to stick with classic editorial and the publishing structure. Things are changing. I hope more people follow that trend.

Awesome comic! You got a new sub my friend!

[NickRowler]

I'm American and I have seen plenty of European comics but they tend to not be as popular.

I have read several and I really enjoy them, sometimes even more than American comics. I read stuff like The Rabbi's Cat (actually most stuff by Joann Sfar), Corto Maltese, Persepolis, Moomin, Tintin to name some. I also really like European animation, cause I am a dork, so much that I watched a bunch of Barbapapa episodes in German (I don't even know German).

But a majority of comic reader are not like me. I'm a "comic hipster", m'kay. Though I do feel I am somewhat influenced by them.

[cribeilletguillaume]

Oh yeah I didn't meant it was recent, I believe Ulysse 31 was a franco-japanese production. I meant that today comic book author grew up with manga wich can leads to hybrid production (and I find it cool)

And yeah if Besson does a new Fifth Element with its adaptation, I will be so happy

[cribeilletguillaume]

It's true, the big publishers are not fond of digital comics,

I'm part of a project, Watch Digital Comics, that is going to be entirely digital (the launch is kind of hard, we need content and authors, we aim for a manga/american comic like publishing : one chapter of a serie every two weeks) so we may end up being part of the change in French comic haha

for exemple I do that : Enfer Blanc

edit : and thanks for the sub !

[bakasama25]

OH that reminds me of a French webcomic site I saw a while ago. I can't remember the name of it but it had the look and feel of Tapastic. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a rip off site. Except it had far less artists putting up their work than here. The amount of works in could be numbered in the low double digits, maybe around 20 or less? I think I've seen more French artists post their work here than the other site. I think I understand why the number of artists were very low.