European Graphic Novels++

It’s been a while, so I figured I’d dash off a bit of an ol’ update.

From what I’ve found, this piece keeps coming back to Theo Bouvier, a Parisian artist, and yet his typical space-exploration work looks nothing like this one, y’know?

(right-click as needed)

I’m imagining the title here being "Going for a new tattoo?," based on the sign. It’s by German cyberpunk artist Puia, who runs Baka Arts. As of the moment it doesn’t look like he’s doing any BD, but I think he’d be a great fit.

https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Impenetrable-503154.html

Yesterday, @blaze@piefed.zip posted a LEGO Mosaics primer to !lego@piefed.social, and it was there that I had the pleasure of being introduced to Pontiérr’s work. ‘Mosaic portraits’ are not a new thing of course, but Gerardo is taking these in interesting new directions:

Dangit Bobby*, I hadn’t seen this one for nigh unto forty year! Yes, and seeing this the other day smacked me right back to childhood, when I was first blown away by Dutch artist Escher’s amazing, calculated mirror-surface studies (as above), impossible 3D designs (small sample below), and pleasant, hypnotically-interwoven pattern-morphings (further down).

In fact, the poster evidently reads more like: "Donate to the Victims of War. Dmitry Donskoy.", from early on in WW1, date of 1914.

Jansson of course was the Swedish-Finnish genius who created the Moomins for an all-ages audience, via text novels, a long-running strip, and GN’s. I want to say it drew somewhat upon American Charles Schulz’ work on Peanuts, in which novel character-types were introduced in a fairly LC-style, exploring just what it is to be a thinking, emotional being. But the Moomin-stories were in fact vastly more whimsical and adventurous, with absurdist fairy-tale and folk story dimensions.

Partly a test to see if PF.S is fully back from certain performance issues spanning roughly the last 12hrs or so.

These come from Sabbah’s 133pp "Ladies of Legend" GN. I found it both fun to read and surprisingly thought-provoking, as the author really digs in to the implications and modern interpretations of 21 female historical & mythical figures.

These are from V2 of the "The Golden Age":

This panel appears in T5 of the Dick Hérisson detective series by Didier Savard. TBH, I’ve had a copy in my BD folder for ages, and simply liked the image, which vaguely reminded me of the classic Red Rackham’s Treasure.

The writer is the venerable Jean-Pierre Dionnet, co-founder of Métal Hurlant. An earlier, Romanesque story of his was posted HERE. In the following sequence, we see a small establishing story to give us a better understanding of this god-like character, who will go on to challenge the up-and-coming Lilith, depicted on the cover further down:

I wish there was a full comic adaption of Neuromancer by Giménez. The existing adaptation by Tom De Haven and Bruce Alan Jensen is admittedly very artsy, but I personally never liked the visuals that much. This image on the other hand looks much more like what I imagined while reading the Neuromancer novel.

Stålenhag’s a Swedish bloke who’s created a load of charming, impressive story scenarios and scene re-creations across prehistoric, sci-fi, and post-apoc settings. In terms of his art, he has a real knack for bringing things to life almost in a photographic sense, yet pulling back from that just enough to add a touch of cartoony fun. :D

He did this cover for SF & fantasy author Jack Vance’s text novel Le Jardin de Sulorum. I find Argentinian Gimenez’ work to be regularly jaw-dropping, and… looks like we might have lost his previous posts here in the August move. Ah well, more stuff to restore for me. 😅

The premise here is light as a feather– a Dungeons & Dragons-type character is in a videogame setting, in which he’s attempting to ‘exit the game level,’ presumably to take a nice rest. Frequently that involves attempting to rescue a princess along the way.

I understand Bablet did this piece as sort of a love-letter to video games from his youth.

It’s by Appollo (writer) and Brüno (artist), a creative team who’ve already brought us quality series such as “T’zée”, “Commando Colonial” and “Biotope.” (which I previously reviewed HERE)

Balbuzar is an older kids book, in the popular ‘text and picture’ format. The story is quite the absurdist tall tale, in a certain classical tradition, but really nothing too remarkable to me. It’s moreso the completely over-the-top, hilarious imagery of Pillot that had me chortling in appreciation.

Yes, that Jordan Mechner*. I just started his "Templiers" two-parter GN, and in the collected-edition preface, he explains that he’s seen and read any number of historical fiction works, but he’d never come across anything outside of prose works that told the story of the spectacular, nefarious downfall of the Knights Templar, formerly the absolute badasses of mighty Catholic orders.

D’oof… I don’t think I’d gotten to Cabanes before. He’s of course the artist across any number of significant BD, but… well, I just liked these four little wordless ones I’d collected across the years:

Madeleine Riffaud (1924-2024) was a French Resistance fighter, poet, journalist and war correspondent. After active resistance to the German occupation of France during WWII, she reported for the communist newspaper “L’Humanité” and other left-wing publications on the Algerian War (during which she survived an assassination attempt) and on the French & American wars in Vietnam. Her reporting on Vietnam was informed by four years she spent in the North in the early 1950s, and in the 1960s by the connections she developed in the South with the Viet Cong. –WP

. https://i.imgur.com/JpfVzsH.jpeg (right-click as needed)

In terms of surreal-inspired work, there’s a bit of a ‘Jim Woodring’ vibe here, but Rickheit’s work initially tends to be more quiet, contemplative, and slightly spooky, with settings which are generally Victorian, steampunk, and ‘mad scientist’ in inclination. But sometimes horror and gore is just around the corner.

From an earlier, short interaction we had, Mssr Lvxferre was kind enough to help catch me up with some nice Portugais & Brésilien comics & graphic novels.

First panel reads: "Come back, Jeremy : it’s too dangerous!!!"

An American reviewing a French graphic novel about an American story that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

This is one of the first of (perhaps) many posts to come, ones which unfortunately didn’t manage to migrate over from our original instance, i.e. the late, great Lemm.ee. Much thanks to @emuspawn@geostationary.orbiting.observer ("David in Space") for tracking this one down.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36351373

Oof, it’s been a while since I read the Final Incal series, but I recently discovered that there was in fact a bit of difficulty, heartbreak and drama involved with this one. At least, in terms of how Jean Giraud ("Moebius") had to bow out after doing only the first book of this iconic, final Incal series.

Here’s our previous taste of ‘Coudray / Barnaby,’ which included seven strips: https://piefed.social/post/742436

One of the many, fun little dream/nightmare sequences from the "Monsieur Jean" series.

(right-click as needed to zoom in)

* Fact is, the wobbly coconut-shaped thing that sits on top of my bodily frame simply doesn't know all that much about this guy.

Sometime back I decided to read this series of six tomes rather leisurely, so as to hopefully savor it a bit more fully. Well, as of today I just finished T2, and boy… was it worth the wait. oO

Here's a nice little riff upon earlier fairy-tales, such as King Arthur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7z3jdfnPA

⬆️ “Costume required” ⬆️

Professeur Tryphon Tournesol (Cuthbert Calculus) appears in the lower-left corner... en train de lire un journal? (oof, did I say that right?) <reading the newspaper>

From T3 of the series “Les gardiens du Maser” (The Keepers of the Maser), by Turin’s Massimiliano Frezzato. I’ve only read a little so far, but it seems like solid sci-fi / fantasy fare. I’d say the immediate eye-grabber is the art, which delivers some nice, slightly gauzy Juan Gimenez vibes.

Konstantin is from Yekaterinburg. He’s strived to develop a completely unique style, savage in nature at times, with a sort of sharply philosophical take on the happenings and beliefs of the day. Also, I find that the framework of his pieces often involve classic, mythological foundations. –Johnny

https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-86026-BD-Je-suis-leur-silence.html

Let me try to clear up some confusion & rancor based on “Strange Planet” being added here a couple weeks ago:

Bob de Moor was one of the Belgian comics masters of the XXth century. I just finished a “Balthazar” book of his, and have collected some comics like the above to share in a future post, but here’s this sample for now.

I already, dearly love stained-glass art, but in this case... I'm rendered s*&!@$ASjkhf...

This is all happening in ~50 BC, so... pretty impressive, eh?

"WD" is a highly beloved, brilliant, wonderful, all-ages tale first published as a 413pp novel in 1972, written by Englishman Richard Adams. It’s been adapted in film, twice in TV, theatre, radio, as a role-playing game, and even as a musical album(!) Until 2023, there’d been no BD or GN adaptation until Americans Joe Sutphin (artist) and James Sturm (adapter) finally gave it a shot.

Derek’s Canadian as a matter of fact, but he’s got that modern LC-style, so let’s give him the go-ahead here. Bot-9 is a wordless, 64pp GN, about a fish that finds itself on an eye-opening journey, inside the head of a robot. (you know, that classic tale? :P)

It's by the brilliant evergreen tree planted by Jean Giraud, who totally isn't known by neither the pseudonyms "Gir," nor "Moebius."

“Bebe,” one of our two protags, is sort of a ‘celebrity flight-attendant,’ who is in fact a fashion model in high demand. She’s temporarily moved to NYC to get away from various distractions and unwanted suitors, such as “Massimo,” an Italian nobleman endlessly in pursuit of her.

By NO MEANS am I qualified to comment, here. Other than to observe that artist Joyce Lee is a TOTAL badass.

This came out in late April it seems, based on its successful "kickstarter." It's 232pp, and evidently features work by six classic BD+ creators-- Enki Bilal, Antonio Segura, José Ortiz, Vicente Segrelles, Sergio Gerasi and Janevsky.

So, not exactly a red-letter day.

Interstellar Dust is written by C.J. Hudson, with Polishman Igor Wolski handling the art. The special cover above was done by Brandon Graham. Print copies are offered HERE, and it can be read online THERE. I checked it out a bit, but it kind of missed me, amounting to modern-American sci-fi pulp, I'd say. But if that's your 'cuppa joe'...

Oh gosh, obligatory novelty song from my youth! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZmV5pF4eNA (Wet Dream - Kip Addotta)

This is all new to me, but these three seen to come from "The Silent Kingdoms".

Last i had seen it was in a Spirou collection album in the early 90ies - after reading a bunch of news about healthcare this popped back in my head... Glad i found it!!

I've always liked Moebius. I remember reading the World of Edena in college. It totally broke my mind.

Oof… I’ve some serious egg on my face for not previously mentioning German-Belgian Andreas Martens’ weird and wonderful Rork sci-fi character here before. I’m afraid my pitiful excuse in this case is that I simply haven’t read much of the material. So far!

I’m always looking around for interesting material, especially by creators I’m unfamiliar with, also pulling recommendations from others who share and/or talk about BD & general comics content. One such example would be Seth Hahne, a fellow reviewer and creator who also teaches university courses on comics. (see new link to his site on the sidebar there)

Concept art for Verne on Vacation, an animated pilot (Cartoon Network, 2009) that recently got picked up as a series (or is it a film?). HERE’s a 3min sample. (always interesting to see completely different genres hybridize like that!)

[NOTE: “The Battle of Vicksburg, MS” was more-accurately described as a whole series of skirmishes & battles, ending with a notable siege.]

Er, haha… actually it seems to have come out last year. The publisher is the usual Flying Eye Books, basé à Londres. What specifically excites me about this one is that it’s evidently the first full Hilda GN to come out in five years! (I take it that author Luke Pearson spent most of that intermediate time working on the Netflix show) Also of note is that the story seems to be a prequel, which takes place before the first official story, i.e. 2010’s "Hilda and the Troll".

https://www.instagram.com/jodelj/

Welp, here’s lookin’ at you, kid. It’s my 2nd attempt to do a scheduled post, and hopefully it works this time. There’s also several points of interest, here:

To nobody’s surprise (haha), I’ve got various notes on this one:

A few weeks back, I wrote a mini-article on r/BD about Goscinny's episodic series Iznogoud. After a good amount of feedback there, I wanted to update the article and post it here on EGN, but before doing so, figured it would be a good idea to read a couple classic Astérix albums so as to compare and contrast stylistic and other differences.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/42647318

Daggit, I thought I'd scheduled this post for earlier yesterday, whilst my step-dad has been visiting me for the past few days.

Hoppe is a Polish-German artist currently working in Brooklyn. His site:

Mssr De MesMaeker is of course one of Spirou Magazine’s most important clients, perpetually on the verge of signing lucrative contracts with office-boss Fantasio.

Pretty wild panel I thought worth sharing! And from publisher Humanoids page:

That’s Enchanted Forest, above.

The above image jumped out to me on Pinterest of all places, in which I was simply enjoying the pleasant “LC” style. (for anyone unsure about the meaning of “LC,” please see sidebar)

Nice book, published by Fantagraphics.

This translates to “Dry Cleaning,” and was published by Rue de Sèvres in 2022, a publisher I don’t remember hearing about before.

Please settle down, silly geese...

Just finished this one, and found it a fine album, indeed. It’s by consistently-excellent artist Ana Miralles and writer Emilio Ruiz.

Here’s a place to share some fun links, browser games, and chitchat about whatever…

NOTE: this is an ongoing work...