Here's a vigorous and endearing chronicle of adolescence in a working-class town in eastern France, in the middle of the 1960s, told from the inside of a group of childhood friends raised in the long shadow of the local factory. The clash of generations and social classes, girls, music, bars, lack of money but friendship stronger than anything... and then of course in the background, as always with Baru, an acute look and demanding focused on the world, its inequalities and its contradictions. --Amazon FR

I love (and am slightly scared by) the works of "Baru" (Hervé Barulea, France). They're raw, visceral, filled with attitude, and pulse with a certain 'street energy.' Here's an alternate cover for the book above:

Because his communist parents were convinced there was no bread to be earned in drawing, Hervé Baru first became a gym teacher before embarking on a career in comics. In his early thirties, he decided to devote his time to making comics, drawing subject matter from his teenage years in France and his travels in the 1960s. Soon, he proved his parents wrong by becoming a full-time, established comic artist, making his debut in the magazine Pilote in 1982. --Lambiek

And an unrelated poster from a BD festival:

Finally, more info and samples:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/baru.htm

NOTE: To the downvoters, this is not a religious commentary in any way, shape, or form.

Satania is an utterly unique, 124-page graphic novel by writer Fabien Vehlmann and the artist team of Kerascoët. For my money it's a minor masterpiece, part of a slew of great works these folks did independently and sometimes together.

In terms of plot, the book tracks a hastily-organised spelunking expedition which fails to account for an impending flood. A wiser, experienced explorer, Father Monsore, attempts an emergency rescue, but it's too late, and the spelunkers are swept by the flood deeper in to the caverns until they're thoroughly lost. Then they begin to make unbelievable discoveries one after another, encountering ancient cave art, then a small civilisation of humans, and finally an undiscovered world of furry humanoids and bizarre creatures living above an enormous, bubbling sea of... acid?

This is both a fun but intense read, one that creates a relentless tension between the thrill of exploration and adaptation versus the fear of death being ever at hand, largely involving our two main protagonists, Monsore and young Charlotte, who's out to see if her brilliant idiot of a brother has adventured in to the depths below. Yes, these two have to deal with a myriad of unknown settings, situations, and creatures, on top of their colleagues losing their marbles as the adventure goes on. That, and outright dying. In tone, the book is strangely both exhilarating yet gloomy. Great fun to marvel at, but rather weird and uncomfortable to experience.

There are also some interesting meta-themes covered, such as: what is man's natural state? Is reason and 'progress' the better-lived life, or is it more important to live in the moment? Another one: is it possible that the Earth is a super-organism, with the various creatures we view as separate species being more like cells and antibodies as part of an overall 'Gaia' collective?

More on these tremendously-talented creators and their works:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kerascoet.htm
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/v/vehlmann_fabien.htm

Welp, here in the American Midwest, we're locked in a bit of a battle between winter & spring. Today, Thursday, the highs are in the ~63°F range, while by Monday it's projected to be near-freezing again. A heavy snowfall one day is followed by a glorious day, only a couple days later.

And you?

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This art is the front & back cover from Jacques Martin's Lefranc detective series. He's better known as the creator of the ancient Roman Alix series, which continues on with the excellent Alix, Senator series.

Martin's other famous creation was inspired by a 1951 trip to the French Vosges region. Martin and his traveling companion spotted an abandoned railway tunnel in the landscape. It was used by the Germans during World War II to harbor artillery, including a V1 missile, intended to bomb Paris. The experience motivated Martin to create a detective series set between the aftermath of WWII and the start of the Cold War. On 21 May 1952, 'La Grande Menace' ("The Great Threat"), the first episode of 'Lefranc', debuted in Tintin magazine.

The main hero of the series is Guy Lefranc, a brilliant detective, aided by the Boy Scout orphan Jean Le Gall, AKA Jeanjean. During their investigations of international expionage, Lefranc and Jeanjean are confronted by spies, terrorists and dictators. Their nemesis is Axel Borg, a gentleman thief and master of disguise. The 'Lefranc' stories are known for their direct references to real-life events from the second half of the 20th century.

More about Martin, including loads of pages:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/martin_jacq.htm

I'm going with William Windom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS7cK-mQ0fQ&t=134s

Staving off reality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmnpz6TheSs

Doing a villain turn by seizing control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tW0jhEvZE

Matt's heroic sacrifice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_mwtoeqneM

Finally, one of the most nail-biting scenes ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHmsnQ8WVpw

Personal notes: across all TV and media, I've rarely seen a character go from totally sympathetic, to total heel-turn villain, to total martyr like that.

In terms of ST series, maybe Dukat from DS..?

Runner-ups?

• Mark Lenard as the Romulan commander

• Robert Walker as "Charlie X"

• Roger C. Carmel as "Harry Mudd"

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Daggit, I know I'm forgetting some actors, here...

Tralalajahal intersects the worlds of surrealism, zoo animals, androids and architecture. Altho generally the events depicted are merely bizarre, at other times the androids are crushed or beheaded, with the animals undergoing rather violent perils. In addition to the creatures mentioned, there's also a strange little race of cactus people participating, plus other animated objects and various contraptions.

Altho there are connected sequences across the images, these are not part of any particular BD stories. Rather, they're art pieces which Pierre has shared via galleries, books, ceramics and postcards. That said, he indeed has a running, wordless comic series titled Les Souris about a strange world of mice, as published by Mephistopolous.

Note the L & R panels above form a continuous scene.

The middle is an example of subtitled pieces that include witty and/or absurdist commentary along the lines of parking / traffic sign rules & regulations. It says, as I read it: "Attaching cycles to the grids is banned."

1) "Except Sundays and holidays," 2) "Maximum weight authorised," and 3) "Except taxis, coaches, and service vehicles."

1) "To use the buoy-- break the ice and pull the latch," 2) "Unless kept on a leash, on wet sand, at low tide," 3) "Stop reserved for descent."

Notice again the L & R panels show a sequence.

Lots more of Pierre's work here, this time generally in 3D:
http://www.jahal.fr/galeries_accueil.html

And another reviewer's introduction here, with alternate art:
https://cloud-109.blogspot.com/2010/02/tralalajahal-incredible-worlds-of.html

Some times I have to remind myself that this isn’t Reddit and that a lot of times it’s a handful of people bringing interesting content.

I must say, this comment in the Where's Wally? thread made me feel both grand as a king and grateful as a guttersnipe. To be clear-- whilst I often borrow from the work of giants, I always try to add context, some interesting notes, plus any personal spin that helps flesh out the subject matter.

I've been doing that since the founding of the sub last year, and have happily been joined by Nacktmull, Valmond, and a couple freelancers who enjoy posting here from time-to-time, bless 'em!

My point here is that it's all done by hand, with no reposting bots, or anything.

That said, with regard to posts like these, it honestly hurts to get downvoted without the slightest shred of feedback. I mean, for sure I can understand if I did something wrong, but to downvote anonymously is incredibly de-motivating, just in case anyone was wondering how I felt about putting my time & effort in to public work meant for general enjoyment.

But... these things happen, is it not? So let's move on. In case you're interested, I've put together an *updated* 'best of 2023' list here.

Note: the Pisces horoscope art is by Chinese artist "vivsters"
https://www.deviantart.com/vivsters

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Free the Uighurs

It's a terrific graphic novel, and Peeters is one of the great geniuses working in comics, for my money.

More on him here:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/peeters_frederik.htm

Okay, here's my recent discovery-- Vendredi sur Mer, i.e. Charline Mignot from Romandy, Schweiz: [NSFW] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhqUMFj51X0

And another one, crushing the down-low chill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2QHIrBgSs

EDIT: honestly, I reacted poorly to the initial downvotes, and I apologise for that. I guess a good chunk of people were turned off by Mignot's first video. Welp, it happens, altho assuming this is primarily a Euro-based audience, I find that a bit weird.

Which perhaps suggests that I'm wrong, and that this is more of an American Christian audience than I'd suspected... or something like that?

.

The left one is what originally caught my eye a few months back. The way Juarez handles crumbling red cañon rock is truly a sight to behold.

So, Jon Juarez is a freelance artist out of San Sebastian, Spain.

.

He's worked for Telefónica, Netflix, HBO, Bungi and Square Enix, and was production designer for the Scavengers' Reign TV series.

.

And some links:
https://www.artstation.com/harriorrihar
https://lama.co/harriorrihar

Finnish graphic artist Jaakko Seppälä created this masterpiece about a decade ago, simulating ten famous cartoonists drawing the others' characters. Starting from the upper left and working down-and-right diagonally, we have:

• Astérix, by Albert Uderzo (France)
• Calvin, by Bill Watterson (USA)
• Donald Duck, by Carl Barks (USA)
• Captain Haddock, by Hergé (Belgique)
• Batman, by Bill Finger & Bob Kane (USA)
• Fingerpori, by Pertti Jarla (Finland)
• Corto Maltese, by Hugo Pratt (Italy)
• Moomin, by Tove Jansson (Sweden-Finland)
• Garfield, by Jim Davis (USA)
• Lucy Van Pelt, by Charles Schulz (USA)

WP has some basic info for him: (turn on translate)
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaakko_Sepp%C3%A4l%C3%A4_(graafikko)

This wasn't my idea originally, but I had fun looking through last year's books, picking out my favorites, and putting together this list. It's arranged in descending order: (click the links for art samples)

Republic of the Skull T1 & T2 (Brugeas & Toulhoat) (Europe Comics)

The dashing Captain Sylla plies the Caribbean with his close-knit crew: The Marquis, a former slave who sports a powdered periwig; the clever, craggy-faced Dutch; the burly, bearded Lenoir; and first mate Olivier, given to gloom and considered a bringer of bad luck. This is likely because he spends his time composing log entries addressed to a fictive British "Commodore" who will someday capture them. But perhaps he is the only clear-eyed one among them: luckless outcasts of imperial navies, these pirates' days of freedom and fraternity are numbered, as the forces of law, order, and capital bear down on them. --Amazon

This was easily one of the finest Pirate-themed series I've read, with lots of historical culture and context that one doesn't always get. It featured nicely-efficient storytelling and lots of dramatic ups & downs, which built towards quite the plausible yet tragic ending. --Johnny

Fierce (Monde & Burniat) (Dargaud)

The legendary King Arthur is now an old drunkard who spends his days slouched on his throne. He owes his former glory to the magic sword the wizard Merlin forged for him in order to slay the hordes of demons who came to invade the kingdom of Pendragon. The enchanted weapon now suffers from a bad case of boredom, while Arthur's daughter, the Princess Ysabelle, is wondering how to flee the marriage her father has arranged with the vile Baron of Cumber. Both Ysabelle and the sword are determined to change their fate, and to do so they must become allies on a long journey. But the wide world can prove much harsher than life at the palace, and the sword's intentions may not be as noble as they seem... --NetGalley

This was a delicious, intelligent, deeply humorous tale in the style of Kerascoet, Hubert & Vehlmann, such as Beauty, A Man's Skin and The Court Charade --Johnny

Eigyr (Hamon & Colboc) (Europe Comics)

Fifth-century Great Britain. After centuries, the Romans have withdrawn from the island. Saxons have arrived from the European mainland, some of the native Britons have been Christianized, and others have maintained their pagan ways. The great wizard Merlin has fallen on the field of battle, and soon thereafter a prophecy—or a rumor—begins to circulate: Merlin will be reincarnated in a newborn. The hunt is on for the baby whose promised greatness would disrupt the power-grabbing plans of the different peoples. The pregnant Eigyr becomes the prey, and with the help of an archer and a priest, she must try to stay alive long enough to deliver destiny. --League of Comic Geeks

Altho this was a fairly grim, tragic tale, I found it thoroughly gripping, and a nicely realistic look at the early Arthurian period. --Johnny

Extraordinary, The T3 - Melek's Head (Ruppert & Mulot) (Europe Comics)

Orsay is determined to cure his mother's cancer using the strange powers that allow him to meld with the creatures known as whols. But the whols are in danger—banished from cities and slaughtered by uncaring humans, they risk disappearing from the Earth completely. To save them from extinction, and humankind from itself, Orsay will have to survive and learn from a terrible loss. He'll also have to stop Melek, a woman with whol powers in her head, from exacting revenge on those she sees as responsible for the whols' plight... --GoodReads

Tome three wraps up this wonderful, highly imaginative series, and unforunately ends the productive collaboration between Ruppert & Mulot. --Johnny

Fortune of the Winczlavs, The - Danitza, 1965 (Van Hamme & Berthet) (Dupuis)

This third book wraps up the miniseries, which traces the ancestors of Largo Winch back to 1848. It's drawn in a simple but lovely LC style, and as with seemingly everything Van Hamme puts pen to, one is rapidly engaged in the plot and swiftly on the edge of one's seat. It really is impressive to see how well the context is fleshed out across historical eras, and I reckon this is virtually a 'must-read' for any fans of the main series, Largo Winch. --Johnny

NeoForest T1 - Cocto Citadel (Duval & Scaffoni) (Europe Comics)

In a distant future lives a young woman named Blanche. She's the heiress of Cocto Citadel, a neofeudal city like those that arose after the end of the world... When Blanche and her father find themselves at the center of dramatic power struggles, it's in the heart of NeoForest, the Great Central Forest, that everything must be decided. --Amazon

I found this quite the promising beginning to a post-apoc series that takes place in a feudalistic, forested setting. Altho much of modern technology is evidently lost, there's still a level of science and even magical science present. Also of course, schemers out to assassinate Blanche and steal the throne away from her father. --Johnny

Coyote and the Snake, The (Xavier & Matz) (Europe Comics)

USA, 1970. Joe is driving his camper in the wide open spaces of the Wild West. He makes several acquaintances along the way: a small coyote, to start with, but also local thugs, F.B.I. agents, a U.S. Marshal, old friends who seem to be more or less trustworthy... But who is this good ol' Joe? Those who cross his path tend to see their life expectancy dangerously decrease... --EC site

This was a 'road trip movie' about a weary, aging Clint Eastwood-type who simply wants to settle down and put his past behind him. That, and make sure his daughter doesn't get mixed up in his old business. There's a certain spirit of discovery about road journeys that gets captured nicely here, overlaid with moments of danger and mortal disaster. Mainstream comics have been toying with this formula for years, but for me, this was just about the best example of its kind. --Johnny

Misfits Club for Girls, The - T4 Apolline(Beka & Mehu) (Europe Comics)

Apolline, Céleste, Chélonia and Sierra go to school together. These young girls have one thing in common: they are isolated, pushed aside by others, and sometimes harassed. One day, Chélonia decides to bring them together to make a proposal-- she would like to found the “misfits club” with them. Its purpose: to allow them to break their loneliness, become stronger, and 'exist more fully.' Their first objective is to convince Paloma to join them. A rebellious and lonely teenager, she's already exhausted several foster families. She now lives with Liselotte, a woman used to sheltering young people in difficulty. Will the four new friends be able to help her overcome her past? --GoodReads

I found this an unusually insightful and moving look in to troubled young women sparking against each other, mostly for the best. There were certainly stretches of pain and dysfunction, but they tended to get worked out eventually, almost in a therapeutic manner... but without the sappy heavy-handedness that such works can sometimes fall in to. --Johnny

Exile, The (Erik Kriek) (Living the Line)

After seven years of exile, battle-hardened Hallstein Thordsson returns home to Iceland, only to find that old wounds haven't healed. His stepmother Solveig and his half-brother Ottar are besieged by wood thieves, directed by her unwelcome suitor, Einar. The Exile's presence disrupts the delicate balance and threatens to tip all of Iceland into violence. A remarkable decades-spanning epic, Erik Kriek's The Exile is equal parts action “Western” and family drama, with a surprising story of violence and consequences at its core. Told in a naturalistic modern style but with tremendous fidelity to the historical period in which it is set, The Exile depicts the Viking age in all of its conflict, turmoil, and social structure, with every detail depicted vividly on the page.

Kriek's fascinating 'woodblock-style' is not to be missed, and I thought the story did a nice job examining the psychology of betrayal & revenge. --Johnny

Anno Domini 1000 by Thomas Gilbert (Europe Comics)

Brunehilde is a wolf-charmer. When her travels take her to a remote valley in southern France, she is horrified to discover famine, pestilence, and mass deforestation. Worse still, children are being found dead in the woods. For the villagers, the murders must be the work of a demon: a wild beast, a wolf. But for Brunehilde—a nomadic healer widely seen as a witch—nothing is less certain. She knows better than anyone that the real monster is Man. --Amazon

I really enjoy these historical fiction novels covering times that tend to get neglected by history and storytelling. Altho fairly light-hearted in tone for the most part, this was in fact a pretty grim look at the realities of the day, with a serial-killer murder mystery that reminded me of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles as well as Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt, some excellent but disturbing (non-comic) novels. --Johnny

Jardin Secret, Le T2 (Burnett & Begon) (Dargaud)

In a house full of sadness and secrets, can young, orphaned Mary find happiness?Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on England’s Yorkshire moors after the death of her parents. There she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dour gardener, a cheerful robin, and her wilful, hysterical, and sickly cousin, Master Colin, whose wails she hears echoing through the house at night.With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary. --Amazon

I love how a children's classic, one that I otherwise would probably miss, got brought in to BD form and wound up being something I wolfed right up. It's certainly an uplifting book on the whole, but with a certain Dickensian edge that greatly helped in keeping it real and relatable. --Johnny

Where's Wally? is a British series of children's puzzle books created by illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting dozens or hundreds of people doing a variety of amusing things at a given location. Readers are challenged to find a character named Wally and his friends hidden throughout the pages. --WP

TBH, I only have a passing familiarity with this series. Certainly I like the LC-style art and premise, but I'm afraid my eyes are kind of weak for these kinds of puzzles. Still, as pure art pieces, I feel like the landscape-style scenes have some real charm, not unlike the super-cute animal tableaus of Richard Scarry.

Just for the record: I'm playing around with the title on purpose. As someone who's lived in the States since forever, I absolutely heard of "Waldo" long before "Wally." But maties-- is this not EGN+? 😜

2011's Where's Wally World Record event in Dublin, Ireland

In 1986, U. of Creative Arts in Kent graduate Handford was asked by art director David Bennett to develop a book of detailed crowd scenes inspired by Philippe Dupasquier's Busy Places series. Whilst the book was being prepared for the Bologna Book Fair, someone at Walker Books suggested the idea of adding a distinctive-looking character whom the reader could search for in the crowd scenes. After much thinking, Handford came up with the idea of "Wally", a world traveller and time travel aficionado who always dresses in red and white. Sometimes it would take him up to eight weeks to draw a two-page sketch of the elusive "Wally" and the characters surrounding him. The first Where's Wally? book was published in Sep '87.

As the series goes on, Wally becomes increasingly harder to find, reducing his size on the page and surrounding him by more characters. In the first book, Wally was on average one cm2 big. This was reduced to 0.80 cm2 in the second book, 0.33 cm2 in the third, and between 0.20 and 0.17 cm2 in the fourth through seventh books! He's also been surrounded by more & more characters, from 225 in the very first page to about 850 on the last book's first page.

• Odlaw appears nearly the same as Wally, except that his clothes are yellow and black-striped instead of red and white; his glasses have a blue tint to them; and he has a moustache. He also has a British accent in the television series. Although it is told that "his bad deeds are many," he is not depicted in the books doing anything particularly nasty. However, in the television series, he is frequently seen to be attempting to steal Wally's magical walking stick! 😤

• Odlulu is a villainous pre-teen female Anti-Wanderer who is a gender-bend version of Odlaw and despises the Wanderers in the new series. She is plotting to obtain the Wanderer keys and take control of the world. She sometimes help out Wally and Wenda for their quest, then turns everything back to normal after causing random chaos, somewhere.