Some people kind of dismiss season one, but to me it's full of masterpieces.
Maybe it's not as fully polished as later seasons, but it's got great energy and has a fun, experimental vibe that got phased out in some ways. In terms of animation, Bart's mouth briefly moving to the other side of his face would be one example. Another would be how far they ran with a theme, for example when Bart and Herman organise an army of kids to teach the bullies a lesson.
Thanks for explaining. Makes sense!
(oh, and no anti-freeze either, right?)
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=79BjxQh6Xp0
Oh?
I don't know much about wine-making and mostly just pulled that definition from some source or other. Generally I supposed that the grapes supply most of the sugar, no?
Good stuff; thanks for sharing.
The contrast between Curtis' outgoing personality versus the character she played reminded me a bit of Jeremy Brett playing Sherlock Holmes. I would think one's native personality would peek through the stoniness of the role from time to time, regardless.
Herbert of Craftiwich, yes!
Okay, thanks for the note about Monstres. I may have missed or forgotten his appearance there.
I'll give you a couple hints:
It's one of the ~four core characters of the series.
At the time he's just a low-level type, working for the keeper. And we already know he's not Marvin the dragon.
Yes. RanTanPlan, excellent.
Sillage (Wake) is the best sci-fi series I've ever read in BD. I'll have to turn the spotlight towards that one soon!
Oh, 8 must be the brothers dalton?
Very good. Now who did they meet there?
Also looks a bit like Smurfs.
Absolutely correct. The first appearance of the Smurfs was in J&P, and they were disguised as we see above. (notice the blue foot and hand sticking out)
Nr 8 one of the Daltons
The Daltons have already been established at that point, so the new character is someone they're about to meet. Astrid might not like them.
Nr 10 maybe Pirlouit\Peewit\Pfiffikus because there is his goat in the last panel.
Yes, nice, it's from the Johan & Peewit series!
Two & five are correct! Very nice guessing Kriss, as that was one of the hardest ones IMO.
Should have more Jommeke, Kiekeboe and Suske and Wiske!
I can definitely do the latter at some point, but of the first two, I suspect they aren't well-known outside Belge. Feel free to post about them here sometime to help people get a taste..
I seem to recall a couple of the Lucky Luke films were surprisingly good, too. "Daisy Town" was one, I think.
By contrast, I thought the Tintin series failed to capture any of Hergé's magic.
While looking up work for Manfred Deix, I chanced across this guy. Funny, they seem to share a rather acid commenting style upon modern life. oO
I'm not completely sure what this last one references. Maybe the fossil fuel industry and wasteful suburbanite living, haha. Actually it reminded me of a fold-in by Lithuanian-American humorist, Al Jaffee. See cartoon #2 here.
He's a concept & video game artist, currently working at Amplitude Studios.
What particularly caught my eye is that he seems to start via traditional methods (pencil, watercolor and ink), which then gets scanned and finished off via digital tools, not unlike the pioneering work by Richard Corben on Denz about 30 years ago.
Lots more good stuff at his ArtStation and Instagram.
I noticed that this poster by André Juillard is quite popular around the internet. After a little digging, I found that it's not just a one-off piece, but corresponds directly to tome 2 of the Arno adventures, scripted by Jacques Martin and illustrated by Juillard. Following the example of the Sphinx piece above, I decided to search for more of the architectural panels from the book.
Yes, that's actually Emperor Napoleon along for the ride!
In 1984, Martin created the historical series - "Arno." Through its central character, the Venetian musician Arno Firenze, the series chronicles events occurring between the French Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic Empire. Arno gets involved with the revolutionary movement in Paris of 1789 and is eventually recruited in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Martin once again strove for historical accuracy and tried to depict the Corsican emperor in a balanced way. Napoleon is portrayed as a brilliant politician and military strategist, but at the same time a formidable tyrant. --Lambiek
Martin was a French comic creator who worked alongside colleagues Hergé, E.P. Jacobs and Paul Cuvelier as part of the original team of Tintin magazine artists. He's best known for creating the young Ancient Roman Alix (1948- ) and the contemporary journalist Lefranc (1952- ), whose adventures are continued to this day. Over a career of six decades, Martin became one of the most influential creators of historical comics. Besides the Roman age, Martin set his stories in ancient Greece (Orion, 1990-2011), ancient Egypt (Kéos, 1991-1999), the Napoleonic era (Arno, 1984-1997) and the reign of Louis XIV (Loïs, 2003- ).
Artist André Juillard is one of the most productive and influential artists of historical comics in France. Born in Paris, Juillard attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, taking courses in comics from Jean-Claude Mézières and Jean Giraud. He began his professional career as an illustrator for the children's magazine Formule 1 in 1974.
In short, he's illustrated a landslide of series, which can be checked on Bedetheque.
As for this particular album, there's a summary on the back cover. Google and I translate it thusly:
1798 : the French Revolution is exported to the Orient. Napoleon leads a French expedition to discover what he may in the shadow of the ancient pyramids, in these hostile lands. Harassed by the Mamelukes, pursued by Admiral Nelson's fleet, Bonaparte is the plaything of all perils. However, another threat hangs over him - “Red Spade”. What is the mysterious plot against the young general which Arno Firenze, his companion from Italy, is trying to thwart? And who is the enigmatic Bedouin who follows in their footsteps? Friend or enemy, warrior or infidel..?
I'm not too familiar with these characters and this series, but I understand André Franquin originally created a marsupilami character as part of his work on Spirou, then took the rights with him when he left, spinning them in to a new series of the same name. After his death, other creators worked on a new volume of series, such as Batem, as seen above. [Lambiek]
Note their incredibly long tails, which are like a super-powered fifth limb. I kind of wish I had one of those, as silly as it might look.
This nice piece is by Didier Convard, from his series Chats ("cats").
From what I can tell, cats are the dominant species in this reality, with humans amusingly playing more of a primitive, underclass role.
More on Convard at Lambiek (note: he's not to be confused with Didier Conrad), and more samples from Chats here.
I believe this is from a collected work, name of Les Dieux, published by Phylactere publishing house.
Some big names there, yes, but what was this project, anyway..?
I thought this was morbidly fun post for Halloween, and note the drole Henry Kissinger character.
This little story was originally published in the mid-to-late 70's, and later included in the Memories trade paper back (Humanoids, 2005). Bilal is known for such works as the Nikopol Trilogy, Légendes d'Aujourd'hui, and Partie de chasse. I was going to say Serbia's Enki Bilal, but...
Bilal was born in Belgrade to a Czech mother and a Bosnian Muslim father. When he was five years old, his father managed to emigrate to Paris. Enki and the rest of the family followed four years later. Bilal has no sense of belonging to any ethnic group and religion, nor is he obsessed with soil and roots. He said in one interview: 'I feel Bosnian by my father's origin, a Serb by my place of birth and a Croat by my relationship with childhood friends, not to mention there's my Czech half'. --WP
I'm not sure which year this dates from, but it seems these calendars are still being produced. As for the classic BD character--
Corto Maltese (Andalusian slang for "quick hands") is a laconic sea captain adventuring during the early 20th century. A "rogue with a heart of gold", he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta, 1887, he's the son of a British sailor and an Andalusian–Romani witch. As a boy growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltese discovered that he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with his father's razor, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral position, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.
The character embodies Pratt's skepticism of national, ideological and religious assertions. Corto befriends people from all walks of life, including the murderous Russian "Rasputin," British heir Tristan Bantam, voodoo priestess "Gold Mouth" and Czech academic Jeremiah Steiner. He also knows and meets various real-life historical figures, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Butch Cassidy, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Frederick Rolfe, Joseph Conrad and others. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, as when a telephone call to Joseph Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the border of Turkey and Armenia.
Corto's favourite book is Utopia by Thomas More, but he never finishes it. He also read books by London, Lugones, Stevenson, Melville and Conrad, and quotes Rimbaud.
The Corto Maltese stories range from straight historical adventure to occult dream sequences. He's present when the Red Baron is shot down, helps the Jívaro in South America, and flees Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helps Merlin and Oberon to defend Britain, and helps Tristan Bantam to visit the lost continent of Mu. --WP
Just above is the famous Esther cartoon turned in to a mega-meme. You may have seen it in different form here and there, but the 'meme' idea was to alter the word "slut" to whatever the meme-creator thought cleverest. Haha?
Little did people know that such was only the tip of the toenail when it came to the crazy-hilarious "Esther" cartoons. Yes-- Esther Verkest, it turns out, is a total, unpredictable savage. She's the brainchild of Kim Duchateau, a Flemish Belgian wunderkind.
What's the password? Bzzt! What's the password? Bzzt! ^&@!#$ Oh nevermind, I have better things to do..!
ㅤ
Yes.. yes, good boy Renaat! What?! Who the hell's Renaat? Sorry sorry, I was close! What do you mean, you were close?!
ㅤ
Seriously, this is one of the most 'boomeranging' characters I've ever seen in my life. The basic conceit is that Esther's a relatively normal, decent human being that the audience can ogle to death because she's incidentally an attractive young woman. In fact, SHE'S arguably the wicked fiend here, and it's the helpless audience who are actually the innocent little lambs, a delightfully unexpected turning of the traditional tables!
Oh dear.
ㅤ
Ooh, ooh, Esther! A falling star! Let's make a wish! >granted!<
ㅤ
*Ugh, I don't feel so good. Those mussels from earlier weren't fresh.
Oh, shutup! Can't you just rub some lotion on?
Aaron, you idiot! You put too much lotion on again!*
ㅤ
Again, we're not talking about brilliant comedic masterpieces here, but yes-- there's indeed a crazy, deranged aspect about Esther that-- well, actually, it's kinda brilliant in it's own deranged way, no? C'mon, work with me here--
Bah: I'm getting tired of trying to translate my horrible Dutch in to English, but here she's on holiday, thoughtfully making an absentee display for the peeping tom across the street. Of course, he-- crazy, weirdo, Peeping Tom is caught trying to do the same:
Fernando, what are you doing! we'll miss our flight! - Coming, dear, coming..!
Oh great, now it's an ABBA joke...
Okay, here we have Esther and her blue-skinned best friend, stuck on the road side. They're in quite the spot, until... someone finally has a great idea--
You just can't argue with logic like that!
Okay, okay, last series, here we go--
"Hello, I'd like to get to know you better" / Esther counters with rectal prostate exam chart, man goes screaming, terrified in to the distance / "Always works!"
"You don't look bad... what would you think if you & I...?" / "Yes, fantastic! Would you like to become a member of our Big & Betsy fan club?!" / "Always works!"
"Ooh, I've never seen you before. Do you sometimes feel like...?" / "I have been deaf and dumb since birth. You can support me by buying this doll or giving it whatever you want" / "Uh, uh, I have to go, sorry!" / "Always works!"
Hello, do you come here often? Can I offer you a drink? / Pervert! How dare you come begging for a blowjob after watching you screw my dog on my best sofa! / "Damn, sometimes it doesn't always work."
Note: violence against women is something I do not endorse in any way, shape, or form. If I have screwed up in any particular way upon such, then may this post be swiftly deleted, and please accept my sincere apologies.
So far I've only read a bit of his stuff published States-side in Heavy Metal magazine. While I aim to swiftly correct that, I do already love Torres' "ligne claire" and imaginative compositions.
More about Torres' fabulous work at Lambiek and Bedetheque.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I'm frankly rather curious how many of the subscribers here are interested moreso in the pure art or in Euro comics as a whole. I have a community update coming soon, so maybe there's some way I can add a poll...