JohnnyEnzyme

Spirou (literally "squirrel") is one of the most venerable BD characters & franchises, going through something like nine creative teams or single creators over the years. Part of the reason for this turnover is that the originator, Robert Velter, sold the rights to Dupuis early in its history.

(an alternate layout)

Spirou's uniform is based on being a humble lift (elevator) operator, but it was artist-writer André Franquin who turned the character in to much more of an adventure figure. I understand that the current team (Yoann & Vehlmann) have now turned him in to a superhero(!)

I've tried to assemble the best versions of these graphics that I could, then did some upscaling and simple editing. Enjoy.

(and an expanded layout)

(click links for samples, zoom in on image below for example page)

Grandville (Bryan Talbot, 2009-2017) - When a book featuring 'anthro' animals doesn't get on my nerves, it's usually something quite good. What we have here is a steampunk detective story set in an alternate history; one in which Napoleon managed to conquer Western Europe. This is also something of a 'Noir' story writ large, in which instead of the usual private detective working a case, we have an actual police detective, taking on something... very big. Grandville is frankly quite violent, resorting to the facile, old storytelling technique of using murder to tie up loose ends everywhere. While I'm not really a fan of such, I have to admit it works nicely here, and the story zips along to a satisfying conclusion in which our hero (a badger) takes on a right-wing conspiracy out to stir up war, in order to plunder newly-discovered oil fields. A familiar, topical story one might say, although that just covers the first volume. There are five 100-page books in the series, and the quality only builds from here. As a special bonus, one of the huge pleasures of this series is spotting the endless BD & literary cameos, such as (from Tintin) Snowy's sad yet hilarious appearance here. If you loved the art and style of Blacksad, but found the stories a bit cliché at times, I can recommend Grandville for having sharper, more original plotting and dialogue. Frankly there's much more to say about the series, which I'll try to get to in future.

Human (Agrimbau & Varela, 2019) - Another cracking good read from Lucas Varela, author of the modern classic Longest Day of the Future. In this futuristic, robot-centric story, a married pair of scientists go in to cryogenic stasis, planning to revive together when a post-apocalyptic Earth is safe to inhabit again. The button-down, rigorously professional husband arrives and sets up camp, aided by his talented team of robot assistants. All the while he relentlessly tries to discover the whereabouts of his wife, who seemingly arrived a few years earlier. Finally he locates her, and is broken by what he discovers. Human is a nice sci-fi story that examines the psyche, and specifically, what holds our internal realities together. It also has a lot of fun with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, particularly when it comes to interacting with a once-sane person losing their mind in a world filled with strange, hominid descendants.

Back (K.C. Green & Anthony Clark, 2014 - 2021) - I'm going to cheat this time and include my favorite (non-Euro) webcomic of all time, now that it's completed its big finale. Some will be familiar with Green as the creator of Gunshow, featuring the "Question Hound," who famously says "this is fine" whilst sitting in a burning house, a pretty savage metaphor for modern civilisation. (have you seen the full sequence? if not, then here it is, plus it's lesser-known sequel)

So-- Back is a bit like Princess Mononoke in that it features a heroine whose mission is to shut down industries of exploitation, thus helping to save the world. What's oh-so-great about this online GN (graphic novel) is that it's nothing at all like one would expect from that mission statement. It's delightfully quirky, rude, farcical, inventive and unpredictable, whilst still retaining plenty of logic and internal structure. In the story, Abigail (the heroine) and her friend Daniel proceed through a long journey and series of events to reach the capitol and confront the king, i.e. Earth's primary exploiter. In fact Abigail, having woken up with no memory and little sense of purpose, isn't very sure about her supposed mission, and is even told by various helping hands along the way that her purpose is actually to END the world. This is a superb GN which concludes with a string of shocks, surprises and fireworks in hugely-satisfying fashion. I recommend taking a look while it's still free to read online, as it may go exclusively to book format in future.

Diabolical Summer (Smolderen & Clerisse, 2019) Another intriguing work from the team that produced Atomic Empire (reviewed previously). This one shares the playful, stylised art and 50's-60's time period, but is a lot more focused and relevant. In most ways it's about a young man on the slippery path to adulthood, struggling with new friendships, new challenges, the opposite sex, and especially, trying to make sense of who is father really is. Somehow it's also a tale of dark pasts, murder, and espionage, yet I can't help but feel that the central theme is still that of struggling to understood ourselves, the people around us, and the inner lives of our parents. As with other 'S & C' works, style-wise there's an intriguing 'elusiveness' which is at turns pleasant or sinister, which I found unique and even riveting at times.

The Coldest City (Johnston & Hart, 2012) - A slow-brewing espionage tale filled with deceptions, double-agents, and heaps of shadowy unknowns. In other words, more realities of the actual spy profession, and much less of the entertaining nonsense found in James Bond and similar series. The album features rudimentary, sketch-like art, but the story was excellent and most certainly carried the day. It reminded me a lot of the intricate Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy series, and was in fact made in to a critically well-received movie, Atomic Blonde (2017).

The panel is from tome 3 "Le Rige." I liked artist Régis Loisel's ligne claire here, particularly the hatching, shadows and line-work on the mounted beasts. Also, the composition is nicely framed, balancing foreground & background elements with some lush colors, and inverts the typical lighting / shading scheme.

"Roxanna" is ostensibly a 'swords & sorcery'-type series, but there's an unusual, interesting background with our two heroes, i.e. Roxanne and her father, Bragon. I hope to do a proper review one of these days..

Evidently there are a lot of BD-themed murals around the city.

Album #40 is coming out the end of next month. It's got a new writer in Fabcaro, taking over for Jean-Yves Ferri. Didier Conrad remains the artist, and I think he's done a great job following the late Albert Uderzo.

As for the theme? Well... I don't know. Evidently the story's about a faddish, influential figure who gets most of the Roman world interested in healthy diets and 'New Age' philosophies, which eventually spreads to The Village and creates a strong divide, as you can pick up on looking at the background characters on the cover. "Bleeding Cool" has more details here.

Oh, and here's some alternate wallpaper, below:

So, I could see this one turning out anywhere from 'lamely trying to interject modern topics' all the way to being a surprising success. Apart from that, dividing the Gauls has always been a fruitful theme, as we saw in previous albums such as The Mansions of the Gods, The Soothsayer, Caesar's Gift, The Roman Agent, and Obelix & Co.

Finally, I took the preview page from that last article and upscaled it, below. Let's cross our fingers that the album's good, let's say at least at the level of the last one, Asterix and the Griffin!

Another funky dream sequence. This one's from Tintin #4, Cigars of the Pharaoh.

It's well known that author Hergé got burned out doing Tintin, evidently on more than one occasion. Some of the likely contributing factors: 1) the adventures often took years of research and preparation, 2) they had to be meticulously drawn, particularly as Tintin picked up in popularity, and 3) for most of his career, a finished page or two needed to be produced on a weekly basis in order to go in to such publications as Le Petit Vingtième, Le Soir, and Le journal de Tintin. Hergé was even accused of being a Nazi collaborator after the war, a terribly stressful time for him that thankfully got sorted out in the end.

Which brings me to why I like these rare dream sequences, in which one supposes that Hergé was able to cut loose more freely and indulge more of his creative sensibilities.

I love these antique automobiles as seen in small towns and gorgeous countrysides. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any web-matches for this image, nor figure out who the artist is. Best I could do for now was upscale the image a bit from the original low-res pic.

If anybody has any ideas, please add a comment.

EDIT: Looks like it's François Roussel, as answered by @drolex@sopuli.xyz!

[SAMPLES]

1a) What's your single favorite Euro graphic novel? 1b) And series? ❦

2) What's your best recommendation of a GN or series for people who don't read Euro comics? ❦

3) Are you happy with the type of content posted here so far? If not, please add suggestions / critiques.

❦ - if you can't decide between 2-3, feel free to post them all

Thanks to IAMag [note: a couple NSFW]

Sillage ("Wake" in English) is my favorite sci-fi BD series, about espionage and special operations (mostly), featuring a young human woman (Nävis), last of her peoples amongst a slew of alien species living in a travelling collective.

I'm thinking the hat is also a tribute to Moebius' Airtight Garage.

I'm enjoying the similarities to ligne claire!

This one came out in May, and continues the story of the "Schtroumpfs" (original name for the "Smurfs"), created by the late Peyo. It's by artist-writer Tébo, and breathes some welcome new life in to the franchise. HERE are some samples of Tébo's work, and here's BDgest's summary of the new album:

A smurf wakes up in the middle of the village. No one knows him, and he doesn't quite understand the language of the Smurfs. In fact, he's not even sure who he is, and doesn't know what he's doing there. After dealing with the suspicion that Gargamel is behind all this, Papa Smurf gets busy preparing a remedy for this curious amnesia. In the meantime, Smurfette decides to set up an expedition to clear it all up, accompanied by a small group including the newcomer who, for lack of a better word, will call himself "Unknown Smurf."

So I read the album in my beginner-ish French and am happy to say that I found it quite enjoyable and fresh. I must admit that one of my frustrations with Peyo's albums is that despite how lovable the Smurfs are and how amusing their 'language' is, the scenarios, artistry, and expressiveness of the characters are generally quite limited. While yes, adorable, these are essentially kids books that double as all-ages books at best. Which brings me to artist-writer Tébo, who addresses those traditional limitations with a great deal of skill, creativity, and humor.

To give a couple examples-- one of the things I liked in this album is that Smurfette takes a leading role in the adventure, and not just as a pretty face. There's also a fun new character who's effectively "Brawny Smurf," a nice alternative to "Hefty Smurf." But best of all, the little questing party travels to a completely unknown, maze-like realm in the forest, with brand new characters and dangers to contend with. This was a welcome change compared to the routine of idling around the village, with the same old characters repeating cliché jokes and the same old behaviors (lookin' at you, Jokey-Smurf, Lazy-Smurf, Grouchy-Smurf, etc). Another amusing novelty was seeing the normally unflappable, problem-solving Papa Smurf meet his Waterloo, so to speak. Finally, as a special bonus, two semi-famous BD characters play significant roles in the story.

Anyway, let's get to the goods. Here are 12 page samples from the new album at BDgest: [LINK]

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