JohnnyEnzyme

What can I say? Goscinny is the man. He's one of the pivotal figures in BD, whose life got cut short vastly too soon.

I understand this lovely mural is part of Angoulême's series of frescos dedicated to him and other BD figures & themes. <3

Based on some of the recent voting, I get the feeling some aren't seeing it, and are assuming that all content posted here must be strictly Euro-based. That's not quite true, however.

For those who can't see it, the sidebar looks like this:

"BD" or “Bandes dessinée” ("drawn strips") refers to Franco-Belgian comics, but let's open things up to include any and all European comics, with extra attention paid to graphic novels. Comics from around the world with ‘Euro-stylings’ are also welcome!

Please follow 'netiquette', and the simple rules of lemm.ee (this instance) when posting and commenting. Do not link to pirated downloads, and be sure to mark all NSFW content in post headers.

The designated language here is English, with other language text welcome if it includes context to help make it comprehensible in English.

A community F.A.Q. is HERE, and resources THERE.

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RELATED COMMUNITIES:

• #bande dessinée on FV
• r/bandedessinee
• BritComics@feddit.uk
• Comics on Lemmy
• Fumetti (Italian comics)
• GN's on Lemmy
• r/noDCnoMarvel
• Strips (Dutch comics)

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#Tintin #Asterix #LuckyLuke #Spirou #Gaston #CortoMaltese #Thorgal #Sillage #TheSmurfs #Dungeon #Moebius #Jodorowsky

EDITS: to clarify meaning & purpose.

The Black Axe is a six-issue mini-series set in the Mouse Guard universe, and this is the original art used for the cover of issue #4. I'm sharing it because I found the art heavily ligne claire-inspired, plus.. yeah! I simply love the piece.

But more than just that, I found The Black Axe a wonderful series as a whole, which shares elements of style, narrative, plotting and tragedy with classics such as Beowulf and Túrin's Tale (from Tolkien's Silmarillion).

Here's three sample pages from this same issue: (click or zoom to expand)

I'll have to write a proper review of the Mouse Guard series at a later date, but for now, I can certainly recommend this particular mini-series as a great introduction, more focused and less full of characters and subplots than the other series.

Following is the cover version of the art:

And more general Mouse Guard samples HERE.

It's from album #19, Au bord du Grand Rien (At the Edge of the Great Void).

Interestingly, the original art by Jean-Claude Mézières (downloadable here in high-res), was estimated at €25,000 - 30,000 at auction, and sold for €31,200 two years ago!

More details at the link above.

These first two are from the book A Land Called Tarot. It's a wordless set of stories inspired by cards, characters and motifs from the venerable tarot deck of cards. The characters are drawn in an anime style (shades of Studio Ghibli), while the backgrounds & settings remind me a lot of Moebius. The stories are fluffily light and whimsical, and for me they're really about looking at the pleasant artwork and imagining what might be happening. Some readers will really enjoy that, and some will miss the lack of a more concrete story.

These next two are from some kind of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" project Bertrand was doing for Nickelodeon. I liked the fact that they're the exact same view, but captured during different time frames, making for a cool 'flip-card' effect.

More art by Bertrand HERE.

This is a fun series I've been reading recently. A pirate captain's lady love was tortured and killed physically, but due to sorcerous machinations, her spirit is able to hang on... barely. Hannibal must soon find a fabled artifact in order to fully restore her, else she's a goner. Unfortunately, some dangerous, undead witches are also after the treasure, and are quite content with wiping our antiheroes out in the process.

I thought this was a well-realised tale, regardless of the mashup of paranormal angles, and overall a bit in the style of Belladonna (reviewed previously). This one feels slightly more contrived in places, but it moves with a purpose, and features gorgeous art. It's certainly one of the better pirate-themed series I've read, bringing some unusual new wrinkles in to the genre. Written by Jean-Luc Istin, with Sandrine Cordurié inking Créty's pencils.

<MORE SAMPLES>

Couldn't find the creator, sorry. If anyone figures that out, leave a comment and I'll add the credit, thanks.

https://aethernaut.thecomicseries.com/comics/

It's hard to describe this series, but I guess we could go with: 'a coming-of-age adventure set in a 17th-century steampunk world.' It's been running for 12 years now, yet I almost feel as if it's just started to get rolling, which is maybe a tribute to the quality world-building.

On the surface, we have a dashing young protagonist trying to advance his fortunes, yet this series is just as much about the world itself, its cultures, wrangling political factions, unusual races (both humanoid and animal), and of course, a trickster-fool as a side character, getting our guy in and out of jams on a regular basis.

Mariah Kaercher (TCG): Browsing through Æthernaut, I got a Charles Dickens meets Pirates of the Caribbean space-adventure vibe. What inspired you to write this web comic?

Neal Skorpen: The world and main characters of Æthernaut were inspired by weird post-medieval art: engravings and drawings that have a dreamlike feel because linear perspective wasn’t quite figured out. The clothes are bizarre and awkward compared to the more familiar costumes of the deep Middle Ages or the 17th and 18th centuries. The first draft of the story was modeled on Gulliver’s Travels; four voyages to strange places, each one a metaphorical attack on one social injustice or another. In the years between making the first draft and beginning the current version, I’ve become less of a believer in such direct political satire, at least in my own practice. To a certain extent I can probably never get away from injecting social commentary, but a good story needs to be driven by the characters, so that’s become my focus.

Interview concludes here.

Ooh, ooh, here's a bonus: (it's the Kidman / McGregor poster)

https://i.imgur.com/p4m1YO7.jpeg

I have a feeling this is AI-generated, to be honest. I first found it on a German site IIRC, but couldn't find any significant matches apart from that.

I'll try to avoid posting AI art in future, but I have to admit... some of it is pretty flippin' impressive!

EDIT: No, I guess I'll post more AI art in future, based on the positive response and discussion below. I'm frankly a little torn, but I'll abide.

Millidge is a British cartoonist best known for his series "Strangehaven."

Subject matter aside, I love the striking nature of this piece... the disciplined light & shadow interplay, limited palette, and the piercing, mysterious look of the masked woman.

An unlettered version of the piece is here, which might do with some sharpening and cropping.

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)