European comics appreciation thread

[JosephDredd]

I grew up reading American and Japanese comics, but was never really aware of Euro comics outside of Asterix, Tintin and The Smurfs.

In the last few years I've stumbled across plenty of European titles that have blown my mind with how amazing they are. Especially the sci-fi stuff. I've never been a fan of sci-fi or fantasy because my sensibilities go towards down-to-Earth storytelling.

That's where European comics blow me away. They tell the most sprawling, epic tales, but they are just as firmly rooted in the strength and depth of the characters as any powerful drama about dealing with the illness of a loved one or a gritty noir.

And the artwork is gorgeous.

Off the top of my head, these are comics that really impressed me.

Aldebaran / Betelgeuse / Antares

Alone

Alter Ego

Ken Games

Kenya / Namibia

Alix Senator

Marquis of Anon

Jade

And of course anything Moebius draws is going to look gorgeous.

It doesn't matter what they're talking about: personal dramas, aliens, lost civilizations, etc. the sensibilities and storytelling are just so much more sophisticated and mature. I understand Alan Moore complaining about the infantilization of American comics.

 

[JosephDredd]

Hombre





Torpedo

 

[Irenaeus]

We never got Jodorowsky's Dune, but I kind of think that would have been a trainwreck anyway, even if an interesting one. But we got the Incal out of it, which was totally worth it.

Danish Peter Madsen gave us the Valhalla series, which has a lot of good stuff in it.

The Towers of Bois-Maury isn't as gorgeous graphically as some of the series you cite, but I adore it. A very solid medieval chronicle.

Francois Bourgeon often gets too caught up in fanservice for me to usually bother reading him, but Les Compagnons du crépuscule is a gem. Two albums in a quite mythic Europe, and then a full sized book of a third album where he suddenly decides to play the middle ages completely straight.

Oh, and if you want old school, Corto Maltese can be pretty awesome.

Lastly: Silly, but good.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

I grew up reading American and Japanese comics, but was never really aware of Euro comics outside of Asterix, Tintin and The Smurfs.

In the last few years I've stumbled across plenty of European titles that have blown my mind with how amazing they are. Especially the sci-fi stuff. I've never been a fan of sci-fi or fantasy because my sensibilities go towards down-to-Earth storytelling.

That's where European comics blow me away. They tell the most sprawling, epic tales, but they are just as firmly rooted in the strength and depth of the characters as any powerful drama about dealing with the illness of a loved one or a gritty noir.

And the artwork is gorgeous.

Off the top of my head, these are comics that really impressed me.

Aldebaran / Betelgeuse / Antares

Alone

Alter Ego

Ken Games

Kenya / Namibia

Alix Senator

Marquis of Anon

Jade

And of course anything Moebius draws is going to look gorgeous.

It doesn't matter what they're talking about: personal dramas, aliens, lost civilizations, etc. the sensibilities and storytelling are just so much more sophisticated and mature. I understand Alan Moore complaining about the infantilization of American comics.

Cliffs for each of those comics?

 

[JosephDredd]

Cliffs for each of those comics?

Will write them up tomorrow. Check back.

 

[Bacco]

Not a fan of comics on general (outside Berserk and Vagabond years ago)

But of european i appreciate Dylan Dog and Ratman when somebody pass me one to read

Also we have a new dude called Zerocalcare who is fucking awesome

 

[fightingrabbit]

Is Moebius european? If so, +1.

Not that i've read any of them, but the art style is so gud.

 

[raty tat tat]

Never realized that there's many European comic
books out there nice to know there is more just
American and Japanese.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[EL CORINTHIAN]

When i was 5 yeas old i moved to Greece for around 2 years and in that time i learned to read Greek almost exclusively with the use of comic books. I don't know if comic books are a huge thing in europe but at the time they were very popular in Greece. Most of what i read was mainly American comics translated to Greek. Those comics look awesome though.

 

[JosephDredd]

Not a fan of comics on general (outside Berserk and Vagabond years ago)

But of european i appreciate Dylan Dog and Ratman when somebody pass me one to read

Also we have a new dude called Zerocalcare who is fucking awesome

I've been trying to get my hands on a translation of Dylan Dog for awhile now. It's been recommended by so many people.

 

[JosephDredd]

Someone asked for cliffs so I'll get started on my recommendations:

Aldebaran / Betelgeuse / Antares

This is scifi that doesn't act like it's scifi. It's set on Aldebaran, a planet that Earth colonized. 100 years ago earth suffered an economic collapse and broke off contact with the colony. In that time the colony's administrators have become dictators in a highly stratified system (see -- it doesn't know it's scifi because the wonderous animals and incredible dangers of this alien planet are in the background of this tyrannical government). Our heroes, two teenagers, see their village wiped out by an undiscovered creature on this alien planet -- but no one believes them that any creature could be so dangerous.

Betelgeuse and Antares are the follow-up series, each one taking place on a different human colony. They are all great and SOOOO good at tantalizing you with mysteries. That's one thing you're going to see a lot of in my recommendations. The Europeans are so skilled at crafting mysteries that you literally cannot put down.

Alone

Several children, with no obvious connection, wake up in their respective beds one morning... only to find everyone else has vanished. They never see an adult, but they end up running into several other children who have somehow stayed behind, all trying to navigate the large, empty city. They end up turning to one particular boy, Dodji, to keep them save -- as a rumour spreads that he, age 12, killed his abusive step-father. Dodji juggles with the responsibility of leading them as every moment is a painful reminder of something in his past that he doesn't want to be reminded of.

Again, the mystery literally oozes out of this book and this is probably the only book that left me with such a compelling cliffhanger that I literally ran out to buy the next issue. Imagine children trying to stumble their way to solving a mystery that even adults wouldn't be able to solve.

Another thing worth noting is that the art is somewhat cartoony -- I think the artist was heavily influenced by Peyo, the guy who did the Smurfs -- and I don't usually enjoy that kind of art, but the story is so violent and bleak in some areas that the cartoonish art style almost lends it an extra gravity that it wouldn't have if it was drawn in a more realistic fashion.

More cliffs to come over the next few days...

 

[JosephDredd]

Is Moebius european? If so, +1.

Not that i've read any of them, but the art style is so gud.

Moebius is European and he's amazing. He was practically a master artist when he started his career with Blueberry, a civil war epic, and by the end he was basically a red belt master artist with an incredibly versatile look to his work. When you look at his projects you realize he's about five different artists rolled into one.

 

[anthony stark]

Please share more.

 

[Harmonica]