European Graphic Novels+

I could be wrong, but it seems like the "Mezi-cab" above might be a little nod to JC Mézières, who went on to do concept art for The Fifth Element, like this: (more here)

Anyway, "Enki" is Enki Bilal, previously introduced here, which includes a four-page sci-fi story.

To the best of my knowledge, these four Bilal pieces all come from his Nikopol trilogy.

Wings unfurled, a soaring grace,
Through the clouds, a boundless space,
Whispering wind, a gentle guide,
Earth below, where dreams reside.

---unknown

I believe the one above comes from the second book, La Femme Piège, which I suppose translates to "The Woman Trap," or maybe "The Trapped Woman."

Well, whilst bumbling around the net, I happened upon a guy who built a model of that very taxi, even turning it in to a model kit:

Lots more pics and notes on that project here:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/3007525/Enkis-FLYING-TAXI

Aimée de Jongh(1988) is a dutch animator, graphic novellist and illustrator. Her gag-strip 'snippers', a semi-autobiographical slice of life comic, was shown in the free dutch tabloid Metro from 2011 to 2018. She eventually quit Snippers(1) to focus on more graphic novels.

By then, her first Graphic Novel, 'De terugkeer van de Wespendief' (2014) was already a fact. The story follows a man and the people around him as he deals with trauma, as well as the choice to keep or sell his fathers book store. It has some dark moments, portrayed brutally honest without being excessively violent. But for me the novel really shines in the intimacy shared between characters. Their anger, care or vulnerability is palpable, and de Jongh doesn't rely on text to communicate complex emotions like some authors do.

I was going to write a bunch about her works from there on, actually I was halfway there, but it turns out Bas Schuddeboom did a better job than I ever could for Lambiek.nl (in english)

I do want to close with her current exposition in de Kunsthal (Rotterdam). It shows a lot of her process for her latest rendition of 'Lord of the flies' by William Golding. For this Graphic Novel she switched to india ink and pen/brush to support her technique and style. Besides that, most of her recent works get some nice coverage, as well as an upcoming project she is working on. The show is definitely worth a visit, especially since de Kunsthal also has a couple of other nice expo's going at the moment. De Jongh's expo is called Storylines, and is open untill the end of January. If you intend to go, especially if from outside the NL, feel free to send me a PM if you need some trip-tips or want to have a coffe and geek out about strips :)

Zum schluss, some links Lord of the flies book tour Her site An adorable little duckling Wiki (I linked the english page, but I highly recommend the dutch or french ones if you speak the language, as they are waaay more elaborate)

The upper page seen above and the lower one below are from the first volume, Miss Bangalore. To be clear, this four-volume series recapitulates George Orwell's Animal Farm, but in this case, the animals do more than just resist via passive-aggressive means.

In terms of the 'choose-your-own-adventure' genre (btw, I adore this! one on Android), it's like starting with the Animal Farm premise, but then making a whole bunch of different choices and seeing how they play out.

The two-part page above comes after a bunch of animals were outraged by the fact that one of the hens was accused of stealing its own egg, then promptly executed.

The original page in French looks like this:

When the cat's away, the mice will play. The men have left the place, this once-castle now turned into a farm. Since then, the animals have adopted man's place, his rules, his laws and... his faults. This is how on this sad day, Adélaïde the chicken will be punished with death by the vindictiveness of President Sylvio.

Accused of having taken away from the common good - who steals an egg... , the hen will be torn to pieces by the jaws of a pack of merciless executioners. Miss B. witnesses this massacre, resigned since the death of her husband to undergo the yoke of this so-called Republic which looks more like a dictatorship. Soon, the crowd rumbles and openly revolts: claws against canines, beaks against lips. But it will take more than a mere wave of discontent to overthrow the unbeatable masters. Still, the swell has begun its undermining work. --BDT & Johnny

An earlier, two-page sequence below:

And... I'm not sure if this has ever been published in English. But in terms of quality, it's through the roof, so I certainly hope so. <3

Lots more page samples and a more full overview:
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-60691-BD-Chateau-des-Animaux.html

EDIT: Oh, it seems maybe it IS in English! :D
(see comment below)

I'll try to get to the main point, but wasn't that some... Shakespearean Henry Vth stuff right there?

Anywhere, here's a proper, full page:

Okay, I'm just trying for a quick-post for now, but I feel like Moreil & Pedrosa's "The Golden Age" is just... an astonishing BD accomplishment.

Least of all, there's Cyril Pedrosa's *wild* color schemes, which almost take the center-show. Seriously, I'd almost call such a new genre within BD...

But also the script-writer, Roxanne Modeil!
What an enormous, new talent. oO

Yeap yeap, there is MUCH more to say about this series and the creators, but... just wanted t give y'all a taste for now. (kinda busy, I am)

I can't for the world of me remember how I chanced upon this lovely German comic, but I'm rather grateful that I did. It's got that Trondheim™ magic about it, both in imagery and storytelling, and that's about as good as it gets in my world. Okay then, let's look at a full page:

Pimo and Rex are knights. Above all, they are best friends. That day, during their stop at the inn, Rex has big news to announce: he is going to marry Léo and would like Pimo to be their best man. The ceremony is supposed to be a great moment of celebration and an opportunity to put aside the quests of heroism for a while. But between a late witness, two families who struggle to get along and dark forces who take advantage of the opportunity to sow terror, everything does not really go as planned. [more]

Er... the only problem being that... I'm completely illiterate in German!
T_T
Ah, but let's see how Google-Translate can do:

Huh! Well so far, the translation doesn't seem much different from the job it did on my last Gaston post. (remember? the one where he's a secret agent who makes french fries, accidentally ruining the contract papers?)

It's not bad, really, I suppose first and foremost needing some work on text-formatting. Oddly, Google's app version of "Translate" seems to produce smoother text without the funny sizing and 'bolding' issues.

Anyway, pardon me! In terms of the comic itself, I'm not sure I've ever seen something which fits so smoothly in to the Donjon universe.

Here's a different page, this time in French:

Thomas' site:
https://wellmaus.com/

Needles to say, I look forward to seeing much more of Wellman's work in future, and hopefully we can get more English & French translations? (say "yes," please!)

Gatekeeper!
We have travelled too far and lost too many to turn back!
Surrender your blade!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxR-oKkwJLI

NOTE: suggestion to turn on CC/subtitles, as the dialogue is a little muddy in places.

In fact, this is a panel from Silas Corey, by two of my long-time BD heroes, Fabien Nury (writer) and Pierre Alary (strips).

Like most of Nury's series, it's ridiculously good, complex, nuanced, humanistic, and all that jazz. Here's a cover:

This is from the classic Les armées du Conquérant / Conquering Armies, by JP Dionnet and JC Gal.

Slight backstory-- publishing house Les Humanoïdes Associés (or "Humanoids") had been established just three years before (in 1974), by Mœbius, Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and financial director Bernard Farkas. It went on to change the world in terms of BD and comics, I humbly submit.

Now here-- there was a great deal of novel experimentation in this series, which could sometimes feel a bit archaic, yet sometimes feel beweirdingly progressive. In any case, these books are collections of short-story works about a Roman army-type takeover of the known Mediterranean+ world, but one which kept running in to unusual, unexpected, or even unholy problems.

So it's the emperor (conqueror) who kept tripping over his own shoelaces, one might say. But enough ado, here's the story link:

https://imgur.com/gallery/lets-all-raise-glass-to-bosom-friendship-of-alphons-donatus-from-conquering-armies-by-dionnet-gal-mature-bvd3rqL

In terms of pure comics-fandom, a big (maybe controversial) issue is the fact that these works were originally published in blazing, hot-detailed B&W, but recently got colorised like this. Now personally, I had a weird issue with the original B&W's kinda scorching my eyes (even as it highlighted the beautiful, detailed work by JC Gal).

Personally, I like these new colors. They seem tasteful and 'non-extreme.'

If you're curious, you can see below what the originals looked like:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Armees+du+Conquerant%22+black+white+comic&udm=2

NOTE: I'm deleting and repurposing the earlier entry, here.
(I don't feel like I got it quite right at the time, so here's this:)

Now, there's sort of a hidden backstory here, in that after I got to the States, and after reading American comics, I became a pretty much long-time, loyal DC/Marvel fan until I noticed that they just... I dunno... kept recycling their content, and kept using their characters as resurrectionist puppets?

For example-- they'd make a huge song & dance about killing off a character, only to later bring them back perfectly intact via whatever bullshit excuse, some issues later? (sometimes even needing to create alternate worlds for them to exist in!)

Point is-- it pretty much hammered home the idea that all these characters were just licensed properties (tm), and not representative of remotely approaching real characters.

Dense as I was, it did become clear as a comics reader that my needs just weren't being met anymore, suggestible teenager as I was. That's roughly around the time that I started exploring American-indie/alt comix, such as Cerebus the Aardvark, Love & Rockets, and several others.

What can I say? I just lost total interest in bullshit fantasy, and got WAY more interested in Euro and Alt / Indie stuff, and in truth, I've rarely looked back.

Now here's the great Dave Cooper:

-----> https://imgur.com/a/dave-coopers-bizzaro-world-super-dumped-xi144QU <-----

EPILOGUE? Uh... I guess just that Euro-comics... at bare minimum, they suggest to me how your day went, and what little (but crazy) challenges you went through that day. That's some real stuff, to me.

Metal Hurlant, the French SF/Fantasy magazine that inspired the US Heavy Metal, is coming back as a quarterly magazine, The Wrap reports. Humanoids will soon launch a Kickstarter to bring Metal Hurlant to the US as a quarterly anthology (...) Read the full article here.

(click to expand)

I particularly love this first one because, speaking as primarily a watercolor & gauche artist myself, sometimes artists (the great Hugo Pratt, here) just make it hard to figure out what the hell art materials they used exactly, in which we observers sometimes just totally lame-out and shout "mixed media, dude!"

But I'm not sure I totally believe it.

Incidentally, I'm a HUGE fan of female leads, and to me, this one kinda recapitulates James Bond's primary love-interest in, uh... what was that film? EDIT: It was Live and Let Die, a super-fun film IMO.

Here's a prime snippet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn8q0LsO4PA
(and please DO watch it on your YT proxy so as not to get caught in the web of ads)

Yes yes, once again it's NOT BD, and honestly, I'm really not much of a manga fan outside Ghibli. But this collection quite caught my eye, and seemingly for many Euros, too. From what I can tell, it's called The Art of Mitsume "World of 2," published by Noeve Grafx in Europe.

Ex-libris Azimut, Manie Ganza, Jean-Baptiste Andréae, vent d'Ouest - Hobby Folie!

Sadly, I don't know this series at all (well, what else is new, Johnny), but I loved how this picture plays around with almost a tradition of glam media, but I also Iike how the photog is a sort of R2D2 attempting to capture "Marilyn" in the 'great pose,' you know?

Possibly NSFW:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22marilyn+monroe%22+%22upskirt%22&udm=2

I first saw this in the American Heavy Metal magazine. It's of course Moebius playing around with *everything*, such as his penmanship, 'hatching-work' (how the lines intersect), the beautiful colors, the panel-layout, and just... whoof!

It's also oddly funny to me... I.e., "Arzach" might have met his eternal doom right here, but I reckon him more like "Den," by Richard Corben. I.e., our collective love for them will just keep resurrecting them endlessly, mais non?

Note: I've tried to help make our sidebar more easily-searchable for results lately, and we certainly have more Den & Arzach content, were one to search...

Go get it, Tiger!

So... if you've kept up with my previous ditherings, then you know that I'm trying to help an elderly friend ("Calvin") in my place hang on to what's his. Me, I've known him for ~12yrs, but, really... that doesn't matter. More like if I can possibly help someone, then that's how that works, even if I wind up neglecting my favorite blog / community. Community!

But man, this shit has been a trial. For real.

I mean, for one, this funny guy evidently didn't pay his electric bill for a godamn year And every time I talk to him about that now, I keep reminding him to pay his bill and fix his service, naturally. Me, I've tried contacting The Illuminating Company myself, but so far it seems that you have to be the actual approved phone# / acct# in order to access even the simplest of details about a person's account. Eh, okay.

I'm just worried in general, tho.
Me and a friend did a whirlwind grand-cleansing of his apt for the upcoming annual inspections, but what's that going to matter if he gets kicked out due to not paying his rent, you know? (even though he has the money?)

It's just bloody-hell ridoinkulous.

And yes, every verdammt day I talk to him and beg him to take care of this stuff, and he says "yes, sure I will," and then he does nothing.

It's just... I'm not sure how to better describe this complete mess. It's almost like Cal's got this passive-aggressive need to take down anyone who cares about him.

I'm just lost, honestly, and my stress levels are through the roof. I really don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do, here.

(sorry about my language, above...)

EDIT: FFS, he's 75yo. He's not 90yo. All of this would make more sense if Cal was 90yo...

Funny, I was browsing some of my old posts at the evil empire, and was reminded of this hilarious mini-comic.

Now, there's sort of a hidden backstory here, in that after I got to the States, I was pretty much a loyal DC/Marvel fan until they just... I dunno... kept recycling their content and using their characters as puppets?

For example-- they'd make a huge song & dance about killing off a character, only to later bring them back perfectly intact via whatever bullshit excuse, some issues later. It pretty much hammered home the idea that all these characters were just licensed properties (tm), and not representative of real people.

Dense as I was, it did become clear as a comics reader that my needs just weren't being met anymore, even late-teen as I was. That's roughly around the time that I started exploring American-indie/alt comix, such as Cerebus the Aardvark, Love & Rockets, and several others.

It was like the spirit of the Indie 60's / 70's comix finally found a bigger foothold with the public, roughly starting with the mid-to-late 80's. I mean, that was a big win for the likes of ME, man! :D

But also, and later, it kind of *inclined* me to cast my gaze even further, because let's face it folks-- 'Indie' & 'Alt' comix can still be pretty crap am Ende des Tages. ("at the end of the day?") (I'm thinking I'd really like to learn German after I'm 'good enough' with French, as they're pretty-much the two closest relatives of modern English)

Oh... right so-- probably the biggest reason I'm sharing this HERE, a place devoted almost exclusively to Euro comics, one we've built painstakingly by hand, mind you, is that I... 'don't mind a good ol' ribbing upon what once was.'*

* Spoken in heavily Irish brogue, haha

ANYWAY, I feel you've endured FAR more than enough. Here's the story:

-----> https://imgur.com/a/dave-coopers-bizzaro-world-super-dumped-xi144QU <-----

Today's theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nOrAJTu3R4

The mechanical training dummy in Dune always fascinated me. When I read Dune as a kid, the scene on Caladan in which Paul´s training dummy is described, very much defined Paul as a character for me. It made clear that he did not grow up like a normal child but instead lived under constant threat of being assassinated, always preparing to be ready and fight for his live to his best ability. Not much later, shortly after their arrival on Dune, the scene with the hunter seeker happens and confirms this impression.

I found these three designs for the dummy on https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Dune_Wiki

The left and middle image are pretty close to the design described in the book if I remember correctly. While the left image shows the dummy in action, with lots of different rotating, hacking and stabbing blades, the middle image shows the dummy in standby, with retracted blades. Both designs were made for the movie adaption by Lynch.

The right image is an alternative approach, deviating from the design described in the book but in a way that fits canon well in my opinion. Suspensors are common tech in the Dune universe, just think of the omnipresent glowglobes that light so many scenes in the story. Therefore, sticking a suspensorglobe into a traing dummy seems like a pretty obvious thing to do. The person standing next to the "Suspensor Drone" is Gurney Halleck. The art is by Mark Zug, created for the Dune Collectible Card Game by Last Unicorn Games.

(I LOVE this blog)

1. I've absolutely no idea what a 'scanlation' means, so I guess that's a wash! (top link)

2. Yeah, baby! (all those snipped Tintin panels) [link]

3. "Nobody likes Gaston?!?" (whaaaat?)

4. GAS-lighting! With dear ol' Captain Kirk! https://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.com/2017/01/requested-adaptations-asterix-gaslighter.html

In clumsily colluding, I guess... eh, well, what was the question again??

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/moebius_giraud_study/comments/1ansi8c/moebius_digital_contribution_for_the_artbook_edge/

H.R. Giger, the famous creator of the Xenomorph in the science fiction classic ALIEN, was also part of the all star team that worked on Jodo's Dune. The enclosed design of the castle fits perfectly with the description of Harko City in the books, which is probably just a happy coincidence. The elongated back of the head is an obvious resemblance to the aforementioned Xenomorph.

My dear friend and apartment bldg-mate "Calvin" collapsed in front of my eyes just now, but we've just now safely packed him off to the ER.

Now, Calvin... he's 75yo, but with a feisty attitude that I've come to especially appreciate. <3

Anyway, I sent him off with his celly, my best charger, and some bites of delicious lasagna which I'd been preparing for him, before he collapsed.

In fact, that's the baffling thing-- the fact that he'd just been released from the hospital THIS VERY MORNING after tripping and knocking himself out on Saturday.

Unfortunately, on top of all that, I have some other personal issues going on all at the same time.

Ugh, when it rains it pours.
Quand il pleut, il pleut à verse, haha.

@Nacktmull,
I'm truly, totally honored that you agreed to help with this sub-lemmy. You are like the wind in my sails, even if that's a cheesy analogy, lol.

Btw, in terms of the racist / automatic-hatred towards certain peoples we've recently seen here-- it is absolutely NOT tolerated anymore, as directly observed on the Sidebar.

Still, it's a WIP (work-in-progress), so let's see how it goes...

Thanks so much to our loyal readers and creators. <3

I'll be honest-- outside of my champion B&W artist-hero Jaime (i.e. Mexican-American Jaime Hernandez), I really do love fine, water-colored comics. But then... dash-it-all, THEN I demand a nuanced, real-world storyline on top of that! I mean, how ungrateful can one get??

Which brings us to this little "JC Acquefacques" classic, which I really didn't like at first. Well, at least for me, I felt it strangling, Kafkaesque, horribly dated, annoying, and just plain irrelevant, TBH. But then... page after page... I started smirking, then giggling, then finally... my eyes just blazed with admiration. (is that a phrase? well now it is!)

----> https://imgur.com/a/6luNkBt <----

YES, I know... not everyone's going to like this niche, meta series, which tends to express itself in rather 50-ish terms, but for those interested--

LBK:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mathieu_m.htm
BDT:
https://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-201-BD-Mathieu-Marc-Antoine.html

EDIT: hahaha, there's even a song for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA142IsjQiE

I found this a lovely little series, ostensibly meant for young Czech readers, but rather Grimm at times (as you can see).

(page 2)

I'm guessing the series was published in the ~1970's. Happily for English-speakers, it was recently translated by one "Tomalakis." So then, here's 13 mini-chapters you can read:

----> https://imgur.com/t/pochal <----

Artist Jiří Kalousek worked effectively in a variety of styles, and passed away in 1986. More samples of the artist here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22jiri+kalousek%22+artist&udm=2