French/Belgian must-read comics (aka BD) [Article under construction]

Tintin is the fictional hero of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. He is a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy.

Unlike more colourful characters that he encounters, Tintin's personality is neutral, which allows the reader to not merely follow the adventures but assume Tintin's position within the story. Combined with Hergé's signature ligne claire ("clear line") style, this helps the reader "safely enter a sensually stimulating world."

21 of the 24 books have been adapted into a TV series shown in the US on HBO. An ongoing trilogy is being filmed by Steven Spielberg and his pal Peter Jackson.

Recommended reading: Prisoners of the Sun and the other sotries

Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix, written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo until the death of Goscinny in 1977. The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion brewed by their druid, named Getafix in the English translations, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonist, the titular character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures.

Every adventures is introduced as follewed:

50 BC Gail has been fully captured by the Romans. Well, almost... One small village is still holding back the invaders. Yes, and this village would not fight so hard, if not a magic potion that brews their druid Getafix. With this potion the strength of the one who drinks it increases many times.

It has been adapeted into 13 motion pictures (animated and live action) with one being a unique scenario."The twelve tasks of Asterix".

Recommended reading: Asterix and Cleopatra and all the other stories

Lucky Luke is a humorous comics series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946. Various writers scripted the series starting in 1955, beginning with French writer René Goscinny.

The series takes place in the American Old West and features the titular Lucky Luke, a cowboy known as the "man who shoots faster than his shadow", accompanied by his horse Jolly Jumper and in many stories a dog named Rantanplan. Lucky Luke is charged with restoring justice to the Far West by chasing down bandits, the most famous of whom are the Dalton Brothers. The stories are filled with humouristic elements parodying the Western genre.

An animated TV serie of the 31 original stories was made by the Hanna-Barbera studios.

Recommanded reading: The Stagecoach and the 31 original stories

Spirou and Fantasio are the series' main characters, two adventurous journalists who run into fantastic adventures, aided by Spirou's pet squirrel Spip and their inventor friend the Count of Champignac.

The comic strip was originally created by Rob-Vel for the launch of Le Journal de Spirou (Spirou magazine) on April 21, 1938. But it from 1952 André Franquin (the current author) developed the strip from single gags and short serials into long adventures with complex plots, and is usually considered as the definitive author of the strip.

Franquin is considered by some the greatest Artist/Writter in comics of all times. His love of car and inventions, his creatativity, is originality, is humour and his love for nature got him this title.

Recommanded reading: The dictator and the mushroom / Valley of the exiles

Blake and Mortimer is a comics series created by the Belgian writer and artist Edgar P. Jacobs.

The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake of MI5. The main antagonist is their sworn enemy, Colonel Olrik, who has appeared in almost every book. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science-fiction, dealing with such themes as time travel, Atlantis and espionage.

Recommended reading: The Yellow ‘M’

On the world of Troy, most humans have a single magic power. Each power is unique to the person and includes such diverse feats as walking on water, personal teleportation, and causing thirst in others. However, none can use their power unless in the close or remote presence of a sage of Eckmül, Troy's truest version of a studied magician.

Lanfeust is an orphan and an apprentice blacksmith who can heat metal at will. His adventure begins when he's asked to mend the sword of a passing aristocrat. When handling the sword's pommel, which was made of ivory from the Magohamoth—a legendary magical beast—Lanfeust gains the power to use any power known in Troy, more so without the presence of a sage. Nicolede, both the local sage and Lanfeust's future father-in-law, persuades Lanfeust to accompany him and his daughters C'ian and Cixi to the University of Magic in Eckmül in order to learn more about this phenomenon.

Among the many perils faced during their journey, they are ultimately confronted by Thanos, a pirate with the same potential as Lanfeust who will do whatever it takes to steal the ivory of the Magohamoth.

Lanfeust of Troy fits primarily within the high fantasy genre but is clearly meant for older audiences. Despite high fantasy's classic trappings, the series also incorporates copious humor through numerous methods, including word play, hidden messages, innuendo, and bawdy dialogue.

Lanfeust and Troy spawn many spin-offs. One where Lanfeust goes onto a space adventure, Lanfeust of the stars. One that centers on a collony of Trolls, Trolls from Troy.

Trolls of Troy is set two centuries before the story of Lanfeust. It tells the story of Teträm, a brave troll, and his adopted human daughter, Waha. Men have decided to exterminate the trolls, and have formed a group of hunters with terrible powers. Teträm, must find a way to save his people.

Recommended reading: Lanfeust of Troy (8 books) [no official translation] / Trolls fromTroy (book 1-4) [ongoing translation, only book 1 is available]

The series tells the adventures of Ducoboo (Ducobu in French), a comic and eccentric dunce.

Recommended reading: Any book

Marsupilami is a fictional comic book species created by André Franquin. He first appeared thes serie Spirou et Fantasio (see above). the Marsupilami got its own successful spin-off series of comic albums. Two animated shows featuring this character have been produced.

Masupilami was for a short while the property of Disney. They quickly lost the rights because they miss-handled the character and it didn't please Franquin's airs heirs.

The name is a portmanteau of the words marsupial, Pilou-Pilou (the French name for Eugene the Jeep, a character Franquin loved as a kid) and ami, French for friend.

In 1960, Le nid des Marsupilamis (Marsupilami's nest) was printed in the weekly British boys' magazine Knockout, under the title Dickie and Birdbath Watch the Woggle. In that early localization, Spirou was called "Dickie," Fantasio was "Birdbath," Seccotine was "Cousin Constance," the Marsupilami was "the Woggle," and the female Marsupilami was "the Wiggle."

The creature's cry is "Houba". He lives in then fictional South-American forest of Palombia.

Recommended reading: The tail of Marsupilami / Marsupilami's nest

XIII (Thirteen) is a Belgian graphic novel series about an amnesiac who seeks to discover his past. It was created by writer Jean Van Hamme and artist William Vance.

Jean Van Hamme is a prolific writter, author of XIII, Largo Winch, Thorgal, ...

XIII lost his memory, and he doesn't remember who is he: an assassin? a mercenary? a soldier? Only thing he knows, he has the number XIII tatooed on his neck.

The first english translations had the title of code XIII.

The serie is comprised of 18 books. It was turned into 2 live action tv serie called XIII (miniserie) and XIII: The series, as well as a video game.

Recommended Reading: The Day of the Black Sun

A historical fantasy comic book series first appearing in 1976 written and illustrated by French comics artist Jacques Tardi.

Jacques Tardi is both a writer and an artist, who is renowned for his meticulous research. He has adapted various novels and illustrated many short stories. Tardi is critically acclaimed for his graphic novels and comics, most of which are antiwar and focused on WWI.

The comic portrays the titular far-fetched adventures and mystery-solving of its eponymous heroine, herself a writer of popular fiction, in a secret history-infused, gaslamp fantasy version of the early 20th century, set primarily in Paris and prominently incorporating real-life locations and events.

Has being adapted as a big-budget film trilogy by Luc Besson (5th Element, Lucy, ...).

Recommented Reading: Pterror Over Paris and The Eiffer Tower Demon

A Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small blue humanoids who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest.

The Smurfs was first created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, where they were known as Les Schtroumpfs. There are more than one hundred Smurf characters, and their names are based on adjectives that emphasize their characteristics, such as "Jokey Smurf", who likes to play practical jokes on his fellow smurfs. "Smurfette" was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the series. The Smurfs wear Phrygian caps, which came to represent freedom during the modern era.

The word “Smurf” is the original Dutch translation of the French "Schtroumpf", which, according to Peyo, is a word invented during a meal with fellow cartoonist André Franquin, when he could not remember the word salt.

The Smurfs franchise began as a comic and expanded into advertising, films, TV series, ice capades, video games, theme parks, and dolls.

Recommended reading:Gargamel and the Smurfs

Gallery

Created in 1959 by the Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba.

The stories center on a typical family: a man and his wife, their young son Boule and Bill the cocker spaniel.

Recommended reading: Any book

Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi depicting her childhood up to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution. The title is a reference to the ancient capital of the Persian Empire, Persepolis. Newsweek ranked the book #5 on its list of the ten best non-fiction books of the decade.

Satrapi and comic artist Vincent Paronnaud co-directed the derived animation movie, which is also called Persepolis. Although the film emulates Satrapi's visual style of high-contrast inking, a present-day frame story is rendered in color. In the United States, Persepolis was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2007 Academy Awards.

Recommended reading: The comlete Persepolis

Created by artist Louis Salverius and writer Raoul Cauvin. It follows two United States cavalrymen through a series of battles and adventures.

Les Tuniques Bleues, literally "the bluecoats", refers to the Northern (union) army during the American Civil War.

8 books have been translated so far.

Recommended reading: any book

Gaston is a gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. The series focuses on the everyday life of Gaston Lagaffe (whose surname means "the blunder"), a lazy and accident-prone office junior.

Gaston is very fond of animals (as was Franquin of drawing them) and keeps several pets. The main ones are a depressive, aggressive seagull and a hyperactive cat.

His co-workers include:

• Fantasio of Spirou et Fantasio is the main supporting character and irritable straight man to Gaston in the early part of the series.
• Léon Prunelle, an editor at the Journal de Spirou. Prunelle is even more short-tempered than Fantasio, from whom he has inherited not only the mammoth task of making Gaston work, but also the job of signing contracts with important businessman Aimé De Mesmaeker
• Yvan Lebrac, an in-house cartoonist, is comparatively laid-back. He is fond of puns.
• Joseph Boulier, a surly accountant for Éditions Dupuis, the publishers of the magazine. He states that he will not rest until he has tracked down every useless expense in the company, and in particular those of Gaston.
• Mademoiselle Jeanne ("M'oiselle Jeanne" to Gaston), a redheaded with freckles, is one of Gaston’s colleagues and his love interest. She was first depicted as comically unattractive in a gag where Gaston needs a partner for the back end of his pantomime horse costume, and chooses Jeanne because of her ponytail. Gradually however, she became cuter with her body turning from pear-shaped to curvaceous — if never really a beauty queen. Jeanne is a perfect match for Gaston, as she admires his talent, his courage, his inventiveness and is utterly oblivious to his lack of common sense — of which she herself has fairly little. However their courtship is perpetually stuck at the very first step. They address each other with the formal vous and as "Mister" and "Miss" and see each other mainly at the office — though they have had the occasional outing together.

His main friend is Jules-de-chez-Smith-en-face (Jules-from-Smith’s-across-the-street). He "works" (much in the same way as Gaston "works") in the office just across the street from the Journal de Spirou,

Gaston has Foes:

• Monsieur De Mesmaeker is a rich businessman. His precise line of business is unknown, but he is repeatedly lured into the offices of Spirou by Fantasio or Prunelle in order to sign some lucrative contracts. De Mesmaeker has developed a deep loathing for Gaston and by extension his colleagues. His frequent visits allow Franquin to satirise business rituals.
• Joseph Longtarin ("long nose") is a policeman working in the neighbourhood where the offices of Spirou are located. One of his particular responsibilities is for traffic and illegal parking. An exceptionally petty and vengeful man, he is the closest thing the series has to a villain. He is one of Gaston's favorite "victims" as well as his nemesis. The two clash continually over Gaston's car and parking habits.

Running Gags:

• Customissing is old Fiat 509 car
• Making all sort of inventions, such as :
  • A necktie- / shoelace-tying device
  • A ceiling-suspended table
  • A self-heating duffle coat
  • A rotating Christmas tree
  • A pneumatic ashtray
  • An electric scarecrow
  • A folding bicycle^[46]
  • A remote-controlled electric iron
  • A mini-lawnmower (to mow around daisies)
  • A suit of armour for mice
  • A solar-powered flashlight
  • An electric cigar cutter, shaped like a guillotine which almost worked like a guillotine for the users' fingers.
  • An automatic hammer. The inevitable "gaffe" being that you first had to nail it to the wall.
  • A seatbelt made of rubber, for easy access to the mailbox from the car.
  • A coffeemaker which produces so stiff a drink, it renders the drinker (Gaston himself and De Mesmaeker) hyperenergetic, agitated and utterly unable to use even a pen without destroying it.
  • A tanning umbrella, to tan (or sunburn) when it is raining
  • A perpetual motion machine.
  • ...
• Sleeping at work or finding excuses not to work like listenning to a reccording of his previous nap to check if he sleeped well.
• Finding a costume for Dupuis' dress up parti. He is invariably worried about whether he would be able to dance with the outfit on.
• The Gaffohpone, a prehistoric-looking combination of horn and harp created by Gaston,produces a sound so terrible and loud that it causes physical destruction all around and panics animals and even fighter jet pilots.
• De Mesmaeker's contracts. This is possibly the most frequent running gag in the series, and by Franquin's admission a MacGuffin: "Whatever's in the contracts is irrelevant. What we want to see is how Gaston will prevent them from being signed."

Recommended reading: Except for a few pages by Fantagraphics in the early 1990s (as Gomer Goof), there is no published English translation.

Gallery

A Franco-Belgian comics series drawn in the ligne claire style by Jacques Martin. The stories revolve around a young Gallo-Roman man named Alix in the late Roman Republic.

Recommended reading: The Black Claw

Blueberry is a Franco-Belgian comics western series created by the Belgian scriptwriter Jean-Michel Charlier and French comics artist Jean "Mœbius" Giraud. It chronicles the adventures of Mike Blueberry on his travels through the American Old West. Blueberry is an atypical western hero; he is not a wandering lawman who brings evil-doers to justice, nor a handsome cowboy who "rides into town, saves the ranch, becomes the new sheriff and marries the schoolmarm." In any situation, he sees what he thinks needs doing, and he does it.

Mœbius is esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee and Hayao Miyazaki among others, he has been described as the most influential bandes dessinées.

Recommender reading: The Ghost with the Golden Bullets (collect in The Lost Dutchman's Mine)

The Nikopol Trilogy is a series of three science fiction graphic novels written in French by Enki Bilal between 1980 and 1992.

The central plot of the trilogy, set in 2023 Paris, follows Alcide Nikopol who returns from a 30-year sentence spent orbiting the Earth under cryopreservation to find France under fascist rule following two nuclear wars.

It follows the anthropomorphic dog Gai-Luron (whose name can be roughly translated as "Jolly Fellow", which contrasts with Gai-Luron's generally apathetic behaviour).

Created by the artist/writter Gotlib - key figure in French language adult tone comics.

Recommended Reading: No english translations available

Palmer is a detective who doesn't understand much on the cases he's given but always manages to get caught-up in a typhoon of imbroglios. The adventures are very satiric and touch multiple subject of society: politics, media, mafia and jet set.

The serie is drawn and written by Petillon.

Recommanded Reading: The Corsican File (L'enquête Corse) - but I think the movie adaptation would be easier to find

It follows the adulte life of Marco, young photographer in lack of inspiration. This serie won lots of prices and got a movie adaptadion in 2014. Art and story by the talanted Manu Larcenet.