J'ADORE LES B.D. EN FRANCAIS

On last week's radio show, I discussed some of my favorite French comics.

Here are some images to go along with that discussion and some more descriptions and analysis. I hope you can see why I love these comics:



A brilliant example of the fare typical of Oubapo, the experimental French comics group. Here's a link for further information:

Oubapo is actually cousin to Oulipo, those crazy cats who wrote a novel in French without using an e!

For those who love Herge's Tintin, but want something a little more science-fictional and escapist we have Blake and Mortimer:



Here's the official site (Blake and Mortimer remain quite popular in France):

The Official Blake and Mortimer Website!

Moebius' Blueberry remains one of the great Western 'heroes' in comics, as Clint Eastwood was for the film Western, so Blueberry was for the comic:



Jean-Claude Forest's work shows the strong stylistic influence of the great Continental illustrators (such as Gustave Dore, to give the most prominent example), it demonstrates a strong voice that remains wholly faithful to the great European tradition and is an excellent cleanser for those who love comics but have become too inured to more customary (American, Japanese, Franco-Belgian) trappings:



Lambiek is perhaps one of the best sources of information on French, European, and even American comics on the web

and has a good deal of information about both Forest and Dore.
Gustave Dore
Jean-Claude Forest

Here's a look at a page from Ici Meme, another work by Forest, this time in collaboration with Jacques Tardi, it's a kafkaesque or Borgesian tale of utter brilliance; and really shows off Forest's range:


For those who may think my tastes have ossified with the immediate post-war generation, Yves Chaland (also under the alias, Gert Dooreman) was a modern master of the form and showed it consistently, he seems to have a slight 1950s EC influence in this piece (but maybe that's just me):



Here's some more work he did as Dooreman, and some information about Chaland.
Warning, it's in French.

Finally, here's another piece by Chaland. This one is a gag strip called "Bob Fish". Comparing this piece to the one immediately prior, it really shows off the enormous range Chaland possessed, though, at least under his given name of Chaland, he always represented various aspects of the 'Atomic Style' he pioneered.



The Lambiek entry on Chaland