Prime Junta
RPGCodex' Little BRO
- Joined
- October 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540
I just got back from France; spent a month there. One of the many things I like about it is the respect comics (bandes dessinées, BD for short) get there. The variety is huge, most bookshops have a pretty decent selection, and it's not hard to find shops with huge collections.
Any other comics fans here? I'm mostly into Franco-Belgian stuff; I'm simply not very well aware of what's worth reading on the English-language side, even if I've been meaning to pick up a Sandman or Sin City one of these days.
Some current favorites in my bookshelf:
* Anything by Bourgeon. The guy must be unbelievably patient to get all that detail in, and although he seems to have the same pretty shallow characters in all of the books (as well as a serious thing for redheads), I keep going back to them. My favorite series is still his first one, Les Passagers du Vent, set on an 18th century slave ship and its ports of call. I liked the latest one (Le Cycle de Cyann) almost as much -- it's a sci-fi universe realized in absolutely unbelievable detail, only comparable to the Star Wars universe after a couple of decades of adding on. Heavy on T&A to the point of being a bit gratuitous at times, though. Les Compagnons de Crepuscule I didn't like quite as much; I've read it several times and still don't quite "get" it -- there's way too much stuff in there that's not only left unexplained but seems completely disconnected from anything.
* The Arcanes/Arcane Majeur series. Puts X-Files to shame; a coherent mythology putting a new twist on contemporary history and events, really well drawn and tightly written while being complex enough to stand (or even require!) several re-readings. (Wanna know who *really* assassinated JFK, what Charlie Manson had to do with it and where he came from, why, against all odds, Lenin pulled off his little coup and again, against all odds, how it all suddenly imploded? Look no further...)
I haven't read the Histoire Secrète series which is in the same "universe" and is often cross-referenced; I'll probably pick it up or order it somewhere along the line.
* Corto Maltese, except the latest stuff when Hugo Pratt was already a bit ga-ga. (Mu was kinda lame.) My favorite is Ballade de la Mer Salée, with Tango a close second.
* Le Chat du Rabbin, by Joann Sfar. Totally different genre and very very hard to describe. You could say that it's the biography of a talking cat belonging to a certain rabbi named Sfar in pre-WW2 Algiers, or that it's the story of Zlabya, the rabbi's daughter, or that it's all about Jewish philosophy and the Talmud, or that it's a commentary on the state of the Middle East today and how it got there, that it's about racism, that it's about marriage, that it's about love, or faith, or Judaism, or any of a number of other things, and you'd still get completely the wrong idea. Currently in its fifth volume, which IMO was the weakest of the bunch but still head and shoulders better than most of the stuff out there. (Incidentally, I've also read a few others by Joann Sfar and didn't like them nearly as much.)
* Silence, by Didier Comès. To my recollection, the only comic that's ever made me actually cry. I always hand it to people who feel that comics can't be a serious art form (whatever that may mean).
(As an aside, I never really got much out of Bilal and find Moebius/Gir actually bad to the point of being irritating. I've no idea how the dog-stupid Incal series manages to stay in print year after year...)
How about your favorites?
Any other comics fans here? I'm mostly into Franco-Belgian stuff; I'm simply not very well aware of what's worth reading on the English-language side, even if I've been meaning to pick up a Sandman or Sin City one of these days.
Some current favorites in my bookshelf:
* Anything by Bourgeon. The guy must be unbelievably patient to get all that detail in, and although he seems to have the same pretty shallow characters in all of the books (as well as a serious thing for redheads), I keep going back to them. My favorite series is still his first one, Les Passagers du Vent, set on an 18th century slave ship and its ports of call. I liked the latest one (Le Cycle de Cyann) almost as much -- it's a sci-fi universe realized in absolutely unbelievable detail, only comparable to the Star Wars universe after a couple of decades of adding on. Heavy on T&A to the point of being a bit gratuitous at times, though. Les Compagnons de Crepuscule I didn't like quite as much; I've read it several times and still don't quite "get" it -- there's way too much stuff in there that's not only left unexplained but seems completely disconnected from anything.
* The Arcanes/Arcane Majeur series. Puts X-Files to shame; a coherent mythology putting a new twist on contemporary history and events, really well drawn and tightly written while being complex enough to stand (or even require!) several re-readings. (Wanna know who *really* assassinated JFK, what Charlie Manson had to do with it and where he came from, why, against all odds, Lenin pulled off his little coup and again, against all odds, how it all suddenly imploded? Look no further...)
I haven't read the Histoire Secrète series which is in the same "universe" and is often cross-referenced; I'll probably pick it up or order it somewhere along the line.
* Corto Maltese, except the latest stuff when Hugo Pratt was already a bit ga-ga. (Mu was kinda lame.) My favorite is Ballade de la Mer Salée, with Tango a close second.
* Le Chat du Rabbin, by Joann Sfar. Totally different genre and very very hard to describe. You could say that it's the biography of a talking cat belonging to a certain rabbi named Sfar in pre-WW2 Algiers, or that it's the story of Zlabya, the rabbi's daughter, or that it's all about Jewish philosophy and the Talmud, or that it's a commentary on the state of the Middle East today and how it got there, that it's about racism, that it's about marriage, that it's about love, or faith, or Judaism, or any of a number of other things, and you'd still get completely the wrong idea. Currently in its fifth volume, which IMO was the weakest of the bunch but still head and shoulders better than most of the stuff out there. (Incidentally, I've also read a few others by Joann Sfar and didn't like them nearly as much.)
* Silence, by Didier Comès. To my recollection, the only comic that's ever made me actually cry. I always hand it to people who feel that comics can't be a serious art form (whatever that may mean).
(As an aside, I never really got much out of Bilal and find Moebius/Gir actually bad to the point of being irritating. I've no idea how the dog-stupid Incal series manages to stay in print year after year...)
How about your favorites?
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540