Classic European comics

[Roquefort Raider]

Goscinny had many strengths as a writer. One was the complicity he'd develop with the artists he worked with. I'm sure that this scene where Lucky Luke samples tequila was inspired by Morris' talent for slapstick.

[Roquefort Raider]

He also had a keen sense of the absurd. In this scene from "Along the Mississippi", a paddleboat has lost its way because the river has gone over its banks. An irate farmer warns the boat to get off his property, and threatens to sic his dog on them if they don't comply! When the boat's pilot asks the way to Cairo, he's told to follow the railroad.

[Roquefort Raider]

Here's another example: Apaches tie Luke on the ground and cover him in honey, the better to summon red ants that will devour him. A little boy is quite against this waste of honey, as can be seen on the page.



When told he won't get to be a warrior if he keeps this up, the little boy angrily claims that he wants to be an ant when he grows up.

[Roquefort Raider]

The success of the series owe a lot to the outrageous supporting cast. Luke's horse Jolly Jumper always has a quip suited to the situation. The penitentiary's staff (from which the Daltons escape every other week) are remarkably daft. And what to say of Ran Tan Plan, the penitentiary's dog, and the world's most stupid canine? This bizarro Rin Tin Tin got to be so popular that he ha enjoyed his spin-off series for decades now.

[Reptisaurus!]

Reminds me a lot of John Stanley - It's the perfect amount of information in each panel to build up, but not over-explain the joke.

[Roquefort Raider]

The Daltons are Lucky Luke's perennial opponents. ell, opponents... they are such incompetent criminals that they never manage to do anything too threatening. But when they escape from jail, they have to be caught and brought back!

In the image below, Averell Dalton is told by his brother to stop cleaning his ear with his six-shooter because it's really bad manners.



And one thing this comic-book series has certainly done in France is to get everyone to know this particular song, as it concludes every story!

[Jonathan Bogart]

Thanks for the refresher course, RR!

My current favorite European cartoonists are Lewis Trondheim, Dupuy & Berberian, Joann Sfar, David B., and Gipi, but I spent a lot of time earlier this decade digging through Eurocomics history, and I went through periodic obsessions with Hugo Pratt, Vittorio Giardino, Franquin, Schuiten & Peeters, Muñoz & Sampayo, Alberto Breccia, Jacques Tardi, Yves Chaland, and Les Innomables, and like a lot of people I'd been a Hergé fan since childhood.

The lack of interest from American comics fans in the great depth and breadth of European cartooning (as represented by the terrible sales of nearly any translated work) is one of the things that's driven me away from mainstream comics in general.

[Drusilla lives!]

... I wish half the Classics Illustrated I own looked so good.

If you own any Classics Illustrated, you own more than I do... which are none.

... Even though my French is not as spectacular as this art, the pictures speak clearly enough. That Chaldean/Assyrian arch and that secret Spartan temple are knockouts. Sure it's not Kirby-style, but there is room for a universe of "languages" in the funny book world. ...

I don't know, there are some rather good pieces represented here that on a technical level are very well done. But nevertheless I feel they lack personality... it just seems rather sterile and pedantic. But to be fair, I feel this way about most comics that are used for educational purposes. They usually lack that spark which attracts and draws one in... and apparently it doesn't bring out the best in artists either. Perhaps if it were Al Williamson, Frazetta, Wood or Severin... artists with either a "flare" for such material or who are so original as to overpower any subject matter no matter how dull (I wouldn't include Kirby since although he could overcome just about anything with his powerful style, I don't think he would have had the right flare for this type of material), then maybe, maybe this type genre would appeal to me.

[Roquefort Raider]

Thanks for the refresher course, RR!

My current favorite European cartoonists are Lewis Trondheim, Dupuy & Berberian, Joann Sfar, David B., and Gipi, but I spent a lot of time earlier this decade digging through Eurocomics history, and I went through periodic obsessions with Hugo Pratt, Vittorio Giardino, Franquin, Schuiten & Peeters, Muñoz & Sampayo, Alberto Breccia, Jacques Tardi, Yves Chaland, and Les Innomables, and like a lot of people I'd been a Hergé fan since childhood.

There is no derth of great stuff, is there?

Franquin and Pratt are definitely among the gods (I hope to cover Franquin's Spirou and Gaston Lagaffe at one point). Pratt, thankfully, has been translated in English on more than one occasion. His is the talent that redefines a genre, and if I had to pick one single best cartoon book ever, I think his Una ballata del mare salato would be the one.

Is Pratt's non-Corto Maltese stuff available in English? His scorpions of the desert was pretty good.

Also, Jonathan, have you had the chance to read Le décalogue, by Giroux and several artists? It goes beyond being a great cartoon story; it really crosses into literature. A historical enigma, a fascinating thriller, a multi-generational story that goes back from today to the Armenian genocide, the French revolution and the origin of Islam, it reads like it was written by Umberto Eco (high praise indeed for Giroux). It also manages to blend fiction and reality so well that we never know where fiction begins. If it's not translated yet, it really ought to be!!!

[Jonathan Bogart]

Not only did no non-Corto Maltese stuff ever get translated, but even those are long out of print in English.

The Decalogue looks interesting, but without a superb* English translation there's not much hope of me muddling through it. My French is bad enough without adding period detail on top of it.

*NBM's translators should be shot, or at least copyedited by someone familiar with vernacular English.

[Aaron Kashtan]

=And one thing this comic-book series has certainly done in France is to get everyone to know this particular song, as it concludes every story!

Huh. I didn't know that song was in English in the original.

[Aaron Kashtan]

*NBM's translators should be shot, or at least copyedited by someone familiar with vernacular English.

I couldn't finish the second volume of Ordinary Victories because the translation was driving me nuts. The translator changed characters' names for no reason, consistently referred to the "far-right" instead of the National Front, and wrote prose that sounded very odd and stilted. At Comic-Con last year, I complained about this to Terry Nantier, and he didn't seem particularly receptive.

I can read French, so theoretically I can do without a translation, but it seems difficult or impossible to find original French-language comics in this country.

[berk]

Great thread, RR! Alix looks and sounds fantastic, really looking forward to that one in particular, as well as Giroud's Le décalogue. Like Jonathan, my French reading skills aren't what they could be, but I'm always trying to improve, and this is exactly the kind of info I've been looking for. I've tried researching a bit on wiki, but it's much more fun to learn about the subject through a thread like this, and in some ways more effective too.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Reminds me a lot of John Stanley - It's the perfect amount of information in each panel to build up, but not over-explain the joke.

It's kind of indicative of the difference between European and American comics that they have a whole sixty-year tradition of that kind of superbly-paced, graphically simplified, and gag-heavy comic strip, and we have ... John Stanley.

(Okay, that's underselling American comics, especially newspaper strips and the undergrounds; but you get the point.)

[Dizzy D]

Great thread, not enough places on the internet where I can talk about this. As many American comics as I have, my European collection is far greater (and easier to get over here). I only own a little bit of Alix (I enjoy the series but budget remains the limiting factor), but of Lucky Luke I own nearly all (stopped collecting when the later issues were such a disappointment).

I have to correct you on Goscinny's arrival being the return of humor in the series, Morris by himself already decided that the more serious issues (like Phil Defer and Pat Poker) weren't really doing it for him. By himself he introduced the Dalton Cousins (who by now have become far more famous than the original, more serious Dalton Brothers, who were killed off in their first appearance.) and had several more comical stories. The issue with Judge Roy Bean is one of the funniest in the series and this was before Goscinny started co-writing the series.

Nevertheless Goscinny did take the series to another level. The quality did turn down a bit when Goscinny left and his short return for Daisy Town was a joy to behold (and had one of the best covers ever IMHO) though the series by no means became bad at that point: I enjoyed Lo Hartog van Banda's Fingers, but a few issues later the quality did start to drop rapidly. I kept following the series because the strength of the characters and Morris artwork meant it was still one of the better series on the shelves, but once Morris himself left, I decided to quit. The spin-off series never caught my interest.

There is no derth of great stuff, is there?

Franquin and Pratt are definitely among the gods (I hope to cover Franquin's Spirou and Gaston Lagaffe at one point). Pratt, thankfully, has been translated in English on more than one occasion. His is the talent that redefines a genre, and if I had to pick one single best cartoon book ever, I think his Una ballata del mare salato would be the one.

Is Pratt's non-Corto Maltese stuff available in English? His scorpions of the desert was pretty good.

Also, Jonathan, have you had the chance to read Le décalogue, by Giroux and several artists? It goes beyond being a great cartoon story; it really crosses into literature. A historical enigma, a fascinating thriller, a multi-generational story that goes back from today to the Armenian genocide, the French revolution and the origin of Islam, it reads like it was written by Umberto Eco (high praise indeed for Giroux). It also manages to blend fiction and reality so well that we never know where fiction begins. If it's not translated yet, it really ought to be!!!

I'm not sure, but I believe Pratt and Manara's Indian Summer was translated.

I'm looking forward to your bit about Franquin, probably my favourite writer/artist of all time. And I hope to see some other names in the future. Maybe add some myself?

I couldn't finish the second volume of Ordinary Victories because the translation was driving me nuts. The translator changed characters' names for no reason, consistently referred to the "far-right" instead of the National Front, and wrote prose that sounded very odd and stilted. At Comic-Con last year, I complained about this to Terry Nantier, and he didn't seem particularly receptive.

I can read French, so theoretically I can do without a translation, but it seems difficult or impossible to find original French-language comics in this country.

I live pretty close to Belgium, so if you have any specific wishes, you can give me a PM. Already offered Cronin this one, but he declined: