bd80

BD Junk

(June 5, 2017)

Some months back I got a new record player, and this prodded me into finally re-sampling my old records (that I had originally converted to MP3 back in 1997-ish) so that I could have better-sounding old records. And in FLAC. IT MAKES SENSE!!!1! A lot of the old vinyl are 7″ singles and 12″ EPs, … Continue reading BD Junk

BD80: Tendre Violette

(March 26, 2017)

Tendre Violette by Servais & Dewamme (1981) Both Jean-Claude Servais (the artist) and Gérard Dewamme (the writer) are Belgian, which makes a first for this week’s little trip through Franco-Belgian comics, I think? All the other ones have been French. Very French. These stories were originally serialised in the Belgian (À suivre) magazine. I’m not … Continue reading BD80: Tendre Violette

BD80: Gotlib

(March 24, 2017)

Rhââ Lovely 1 by Gotlib (1976) Gotlib was a prolific cartoonist, working from the mid-sixties until his recent death. He started out doing comics for the French Pilote magazine before co-founding two magazines, l’Echo des savanes and Fluide Glacial. Out of his dozens of albums, c. nothing has been translated to other languages. Runepress made … Continue reading BD80: Gotlib

BD80: Le génie des Alpages

(March 23, 2017)

Le génie des Alpages by F’Murr (1976) Comme des bêtes by F’Murr (1977) Le génie des Alpages is a series started by F’Murr(r) in 1973. It was originally serialised in the French Pilote magazine and then collected in albums from 1976 on. The Norwegian editions I have seem to (unusually enough) to track the French … Continue reading BD80: Le génie des Alpages

BD80: Caza

(March 22, 2017)

Scènes de la vie de banlieue by Caza (1979) Caza is a prolific French artist (real name Philippe Cazaumayou) who has been doing comics since the early 70s (and continues to publish to this day). However, very little has been translated into any language I can read. (Except various stuff in various issues of Heavy … Continue reading BD80: Caza

BD80: Rebecca

(March 21, 2017)

Rebecca by Brandoli & Queirolo (1985) Neither Anna Brandoli (artist) nor Renato Queirolo (writer) are prolific comics makers. Together, they’ve published five albums, and Brandoli has made one additional book without Queirolo. Rebecca remains their most well-known work. Rebecca began publication in the Italian monthly magazine linus (all in lower case, for some reason) in … Continue reading BD80: Rebecca

BD80: Simon du Fleuve

(March 20, 2017)

The first batch of French(ish) comics I wrote a bit about a year and a half ago were mostly all comics that I had read many, many times as a teenager. This time out, I remember even less about these comics than I did the last time. First we have Simon du Fleuve (which means … Continue reading BD80: Simon du Fleuve

BD80 Reloaded

(March 20, 2017)

Almost two years ago, I did a small series of posts on a bunch of Franco/Belgian comics. The urge to write about another small stack of them hit me all of a sudden, so: As with the previous series, I’ll be covering works that aren’t well-known these days. There’s not that much point in writing … Continue reading BD80 Reloaded

Half Page BD: An RT Investigation

(January 16, 2017)

A while ago I read the following in an article on Hooded Utilitarian: […] the revolution that really drove Heavy Metal was very distinctly French and had a lot more to do with the format of how French comics were serialized than with any kind of musical aesthetic, something that is largely transparent to Anglophones. … Continue reading Half Page BD: An RT Investigation

BD80: Tardiesque

(July 4, 2015)

Hugo Pratt and José Muñoz are probably the two cartoonists who influenced most European comics in the late 70s/early 80s. It rare to flip through a black-and-white album from that period and not see some influence from those two. (And a bit later, from Moebius.) But there’s another artist that seems to have been a … Continue reading BD80: Tardiesque

BD80: Anna nella jungla by Hugo Pratt

(July 3, 2015)

Anna nella jungla by Hugo Pratt (1959) Hugo Pratt was 32 years old and living in Argentina when he got his first opportunity to make his own comics. He’d illustrated a bunch before, but Anna in the Jungle is the first one he’d written, too. I re-read all the Corto Maltese albums the other week. … Continue reading BD80: Anna nella jungla by Hugo Pratt

BD80: Jonathan by Cosey

(July 2, 2015)

Souviens-toi, Jonathan… by Cosey (1975) I remember the Jonathan series as a meandering, hippy-ish series with gorgeous drawings from Tibet. It turns out that I remembered correctly, but there was also bits I had forgotten completely. Cosey, born in Switzerland in 1950, worked as an assistant to Derib (also a Swiss guy (Swissish? Swisserese?)) in … Continue reading BD80: Jonathan by Cosey

BD80: Annie Goetzinger & Pierre Christin

(July 1, 2015)

La Demoiselle de la Legion d’Honneur by Annie Goetzinger & Pierre Christin (1980) Annie Goetzinger and Pierre Christin have created a long list of works together, and this is the first one, published in 1980. It’s the story of a woman who drifts aimlessly through her life, controlled by various men (and their families). It’s … Continue reading BD80: Annie Goetzinger & Pierre Christin

BD80: Wininger

(June 30, 2015)

Pierre Wininger var born in 1950, and, er, slightly influenced by Tardi. Or what’s that other word that means the opposite of slightly? His first series (about a detective named Victor Billetdoux and his egyptologist friend) was serialised in Charlie Hebdo and Circus between 1976 and 1982. It’s not just his artwork that’s influenced by … Continue reading BD80: Wininger

BD80: Ardeur by Alex & Daniel Varenne

(June 29, 2015)

Ardeur by Alex & Daniel Varenne (1979-1986) This (sort of) dystopian post-WWIII series was published as a serial in Charlie Mensuel between 1979 and 1986, as far as I can tell. I say “sort of”, because where it starts out isn’t where it (sort of) ended up. Ok, here’s how it starts: A pilot (the … Continue reading BD80: Ardeur by Alex & Daniel Varenne

BD80: Comès

(June 28, 2015)

Le dieu vivant by Comès (1974) This early sci-fi pot boiler (serialised in Pilote 1970/71) is not a particularly auspicious start for my grand re-reading of European(ish) comics from the 80s(ish). For one, I hadn’t actually read this before, but picked it hup from Faraos a couple of weeks ago. But it is the first … Continue reading BD80: Comès

(June 28, 2015)

I grew up way up north in Norway. I was really into comic books. I liked American comic books just fine (both superheroes and stuff like Love & Rockets and Cerebus), but I loved arty French(ey) “albums” the most. When I was about 14 (in 1982), more complex comics started being translated into Scandinavian languages. … Continue reading BD80