This is from Borderline, a grim, Skynet-esque, dystopian, post-apoc work he did with fellow countryman Carlos Trillo.

I'm re-reading it now, and frankly, I don't remember how well I liked it before. That's usually not a tremendously encouraging sign, but... let's see how things shake out this time. For others of the post-apoc genre, I still maintain my master list at the evil empire, for those curious.

Anyway, I love Risso's art. More here:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/r/risso_eduardo.htm

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/image/r/risso_eduardo/risso_100bullets2.jpg

I found La vengeance du Comte Skarbek to be a nifty story by Belgian Yves Sente, with painterly art by Polishman Grzegorz Rosinski. They're both major players in BD of course, with Sente working on titles like Blake & Mortimer, XIII, and Thorgal, and Rosinski working on Buddy Longway, Ballad of the Lost Moors, Chninkel, and... Thorgal.

A Parisian street scene.

The story itself is a clever riff on The Count of Monte Cristo, set in 1843. Here, a young Polish artist named "Skarbek" is forced to flee to Paris, where he takes on the name "Paulus," and meets a beautiful young model who becomes his muse. His paintings become known to a prominent art dealer who contracts him, and all seems well until he realises he's been entrapped by the duo. Things take a turn when the model falls in love with him, followed by Paulus becoming outraged when he discovers that the art dealer's been sexually and mentally abusing her. They fight, a bystander gets accidentally killed, and unfortunately Paulus looks for all the world like the guilty party.

As is often the case, I'm a sucker for tall ship shots.

And so he flees by ship! Which, wouldn't you know it, gets attacked by "Alexander," the pirate master. Alexander's lieutenant "Violette" notices that he's an artist, and persuades the pirate-master to spare him. From there, he's installed as a prisoner and resident painter at Alexander's island retreat.

And there was a trial.

Paulus eventually returns to Paris, looking for his revenge, and persuades two prominent, aggrieved patrons of the art dealer to sue him. What follows is a sprawling, highly entertaining courtroom trial, which features much of the island and pirate backstory, helping to explain why these panels cut back and forth.

Those red sails against the harbor colors really send me(!)

Note: Rosinski is one of those who seems to tailor his style to each particular work. In this two-tome series, I guess he's using gouache (opaque watercolor) to simulate oil painting (which he does in some other series), in this case using a loose, but effective style as I found it.

More island shots.

I've given you the broad strokes of the storyline, but what really makes this story work is a triple plot-twist that works beautifully with the trial setting and dramatic story ending. Besides the clear Dumas reference, this story has also been cited as being distinctly Hugo-esque. Other than the seeming absurdity of a prominent pirate operating in the Mediterranean in the mid-1800's, I found this quite satisfying historical fiction.

More:
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-8289-BD-Vengeance-du-Comte-Skarbek.html

Now, the above might seem kind of fawning and patriarchal on the face of things, but I found it pretty-much the opposite. (work with me here?)

In short-- these three gals come from a range of backgrounds & scholarly ability, and are all vying to self-torture themselves through graduate school, essentially. For example, the advisor to Helen (the redhead below) is especially an enormous asshole, toying with her dissertation and future job-prospects unnecessarily, altho I suppose that's also par for the course when it comes to the academic grant-process, no? *sigh*

Oh, right-- what's happening here is that the school year is finally over, and they're spending a few days in the country at Helen's family's place. Fresh air, mountains, hiking, et cet.

Now, all three of them had pretty-consistently been dealing with shit from their BF's or love interests (and vice-versa) for the whole semester, so it was just nice for them to chill out, just girls, and symbolically as kids once again, with Helen's family.

Those are the lines that really killed me-- the idea that gifted academics can suffer such thoughts. Uh... "Imposter Syndrome," or something like that? So, meanwhile alongside their own accomplishments, they can be almost in a state of awe upon expert craftsman and people who make things happen with their hands, see?

If the pics don't show up correctly, try the page:
https://imgur.com/gallery/little-sequence-from-fascinating-slice-of-life-work-glory-days-i-e-le-bel-ge-by-merwan-2012-AVlBEKe

Merwan is just wonderful to me:
https://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-9301-BD-Merwan.html

Intro by Rolando: I recently compared Jim Woodring to @[email protected]'s work on [email protected], and @[email protected] suggested I post something here about it, since pmjv's European. So here is a cross-post of one of pmjv's more accessible pieces. For more info about what's going on, see: https://analognowhere.com/log/2022-04-30/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/21198712

So... I was just re-reading Woodring's One Beautiful Spring Day, which was a grand attempt to tie together his major classics Congress of the Animals & Fran, and then another one, Poochytown.

Now, if you haven't read the first two? Then I strongly advise you to start screaming at the top of your lungs, running around like a headless chicken, and making your way over to the nearest comics shop tout de suite, even were that to involve a grueling dogsled race across the vast, desert wastes of Siberia. That's how amazing those two titles are, in mine humble bumble.

Okay, let's get to it-- (lol)
So, what I really liked about the panel above was the fact that there's an optical illusion there of sorts, suggesting areas of "grey," even though the image is totally in B&W. You can see this around the pillars, and a bit around the roof of Frank's home. (might possibly help to unfocus your eyes a bit, squint, or just move closer or farther to the pic)

See what I mean..? Or no?

Another thing I love is the 'etched' quality of the sky. Just like the other areas of the image, using the thickening / thinning of the horizontal lines to suggest, well... everything!

Okay, now here-- Frank and his GF Fran have had a HUGE row (fight), and he's starting to realise that he went overboard, and that sadly, she might not be coming back. That delicate little flower of his GF, that is.

(and men can cry; it's okay)

See, and here's the concern!

WARNING, MATURE MATERIAL AHEAD!
PROCEED UPON THINE OWN RISK!
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Oh my.
So... no problem, I guess!? oO

In any case, I find American Jim Woodring a national treasure, and you can't have him, you delightful Euros, you! (lol)

Seriously though, I find Jim's line-work entrancing, precise and even delirious to the point of being an honorary LC-artist at the very least.

This comes from the S01E10 episode of the 2021 CG series, which as of this date has run three seasons and 112 eps. The English version of this ep is called UnSmurfable Smile, I believe.

There's a five-minute clip of this wild ride, below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbQZLCGj4I
(French CC's are available for students like me)

Personally I think they did a nice job on this series, altho one thing I do prefer about the 1981 English version was that the voicework tended to sound appropriate to a race of creatures "three apples high."

Sort of like the voices on Alvin's Xmas song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np2ZapISRzM

TAGS: Peyo

Mourrain doesn't show up in LBK or BDT yet, but it's clear that he does lots of illustrations for childrens' books. The style we see above seems to be his most common, but he also works in a more monotone, shade-heavy approach. More of his work can be seen here.

I don't know if this little collection appears in any particular book (I couldn't find it), but in any case it appears to involve three children visiting these famous places:

Pyramid entrance to Le Louvre.

Opéra Garnier’s grand staircase, with the Phantom of the Opera just visible under the stairs. EDIT: thanks to "troglodyte_mignon" in comments for the info!

That's The Brooklyn Bridge, of course.

And finally, Le Jardin des plantes, which I understand to be headquarters of the National Museum of Natural History, which also includes a zoo! :D

Btw, I found that statue pretty cool, both in spectacle, and due to the fact that Lamarck was an early proponent of evolution. (I'd never heard of the guy)

Layout of Le Jardin, showing its four main galleries, greenhouses (it was originally a royal garden for medicinal plants), and all the smaller buildings.

I've only been to Paris once as an adult, and certainly regret not spending time here(!)

BONUS: Maybe a theme song-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN64qgptQQA

So for me, as I stumble and bumble my way through learning French (mostly through DuoLingo, hey), I'm often thinking about this issue.

Now-- on the surface of things, Modern English is almost exclusively comprised of German & French, and almost every word in these sentences are specific examples of such in terms of direct etymology. Which is a big part of why I've typically regarded French & German as my sibling languages. It's a nice, bright thought, anyway!

Let's take the modern English word "fight"-- WP claims:

From Middle English fighten, from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan, from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”).

My point is that there's so many ways to run with that over time... in any language whatsoever! Indeed, IIRC there was a "fisten" variation which meant an entirely different thing in earlier German.

But, "shear?" Yes, yes back in my schoolyard days, I wanted to shear my opponent like a little lost lamb, but... I don't think that's right.

So here's my point, assuming you've lasted this far. Modern German in fact split from modern English maybe around ~~800AD? And Modern French, around... perhaps slightly earlier than the Norman Conquest (1066), meaning that even though Modern English is absolutely PACKED full of French & German pronyms, we can't just assume they mean the same thing, anymore, as with the examples above.

It sort of breaks my heart, but it's just reality, non?

The above is Procession, I think?

Me, I just love it.
Now IIRC, Maggie did that one because of a dream about spoons her kiddo had. (must be nice to have such a parent, haha)

Oh, a flier!

Maggie Vandewalle was born and raised just outside of Iowa City, Iowa, in a rural setting. As a child she divided her time between roaming fields and woods, scouring the public library for good books, and forever doodling. Out of high school she received an art scholarship to the University of Iowa, where she worked towards a BFA in printmaking. After several years she took a break from college to explore life without the constraints of school. As time went on, she determined that while school might not continue to play a part in her life, art most definitely would in the form of drawing and painting. Ever since, she has used watercolor or graphite to convey her love of the organic world and that of a really good story:

“While growing up, if I wasn’t outside I spent most of my time with my nose in books. When I look back, the pictures are as clear to me as the stories, they are intertwined in a way that creates magic for me. Because I’m not a writer but love the story, I try to create visual narratives through the use of paint.”

Midnight Revelry, i.e. “Moondance”

Now, me? I don't know if we need to battle over what's more American vs. what's more Euro? (sod that, laddies) To me this is some great stuff that rather exemplifies the heights of both, altho I do find Maggie's last name interesting in that regard, in that it's evidently a classic Dutch / Flemish name.

Straight on Till Morning

In any case, I find her stuff rather wonderful, seemingly referencing England's Richard Adams' Watership Down, the great Polish-American Maurice Sendak, and whatever else, creating her own utterly unique, delightful style in the end.

http://www.maggievandewalle.com/

Yesterday I ran in to matttt's excellent video exploring this question, i.e. "was Ballad of the Salt Sea (1967) the first GN?," altho to be clear-- it's mostly about the total comics career of legendary Italian artist / writer Hugo Pratt.

TBH, I wasn't really expecting to sit through a 17min video, but "matttt" is just such a great talent, that it wasn't hard. I only wish he covered more Euro comics specifically, but in any case, he's a terrrrific, home-grown comics historian who speaks with passion and precision. (did you like that?)

NOTES: 1) there's a built-in sponsor-ad starting just after 5min that lasts a full minute, 2) If you want to skip specifically to the Corto Maltese stuff, you can start about halfway through, in which matttt gets in to what makes the series so special:

-----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIKSeNJrC8 <-----

As for what really was the first GN? Good question. There's an old idea that a bunch of short comics collected in to hardcover format fit this definition, but I'm not sure I buy that. Personally, I tend to think of a 'proper GN' as a long-form narrative that's not just gag-related. So the Tintin albums would fit the bill for me, but in fact there are examples going back to the 1920's, possibly even earlier.

I guess matttt's proposal of Ballad of the Salt Sea as the first GN (in which Corto was only one of several prominent characters) is based on the idea that it was the first (modern-era at least) example of comics in fusion with literature, for what that's worth.

Now, I don't think we need to make war over this stuff; moreso, I find it a fun debate-topic in which to better understand comics as a whole.

Fair?

Hello out there in Inter-land! This is a little side-project for the community. These are my favorite web-games, meant to kill a little time & have a little fun. Emphasis is generally on simplicity over fancy graphics & complicated rules.

(NOTE: most of these will jump to full-screen mode if you click a button in the bottom right corner)

--GAME--	(clickable thumbnail)	--DESCRIPTION--
8VENTURE		An ingenious riff on the classic Atari 2600 game. Unlike the other 'sequels' I've seen, this one reworks most of the elements and gameplay.
type	has	to
be	in	tables

https://www.izneo.com/fr/editeurs/europe-comics-218

I really appreciate how /u/joerst pointed this out to me, and... it seems to be true!

Now, the pic above is from some new-ish book by... pretty much my favorite Euro comics artist ever, i.e. Kerascoët (a brilliant, husband-and-wife team).

Haha okay, and if you wanted to soil your soul by going to Reddit, then here's my big, chonky master-list of favorite comics artists: https://www.reddit.com/r/JohnnyEnzyme/comments/poitvk/who_are_my_favorite_bd_gn_artists/

https://www.google.com/search?q=suske+en+wiske&udm=2

I've never understood why this simple, delightful children's comic keeps getting randomly renamed for evidently zero reason. What the heck, man? "Bob & Bobetter?" "Spiking Suzy?" "Willy and Wanda?" (why not just throw in the dang chocolate factory?) "Luke and Lucy?" (no, I don't want to see that soap opera again)

Daggit, maties-- Suske en Wiske is not that hard to say, it seems to me.

Not unlike James Bond strolling up to the minibar and suggesting something like "Whish-key, no watta."

So... unfortunately, this is going to be very 'ME'-based, and I'm not a big fan of that in general. Oh well. Eat your crow, Johnny. Gobble it up, please.

So, so, so-- I had a bit of a meltdown here last Thursday, ranting a bit and posting generally useless threads. First and foremost, I apologise to the community, and hope I haven't harmed its reputation too terribly much. I also want to talk about what happened to cause that, and what's going to change, going forward. Fact is, it was a killer-combo of things that day, so maybe I'll just list them out:

• BURNOUT: For a long time now I've been aiming for a 'post per day,' because I wanted to stock up the community with lots of content, such that users could dive in to it whenever they liked and have a good, long, fun read. As a matter of fact, after hitting the one-year anniversary mark on August 1st, we actually did average over a post per day, in large part thanks to my co-pilot Nacktmull. At this point, however, I think it's time to retire that goal and NOT artificially push myself as hard on that stuff, anymore.

• PERSONAL HEALTH: I happen to have CFS/ME, which tends to be an incurable, fatal disease. In effect, I'm fairly-exhausted 24/7, and have a fraction of the stamina that most people my age do. My wrists, feet, and lower back regularly ache, and I spend about 95% of my awake-time lying on my couch. I'd love to do lots more (including exercise, which I adore), but unfortunately when I DO, I tend to get something called "PEM," just like others in my boat. Anyway, this disease is hugely & regularly frustrating to me, and it literally (not figuratively!) seeps in to almost every part of my life. For some quick examples, I had to end my career at around ~30yo, and various relationships are just too hard to maintain, sadly.

• BOOZE: To be perfectly honest, I was having some vodka drinks that day. I'm not proud of it, but one thing alcohol crazily, wonderfully does is to temporarily mask my pain, as well as artificially boosting my blood sugar. And of course, too much can obviously get me off the track of 'production mode.' Yeah, whoops......

• FLAWED: One of my other frustrations here is that I get the impression that people wrongly conceive of this place as my personal blog, with the occasional brilliant guest appearance, but that's not something I never aimed for, nor wanted. I think my posts are generally good, interesting and informative, but I'm not some super-human-production-machine here, and frankly I rather resent being looked at that way. So in a sense, I don't mind letting the mask slip at times, revealing that I'm just as much a flawed, troubled doofus as the poor chap down the road, who lives in a makeshift tent on public land. I mean, say what you want-- but I'm sure that guy/gal has their talented qualities as well. At least, that's how I'd like to think of such things, y'know?

• DISAPPOINTMENT #1: Honestly, I'm disappointed in the readers here. I've repeatedly welcomed anyone to post any sort of thought or material related to BD, and yet the more the subscribers seem to grow, the less prone they seem willing to do so. Almost as if everyone's waiting around for ME to furnish my content, read as they like, then move on to something else. Wellsir, that is definitely NOT why this community was founded. Indeed-- I still haven't had a single response to the volunteer requests I made last month. And please understand-- these are light volunteer jobs that require a very small amount of effort on a weekly basis.

• DISAPPOINTMENT #2: Altho I LOOOVE my host & instance, I really can't say that I'm super-happy with the Lemmy community au total. As in-- when a bunch of us broke away from Reddit over a year ago (and note that I'm straddling the line under my same username there, haha), to me I thought the main idea was just beautiful, specifically involving a P2P, open, volunteer-based alternative, free of corporate greed. Well, as of now, the future of the FV (including Lemmy) still seems unclear, and frankly I'm a bit gobsmacked by the relative-lack of community-spirit here, in which I thought there might be far more common affection for the whole project. Not from the people who made real sacrifices (because they DID!), but moreso from a theoretically involved, knowledgeable userbase. Instead, no-- it's almost like Spez' freakout from a year+ ago, plus the way Reddit just doubled-down on extracting value from their userbase, essentially never happened. To me that's both creepy and weird. Shame! Shame on everyone here for thinking 'they had no personal responsibilities, nor gratitude for the new place.' And shame on you all who bought in to that.

• SHAKY PROFESSIONALISM: Despite everything said above, this indeed is my self-appointed volunteer job, and I don't think it's good to have little meltdowns very often, and I doubt this is really the place for making "a cry for help." So again, I apologise to everyone, and... tell you what-- I'm going to be looking after my own health better from now on, which immediately means retiring the 'aim for one post per day' mentality. Indeed, let the record show that this is YOUR community now, and no longer my 'personal blog.' Now if you're wondering how I am as a moderator? I've had almost 25yrs of experience as a mod, super-mod, admin & head-admin across a variety of sites, the most recent one pinball-simulation-based, with hundreds of thousands of users. In any case, my general aim is to listen with kindness and find amicable solutions, where possible.

Hey, thanks for reading, folks!
Haha, I guess sometimes you just have to embarrass yourself sufficiently in order to make the proper course-change, mais non?

EDIT: oof, I forgot the pic. This seems to be from outside a prison in Gdańsk!

A riff on an old joke, but a relatively safe place to start, I guess. Things will only get weirder.

https://i.imgur.com/qBJcot0.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/H3i2VBl.jpeg

Artist Herr Seele ("Mister Soul," did I get that right?) was born in 1959 as Peter van Heirseele in Torhout, West-Flanders. His father was an office clerk and his mother a professional painter, who stimulated her son's artistic interests. His grandmother Valerie Haesaert was also an artist, and once won a national award for amateur painting. As a child, van Heirseele already drew complete comic book stories. --Lambiek

https://i.imgur.com/BcHL2Yl.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/xsznHSp.jpeg

Writer Kamagurka, real name Luc Zeebroek, was born in 1956 in Nieuwpoort, a town near the Belgian coast. He came into the world with a bad Achilles tendon, which left him with crooked feet. The boy was bullied and suffered tremendous pain until an operation solved the problem. In the hospital, a young patient in the bed next to him died. All these traumatic experiences gave Zeebroek a combative attitude. In his opinion, life is so absurd, tragic and meaningless that it's best to not take things too seriously. Growing up, he therefore wanted to turn everything into a joke, even severe tragedies.

https://i.imgur.com/cSfvqcS.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/GpyHhf4.jpeg

More (and I mean more):
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/seele.htm
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kamagurka.htm

It's by Tintin pastiche-artist Harry Edwood!

(and just like Beldar the Conehead, he comes from France)

The pic is of course a tribute to arguably the most famous album cover of all time. (it's also in our banner, if you can pick it out)

Side note: There's two people who I can't quite figure out at the moment. They're both in the 3rd row, 4th from the right and 4th from the left. Both have grey-white hair, and are wearing shades (prescription sunglasses). Anybody know..?

Credit to my genius Reddit friend-- u/dunkelbunt235.

Theme song: Charline Mignot, et Dormir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTx7Skm30uQ

I think this Spanish webcomic is worth mentioning, so let's do just that.

Now, as with great webcomics, like the ingenious, thoroughly-awesome Back, as well as Aethernaut), this one has a unique, undeniable charm for the ages. ('he said, hoping to sound unpretentious,' lol)

First off-- the author ("Inky") doesn't want the content shared around (see the bottom text?), which is part of why I'm only offering a few stills:

https://i.imgur.com/MiVyIFF.jpeg

Anyway, what we have here is a naughty, gentle, light-hearted comic about two young women spending a funny, adventurous summer with their cousins (the two boys). They're about 20yo, so I shouldn't really call them "boys" and/or "girls," sorry.

https://i.imgur.com/AreiRJx.jpeg

To be clear-- it's naughty in nature, but playful and clever; a thoroughly unique delight.

EDIT: Oh! And just like that, the pic of their grandmama is just GONE. I thought it was really cute and respectful, but... I'm not here to battle my host. Oh well.

https://inkdolls.com/comic/0100/

But also kind of cool and interesting to me (I'm middle-aged), thinking back about those days... about the silly, ridiculous, and (haha) sexy fun we once had.

Oh, and our theme song, "Frisco Blues" by Ofman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCOGyh9YFE

"C-H" is an outrageous, absurdist Flemish-Belgian comic published for over 40 years.

https://i.imgur.com/UKWjSM4.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/FtxBmFT.jpeg

Believe me, the three above are the barest, most-kid friendly examples that still contain some chuckles that I could find at the moment.

Also, and I hesitate to say this, but-- CH is also about shitting. I mean, the characters delivering excrement and making jokes out of it. I don't think I'm going to post that stuff, but if you like, you can search on all that.

(even "Mr. Hankey" from Southpark is somehow more appropriate XD)

. . .

[WARNING] [MATURE] [WARNING-BELOW]

. . .

The lead comic from the Dental Floss tome is this:

That seems to be the only image released so far.

Also, there seems to be a new film: Astérix, the Kingdom of Nubia launching the year after. [news link]

Just bumped in to this artist's work the other day, and I find them both hilariously pleasing and pleasingly hilarious. A bit like Lewis Trondheim's style.

Check out all the goodies:
https://www.tumblr.com/caloucalou
http://caloucalou.unblog.fr/

TAGS: Lucky Luke

It's a non-standard vampire-thriller (4 tomes) by a great writer-artist duo, Jean Dufaux & Enrico Marini. [BDT]

Just before the above, our two detectives leap for their lives:

https://i.imgur.com/AIPNTa6.jpeg

While two raptors comfortably watch, a brother and sister:

https://i.imgur.com/S18uBSo.jpeg

Hundreds of years before, a ruling council of vampires decided that in order to better manage humans, they should embrace the light, renouncing their traditional, raw meat & blood-loving ways.

Now, one member of the council vehemently objected, the father of the two we see above. He was destroyed, and his children became bitter enemies of the 'new-age' vampires, who went on to rule humanity in secrecy.

Over time, the new-age vampires developed vulnerabilities that the raptors used to assassinate them, conducting a vendetta-based campaign of terror. Meanwhile, detectives Lenore & Spiaggi are assigned to investigate...

https://i.imgur.com/xIqqr5A.jpeg

...later, Lenore somehow manages to straggle home. (just above)

https://i.imgur.com/DkYoZzW.jpeg

On top of the fact that this was a cool, movie-like thriller, I enjoyed the added historical and political elements, plus the existential questions posed against the two vampire factions.

I also found the ending shocking but satisfying, in which there's a tragic, yet uplifting 'changing of the guard.'

It's a minor classic I'd say (it's really good), and another feather in the cap of Dufaux, who consistently churns out fascinating series. Same for Marini, really.