Eurotrip: The Spoils!

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I recently posted about my holiday to beautiful Bruges and lovely Lille, and specifically the comic shops I was lucky enough to visit.  But there was one thing missing from my travelogue - what about the comics I actually bought there! Limited as I was by budget and how much my scrawny frame could actually carry back to old Blighty, I still managed quite a decent haul.  Now I just need to polish up my French so I can actually read the damn things (or, I guess, just use Google Translate!)

Without a doubt, my favourite purchase was the - just released - limited special edition of the first Blacksad volume.  If you've not read Blacksad then stop what you are doing, run directly to your nearest comic shop and buy a copy.  The painted anthropomorphic noir series is huge in France, and judging by its prominence in UK comic shops, it has been a hit this side of the channel as well.   This oversized edition reprints Somewhere Between the Shadows, along with a lengthy interview with creators Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, sketches, character designs, and page layouts.  It's a beautiful thing, and hopefully we'll see an English language version sooner or later.

 

 

 

Keeping on the animal theme; my wife and I are suckers for any comics about cats [idea for another blog suddenly springs to mind], so we couldn't help but pick up a copy of Crapule by Jean-Luc Deglin.  It's the story of a young woman and her little black cat who, in a shocking twist for the genre, is mischievous yet adorable.   The artwork is so simple, the storytelling so clear, and the scenes so relatable, that really the language barrier is irrelevant here. The cover suggests this is just the first volume - so hopefully more to come!

 

 

Despite the English language title Punk The Fucking Story is in French!  This is an anthology of comics and prose articles written by Theirry Lamy and drawn by a host of different artists, each tackling a different band, era, or scene, related to punk music of the late 70s and early 80s.  It is a fantastic idea, cleverly done, and I would love to see other genres given the same treatment.  I'm also fascinated with how artists represent music on the page - everyone seems to have their own way of doing it - and I'm always on the lookout for comics that I can add to my collection of soundless sound!

 

One of the brakes on me reading as many comics as I'd like - and writing as many blogs about them - is I also invest huge amounts of time in reading books.  My preference is non-fiction, particularly history, politics, and economics - all of which have led me to the work of Thomas Piketty.  He is one of the world's foremost contemporary economists - you may have heard of his seminal work Capital in the Twenty-First Century.  The follow-up to that was Capital and Ideology, and it has recently been adapted into a comic by Claire Alet and Benjamin Adam.  Comics is a great medium for using words and images to convey complex or complicated ideas (see the work of Darryl Cunningham, or the comic adaptations of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind), so I'm very much looking forward to reading this and hopefully better understanding Piketty's ideas and arguments.

Probably the most famous French comic after Asterix is the sci-fi and fantasy anthology Métal Hurlant (which translates as 'Screaming Metal', but you may know it better as Heavy Metal, the name it was published under in the US).  Métal Hurlant ran from 1974 to 1987 (with brief revivals in 2002 and 2021), and was famous for adult content and often luscious painted artwork.  The copy I picked up is a special to celebrate the 50th anniversary.  It is a collection of new (or newish) material with artwork much more in line with modern French comics than the traditional style associated with the magazine.  It also includes interviews (including one with Ridley Scott), and a collection of stand-out covers from the original series.

As my recent trip involved a visit to Belgium, I felt obliged to pick up a Tintin album whilst I was there - obviously! However, for something a little different I got a copy of Hergé's The Crab with the Golden Claws in Dutch rather than French, which was the original language of the series (see my previous blog regarding the complexities of languages in Belgium!). There's not much more to say, as I'm sure you're all familiar with the diminutive reporter and his cast of friends (and dog) - and if you're not, then you absolutely should be!

I also got a Dutch language copy of the famous Fanco-Belgian comic Thorgal.  This Viking action adventure is classic bandes desinées and has sold over 11 million copies since it's launch in 1977 (it actually began as a strip in Tintin magazine, handily linking my two Belgian purchases!). Written by Jean Van Hamme (who you may know from XIII) and drawn by Grzegorz Rosiński, the series is currently available in English from the fantastic Cinebooks. 

Finally, I made my regular purchase of comics magazine Casemate, which can be found in most newsagents and similar shops across France.  It features news, previews, reviews, and much more in a monthly look at the contemporary French comics scene and market.  A must-buy anytime you find yourself in France! (