I know there are some western fans here...anyone read some of the Lt Blueberry comics?

Just finished the one where he saves Lincoln...great comic!

Does anyone know if Eleanore - the would be Lincoln assasin and Blueberry foe ever returned as a villain in another volume?

I have another one that was drawn by Colin Wilson...very cool stuff that mixes fictional and real western characters.

Anyone see the movie? is it any good?

I like how the French love comics...the graphic novel sction at the local frenhc bookstore was HUGE and it was all split by author and genre...who knew? Lots of cool stuff: sci fi, espionage, westerns, WW2, etc....I even remember my old french high school having tons of french comics to read...very cool.

I've read some of the Blueberry series, but it was ages ago. I'm gonna have to dig those up and re-read 'em. I got a lot of the Mobius graphic novels that Marvel put out in the mid-80's. I remember reading Tintin at a very early age and I'm also a HUGE Asterix fan.

I remember Epic reprinting the Blueberry series..but that was during my superhero only phase:)

Tintin and Asterix are timeless classic!

Yeah, I read a couple of albums a generation ago (yikes!).

Beautifully illustrated and written stuff. Hard to belive that it's produced by Moebius.

http://www.lambiek.net/giraud.htm

It would be as if Jack Kirby -- famous for the science fiction drama Fantastic Four -- would have done a good western as well, say like Rawhide Kid or Two Gun Kid.

...

Wait a minute, WAIT A MINUTE!!!

I was in college when Marvel published the Blueberry graphic novel collections. At that time, they were out of my budget. I did pick up a black-and-white English-language version of CHIHUAHUA PEARL years later (I forget who published it). I liked it a lot and would love to find more.

I don't know much about French comics, but does look to be an area worth exploring. I've sampled a little of DC's Humanoids line and liked what I've read there, too.

Switching to a different European country:

In the late 90's, Dark Horse published some English-language versions of Italian Bonelli Comics, and I tell you - those are damn addicting! I'd really love to see more of them. If anyone ever sees those at a Con or something - I highly recommend them. Dark Horse published them in a digest-like format (actually - it's the standard Bonelli format in Italy), and there are six issues each of DYLAN DOG, MARTIN MYSTERY and NATHAN NEVER.

Bob G - those Italian comics sound interesting...I seem to remember one about a masked master criminal...kind of like a Fantomas type character...

Ill try and dig around at the local LCS...

This topic pokes me out of hiding-- I have to chime in on the Blueberry stuff.

I never gave Moebius much of a chance in my youth. I only saw his Heavy Metal work, and since I only bought that magazine once in a blue moon I didn't see enough of it to really "get it," and so I ignored it. But a couple years ago I found "Chihuahua Pearl" at the library and I was completely on board with this Moebius guy.

I've picked up the first four Epic Blueberries and a couple of the sci-fi collections as well and now I'm convinced that he's as good as everyone says he is. I hope to track down all of the Epic publications (at reasonable prices.)

I recently saw a few French edition Blueberry books at a comic shop-- along with a stack of other Moebius collections-- and they are beautiful! I would have bought a couple just for the art but I'd go crazy not being able to read the story. I really hope that somebody finds the time and funding to translate all of his work because the American comic reader is missing out on some of the comics ever made.

John V. – I haven't read the saving Lincoln story, but in Ballad for a Coffin/Angel Face, Blueberry saves President Grant and is pursued by Wild Bill Hickok (and many others-- this Blueberry guy never gets to rest, that's for sure.)

Jeff D - welcome !

Well DC is slowly reprinting a lot of Humanoids work so hopefully we'll see the Blueberry books soon (I speak French so I can get the originals..who knew all those hours in High School would pay off?:)

Ive realised that the Lincoln Story ("Il faut sauver Lincoln") is the newest volume that came out in 2004.

The Angel Face story sounds cool...I love it when authors mix real historical figures with fictional characters...always liked that.

Some bad news -

DC is discontinuing its Humanoids and 2000 A.D. lines:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/ ... gi?id=5088

Bob G - I know...thats horrible..shame on DC for not giving these great books the marketing they deserved.

Makes you think though...these books move anywhere from 200,000 to millions of copies per "issue" (and the "issues" are oversized and priced at our equivalent of 10-$15 bucks) in Europe..and here they only sell a few thousand copies...I guess Europeans really love their comics...!

John, how readily available are comics in Europe?

Frank - from my experiences in Greece and France (and even here in Montreal) comics are very accessible - all newstands carry them (digests and magazine formats), and bookstores usually have a huge section.

There is a french bookstore here in Montreal (kind of like a french Barrnes and Nobel) that i go to that has a massive french comics section...comics by author and genre..rows and rows...

Europeans view comics as modern art and storytelling...its not junk culture to them...they respect the medium...thats why they sell in hundreds of thousands there. They understand that reading is a good idea at any age (better than TV, etc)...its a shame we dont have the same attitude here in North American when it comes to comics.

In fact French comics helped me perfect my french and Greek comics helped me learn how to read and write Greek..!

I'd say that accessability is probably one of the major reasons why comics sell so much more in Europe than here in America. When comics were considered "mass-market entertainment" (as opposed to "niche-market collectible") they sold much, much more than they sell these days.

Frank - I totally agree with you on that. The main thing keeping the industry down here in North America is distribution.

I mean If I can find comics (euro comics, Marvel and DC) in frikken Greece (!) on every street corner...why cant that happen here??

Maybe Marvel's move back to 7-11's in the US will help reverse the trend....we'll see!

Well, next we have to convince the vast majority of American society that comics don't neccessarily have to be "kid-stuff"....

Yup...I agree...as I noted above I find it strange that Europeans view comics as respectable literature, an art form, etc...my french school had lots of comcis in its library, french bookstores carry tons of them..I wonder why there is that "stigma" over here..

Maybe the whole 1950s Wertham witchhunt really cast a shadow on the industry..who knows??

What does everyone else think? Why are harlequin romance novels not looked down upon while comics like Dark knight, next men, year one, etc, etc are all lumped as kids stuff??? (and its not a matter of "mature" content or not..I mean europeans consider the Walt Disney Scrooge comics as classic..which they are!)

I'd say it's definitely a by-product of "Seduction Of The Innocent". As noted in another thread, EC was publishing books that were pretty squarely aimed at an older audience until the Wertham nonsense hit. Also, the publishers' decision to keep comics priced at .10 for as long as they did while other magazines were adjusting for inflation certainly didn't help matters.

It's too bad DC couldn't make the Humanoids venture work. I'm out of touch as far as how they marketed the books-- I only make it to the comic shop once every two or three months-- but I do skim a few comic websites & message boards a couple of times a week and I don't recall any buzz about them.

I might not have even known that they were re-issuing "the Incal" if I hadn't picked up a copy off of the slush pile at work (I have a newspaper job and I sit next to the features section-- they receive a steady stream of all kinds of promotional materials, so I suppose that may be taken as evidence of an effort to promote the books, since they bothered to send free copies to a newspaper.)

I was completely turned off by the re-coloring and I decided I wasn't going to be buying any others since it was given the bad photoshop texture-and-gradient treatment that most American comics suffer from. If it was standard procedure to work over the other titles in the same way-- I'm guessing in order to make the comics more palatable to the "kids" (U.S. audience)-- then maybe it's all for the best. Someone else might take the opportunity to do things right and not deface the artwork!

As to why comics aren't respected here-- who knows? Can Wertham still be blamed 50 years after the fact? Maybe it's even more tragic than that, taking into account that the medium of Comics-- represented by a few generations of professionals and fans-- hasn't been able to clearly make a case for itself as a respectable and/or mature art form in the time since.

It sure doesn't help that the largest publishers essentially publish only one genre and that genre is perceived as having been developed for juveniles from its inception. It doesn't help when the publishers play to the stereotype with the product and/or with their manner of promoting of the product. It doesn't help that far too many of the creators speak disrespectfully of their own profession.

Eh, maybe I should have stopped at "who knows?" I'm not of the profession nor have I been a diligent student of the business side of comics; I just know what I know from readin' it on the web! And that may be a bad place to gather samples from, after all.

Maybe I'll just start learning French and then I can just hunker down with my Moebius and Bilal, etc. and I won't have to worry about those stinkin' American comics no more!

Jeff D - dont get me wrong there are dozens of comics from Dc and Marvel that I love..its just too bad we lost an outlet for some of the european stuff!

John V– I didn't mean to come across so mean & cranky-- I should've thrown a smiley in at the end of that last remark, or possibly I should have not made it at all.

Of course, you're right-- it is too bad that, for whatever reason, those books are now off the menu.

Some good news: Rebellion will still reprint the 2000AD books for a north american audience...