Euro comics appreciation thread

Fysh · 03-10-2011 3:43pm #1

I've noticed that I've been mostly skewing towards indie comics, particularly european comics, for the last few years. Unfortunately for me, most online comics discussion is heavily skewed toward the American spandex-clad side of things, so I thought it'd be good to have a dedicated Euro comics thread for discussing reading lists, what's new, what publishers to check out, and so on.

To get things rolling, I figured I'd start with the publishers I know about. I'm sure there are plenty I'm missing, but I'd prefer to build up the list over time than spend hours on a futile search for a comprehensive & complete list.

Of the bunch, Cinebook are currently my favourite for two reasons. One is that they're been doing a great job with their translations, with something like 6 series that I'm regularly picking up (including three that are published in a gorgeous oversize format). The other reason is that if you catch them at a con, you can get some great deals (5 for the price of 3 is what I usually go for).

I'm currently reading XIII (espionage shenanigans), Aldebaran/Betelgeuse (space-faring sci-fi), Crusades (historical fantasy), Green Manor (crime series with black humour), Long John Silver (a sequel to Treasure Island) and Orbital (more space-faring sci-fi).

I've also picked up a couple of volumes of The Bellybuttons and Melusine, which are kid-friendly humour series.

When it comes to Spanish comics, I'm a bit out of the loop. My favourite publisher is probably Ediciiones El Jueves, who publish the long-running El Jueves, a weekly political/satirical comic. They've got a huge back catalogue of stuff that they reprint as both affordable trades and lovely hardcovers. El Jueves was where I first saw Jordi Bernet's work, not to mention Ivá - possibly the only cartoonist to come close to Bill Watterson in terms of sheer achievement in the form as far as I'm concerned. His Historias de la puta mili are fascinating and hilarious as a description of how Spanish culture viewed the military service, though I prefer Makinavaja, which is the story of a gangster and his mates as they hang out in their local bar and make a living robbing banks and doing whatever jobs come up. The drawing looks crude at first, but there's some excellent cartooning in there, and I love the way that the strips are all so dialogue-heavy - it has the same kind of proper back-and-forth dialogue (with accents and slang that sound authentic rather than contrived) of the sort that Calvin & Hobbes is rife with.

The other big comic publisher in Spain that I know of is Glenát, but I don't really know much about what they publish. I've picked up the odd thing by them, most recently a comic called Mia, which was a weird story about bulimia and kidnapping with lovely art. Ediciones La Cupula seem to put out a fair bit too, though from what I can gather they're dedicated to underground/porn comics and translations of American material. (They're the crowd who until recently published Kiss Comix, about which Rich wrote this story.

Moving onto the franco-belgian stuff, you've got the likes of Humanoids (Incal, Nikopol Trilogy, Metabarons, not to mention the Metal Hurlant anthology) and L'Association (Marjane Satrapi, David B, Lewis Trondheim, etc). Their material is high-profile enough that it's been repeatedly translated and reprinted in English, though I've found it's sometimes easier (and cheaper) to pick up a Spanish-language reprint than an English one, which is a bit tedious but not entirely surprising given the superhero focus that so much of the US comics industry has. The Spanish reprints usually don't faff about with the absurdly small page sizes on those reprints either, which I recall being a serious source of frustration for folks picking up the DC/Humanoids reprints. Also worthy of note are NBM/Comicslit, who published Metronome a while back as well as the Miss Don't Touch Me series. Unless I'm mistaken, they also do a healthy sideline of smut (as, it seems, do a lot of European comics publishers....).

I'm keen to find out more about Avé because of their digital push - I tend to prefer paper comics, but given how frustrating it can be to get affordable copies of some comics I'm delighted to have the option.

I know very little about Northern European comics, other than the existence of the likes of Jason and the excellent Angst anthology. It's a pretty good start, though - I've read volumes 1 & 2, along with random bits and pieces of Jason's work as published by D&Q, and it's all been great.

When it comes to Italian comics, I also know very little. I know of Sergio Bonelli Editore because they're the original publishers of Dampyr, a long-running vampire comic that got translated into English by IDW for about 8 volumes. They're probably better known as the original home of Dylan Dog, though. The only other publisher I know of is Magic Press, who (as I eventually found out through using judicious application of Google) originally published Bone Rest: A World's End, the comic that first introduced the world to Giuseppe Camuncoli. (Frustratingly, it would also turn out that there was no more Bone Rest to be had beyond the 8 issues that were published in English by Image, but that's another story).

I've not mentioned any UK stuff because, well, that's always seemed a separate category to me. I suppose we can throw it in here if people want, but I'm guessing it'll be a mixture of small press/indie stuff and 2000AD/Titan Books/Self-Made Hero publications.

Anyway, that's enough for one post. What other publishers should I be keeping track of

Fysh · 03-10-2011 3:56pm

I've just stumbled across another link that may be handy (when viewed with Google Chrome, at least) - BDGest.com - claiming to be the biggest French comics site, it seems to have a decent amount of information about upcoming releases as well as reviews and some sort of comics collection management software.

Euro comics appreciation thread

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