European Comics

[Billy Batson]

Yes, I've heard this too. Maybe Isabelle Giraud doesn't realise that English language editions would sell in more places besides the US? Like all Commonwealth countries, Scandinavia, etc.?

Actually Scandinavia has gotten Moebius translated, though in their own languages.

[Max Aero]

Yes, I've heard this too. Maybe Isabelle Giraud doesn't realise that English language editions would sell in more places besides the US? Like all Commonwealth countries, Scandinavia, etc.? It's particularly galling as the translations already exist - Lofficier did them for the Epic editions in the '80s. All they need to do is reissue them in hardcover. There is an established publisher, Humanoids, who is just salivating at the prospect. I just don't understand what the issue is here.

There was some falling out, lawsuits with the Girauds and Lofficier but I have no idea what about. There's some old TCJ articles about it somewhere though. And in his later years, the couple were more concerned with his health and quality control surrounding his work and how it was presented. So this could be part of it. I'm sure there's more - there was a Facebook petition in 2012-2013 that eventually reached Isabelle, and was shut down as a result although the admin remains positive (its kind of strange).
I'm glad they controlled the rights to most of his work though. It's not a perfect situation but it is what it is. I wouldn't buy a pillow-shaded, awful re-coloured edition of his work even if it was printed in English any day soon.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Speaking of shutting petitions down.

Anyone remember the Moebius Tumblr that got shut down recently? Shit was crazy and I think it had to do with some legal issues.

The Moebius thing has some thorny issues attached to it. But I fucking want that Moebius Box-set, English or not.

[maeda]

maybe a stupid question, but shouldn't this thread be somewhere in the 'comic' section of the board? not sure where exactly, but i found it by accident

[Billy Batson]

maybe a stupid question, but shouldn't this thread be somewhere in the 'comic' section of the board? not sure where exactly, but i found it by accident

Independents boards, I guess, along with the manga thread.

[Kid A]

I was just following the manga thread, which was here.

Tbh, there should probably be an international comics subform.

[CliffHanger2]

I bought Moebius Long Tomorrow off of Amazon U.K. It was in German I didn't care because i have one in English it's just so beat up though.

[pearlofthepacific]

I've been reading Weapons of Mass Diplomacy (original title Quai d'Orsay, Abel Lanzac & Christophe Blain)...there's a chunk of it on Words without Borders
http://wordswithoutborders.org/graph...mass-diplomacy.

It's very funny, and I like Blain's art here maybe even more than in Isaac the Pirate.

[Ghostwise]

Being the Europhile that I am, I wanted to discuss the more popular comic book industry in Europe, and hopefully get some recommendations.

There's a UK publisher called Cinebook with a lot of solid translations of Francophone classics.

I've ran into them while presenting material such as Yoko Tsuno (old-school cerebral adventure with a strong sci-fi flair) or XIII (action-adventure political-ish thriller), though they've also got more recent stuff like the Antares Cycle (visionary far future sci-fi) or Alone (unusual post-apocalypse). Or the classic Valerian.

I thought that the production was solid and the translation was fairly good, though some of the books they picked are downright dated (say, Billy & Buddy).

[Kid A]

There's a UK publisher called Cinebook with a lot of solid translations of Francophone classics.

I've ran into them while presenting material such as Yoko Tsuno (old-school cerebral adventure with a strong sci-fi flair) or XIII (action-adventure political-ish thriller), though they've also got more recent stuff like the Antares Cycle (visionary far future sci-fi) or Alone (unusual post-apocalypse). Or the classic Valerian.

I thought that the production was solid and the translation was fairly good, though some of the books they picked are downright dated (say, Billy & Buddy).

Thanks for this post, all of these sound really good. I've heard of Valerian; will probably start there.

[Ghostwise]

Thanks for this post, all of these sound really good. I've heard of Valerian; will probably start there.

It's such a classic that I have no idea how it reads nowadays. It was genre-defining, especially since there was so little sci-fi material back then.

[Dizzy D]

It's such a classic that I have no idea how it reads nowadays. It was genre-defining, especially since there was so little sci-fi material back then.

It takes a few issues to get going though. Not that the first issues are bad, but around issue 6 it gets really good.

[Ghostwise]

It takes a few issues to get going though. Not that the first issues are bad, but around issue 6 it gets really good.

The same was true of Yoko Tsuno and other late 1960s/early 1970s comics with sci-fi/fantasy elements. I'd imagine that there was a tipping point where the implicit references stop being old comics for children and classic sci-fi (in Valerian's case, Anderson's The Time Patrol), and there is enough material for Franco-Belgian genre comics to become their own thing and/or draw from then-modern sci-fi novels.

[maeda]

I must recommend XIII, brilliant comic

[Ghostwise]

I must recommend XIII, brilliant comic

Even better, it has Jones.