European comic books

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Prowler
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European comic books

Postby Prowler » 2018-11-13, 22:34

Who else here grew up with European comic book series?

Like a large amount of Europeans, I grew up with Tintin and Astérix. But I also grew up with some Lucky Luke, Spirou et Fantasio and Marsupilami. Haven't read Corto Maltese, Thorgal, Michel Valliant, Blake and Mortimer, etc. yet.

Tintin is overall my favourite. But Astérix can be very fun, too. It's more laid-back and kid friendly than Tintin, so maybe that's why I preferred it when I was younger.

Apparently Astérix is the highest selling European comic book series of all time, but I notice most people outside of Europe are more well-acquainted with Tintin. Which I found a bit surprising since Tintin ended in 1974 already and Astérix, I believe, is still on-going, and not to mention it had some live action movies this century while Tintin only had an animated movie some years ago.

I notice Spirou is not known by even many Europeans. Or they'll just recognise the name and Marsupilami's design but never read the books. Marsupilami did have a cartoon series when I was a kid, though. I'd say Lucky Luke is the most well-known European comic book series after Astérix and Tintin; at least where I live. In other countries it might be different.

Btw, DIsney comics don't apply here. For one thing, they're not originally European, despite having become way more popular here than in USA. Second, a lot of the popular stories weren't written in Europe either but in USA or Brazil.

What about you? What European comic book series did you grew up with? And which ones do you like?

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Re: European comic books

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-14, 1:46

Prowler wrote:Like a large amount of Europeans, I grew up with Tintin and Astérix.

I'm not European, but I did, too, especially Asterix. These were mostly books in English my parents bought me from India, but I also have one issue in German (from Frankfurt), plus two issues in Dutch (from Amsterdam) that I already had in English. I also borrowed two more in Catalan (from Barcelona) that I also had in English from a friend.
But I also grew up with some Lucky Luke, Spirou et Fantasio and Marsupilami.

I don't really know any of those except that the above-mentioned friend once also let me borrow an issue of Marsupilami in Catalan and one day when I was in high school, my French teacher put on a very long Lucky Luke cartoon video called "La Ballade des Daltons." The name Spirou at least sounds vaguely familiar (I don't think I've ever heard of Fantasio...or maybe I've seen it in passing somewhere. Definitely not with Spirou, though).
Haven't read Corto Maltese, Thorgal, Michel Valliant, Blake and Mortimer, etc. yet.

Never heard of any of these except that the name "Blake and Mortimer" sounds familiar to me for some reason.
Tintin is overall my favourite. But Astérix can be very fun, too. It's more laid-back and kid friendly than Tintin, so maybe that's why I preferred it when I was younger.

Both of these are extremely popular with Indian middle-class men, probably because in India, they are (or at least used to be) fairly cheap and are also translated into English by native speakers of English (from Britain. Usually, things in India are translated into English by other Indians who, as you'd probably expect, do not speak English natively and throw in lots of constructions that don't exist among native speakers). My dad and brother don't seem to care much for Tintin for some reason; it could be that they're just really picky about their detective stories (my dad loves Sherlock Holmes but not this). Tintin definitely took a backseat to Asterix in my life.
Apparently Astérix is the highest selling European comic book series of all time, but I notice most people outside of Europe are more well-acquainted with Tintin. Which I found a bit surprising since Tintin ended in 1974 already and Astérix, I believe, is still on-going, and not to mention it had some live action movies this century while Tintin only had an animated movie some years ago.

I have no idea what the fuck Uderzo was thinking. I don't even want to know what's being done with Asterix now.

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Re: European comic books

Postby linguoboy » 2018-11-28, 17:01

Astérix was known to the kids who took French when I was growing up. One of the little magazines they used in class used to serialise it. I was in college before I read any issues or met anyone who'd read them growing up. One of these was my college roommate, who was the first American monoglot I'd met who knew them. He was also into Milo Manara and comics in general; he introduced me to Neil Gaiman and Bill Willingham, among others.

In Germany I discovered Ralf König and Walter Moers. I was a real fan of König and read everything I could find from him for many years until his misogyny grew too much for me. Some years after that, my friend Mark tried to introduce me to some French authors like Christin and Bilal, but I never got into them.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: European comic books

Postby vijayjohn » 2021-03-29, 22:35

linguoboy wrote:Astérix was known to the kids who took French when I was growing up.

We had a few issues of it in French class when I was in seventh and eighth grade. That's one of the few times I've actually seen it in the original French. (In fact, I think the only other place I've seen it in French is at my childhood friend's house).


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