Bande Dessinée: Comics & Graphic Novels

Victor Alfred Lundy, artist. *Notre Dame, Paris.* 1923. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

It is important to note that comics (popularly known as les BDs, "lay bay day") and the comic industries in Belgium and France are often fused together as "la bande dessinée Franco-Belge" or Franco-Belgian. Since the 1940s Francophone Belgium led the way in the comics industry. For example, take familiar Belgian titles such as Tintin (created in 1929 by George Remi, known as Hergé) or The Smurfs ("Les Schtroumpfs", created in 1958 by Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo) as proof. Comics in France and Belgium hold a more venerated position than they do in the United States. Also called the "Ninth Art" (Le Neuvième Art or 9ème Art), they may not be on par with the Classics such as Honoré de Balzac or Victor Hugo, but comic artists are slowly being elevated to the ranks of high art. In fact, in February of 2022 Belgium released a new Belgian passport that honors comic artists, Hergé and Peyo, as well as others such as Morris (Maurice De Bevere). They carefully avoided the more controversial comic titles such as Tintin in the Congo, which reinforces racist stereotypes. In France, cultural institutions like the Louvre have had exhibits of comic artists, and unlike America, where you need to find a specialty store for comics, if you go into a French or Belgian bookstore you will find a large section devoted to BDs and it will be full of eager readers. They will likely have American sections as well as a Japanese Manga section. They will also have a section for "les Auteurs" who are especially revered after a career in their artform, and are therefore singled out by name. Thousands of albums (there is a standardized hardcopy format for most BDs) are produced each year, and the second largest comics festival in Europe is held in Angoulême, France (Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême, or FIBD External). They also have a museum devoted to comics called La Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image External located in the same area as the festival—the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Belgium also has a museum devoted to the "Neuvième Art", Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée—Musée Bruxelles External.

Graphic novels (roman graphique) and comics (bande dessinée) are often blurred in the popular imagination. The terms graphic artist, comic artist and graphic novelist are used interchangeably by many. In general graphic novels are longer than bande dessinée and they usually have a narrative that runs through the entirety of the publication rather than BDs, which often have shorter narratives that continue on without clear beginnings and ends. Because the story doesn't have to be broken up into serials like a comic book, graphic novels can sometimes cover more complex content and for that reason they tend to have a reputation as more serious, and well, graphic. But the truth is, content can be quite profound in BDs as well, it is just a question of presentation. Although it is said that graphic novels predate comics, they have both had cycles of popularity in different countries over the centuries. Graphic novels saw a resurgence in popularity with authors such as Neil Gaiman (English) and currently they both thrive in tandem. Many famous cartoonists are also film directors including Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Riad Satouff (The Arab of the Future), Joann Sfar (The Cat of the Rabbi). Recent controversies have found the French questioning the limits of what constitutes freedom of expression. French cartoonist Bastien Vivès (Petit Paul) has come under increased scrutiny as the public voices concern and disgust over his drawings that critics say normalize or even endorse both incest and pedophilia. The influence of comics on film is undisputed and can even be seen in popular American films. Many fans see similarities from the popular comic series Valérian and the City of a Thousand Planets (originally a graphic novel by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claud Mézières and later a film adaptation) and George Lucas' epic saga, Star Wars.

As voices emerge from the Francophone world and a more diverse array of authors and artists are published, the comics scene has added new perspectives next to the classics of Bécassine (created in 1905 by Émile-Joseph-Porphyre Pinchon and Jacqueline Rivière), Lucky Luke (created in 1946 by Morris), and Astérix (created in 1959 by René Goscinny,). Riad Sattouf for example, is a cartoonist with a Syrian background who is also a film director and author of a graphic memoir that has been translated into a dozen languages so far. There has been an outcry in the comics industry for greater representation of women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and people of color, and progress is slowly being made to increase the visibility of these artists. This increased awareness, along with a genuine interest in the work of female comic artists, and artists of color, indicates that fresh material will continue to be infused into the booming genre. The youth of France in particular seem eager to see a diversity of viewpoints. Many BDs tackle serious subjects much like the graphic novel. For example, Algues vertes (written and illustrated by Inès Léraud and Pierre van Hove) brings attention to the serious environmental damage on Breton's coastline from pollution. Cher pays de notre enfance (written by Étienne Davodeau and Benoît Collombat) bring light to the dark sides of politics during the Fifth Republic. While not detracting from the important role of independent sellers and smaller art-house production, three quarters of the market is dominated by five major publishing houses. As stated in Comics in French, these major publishers are: Groupe Média Participations (which includes Dargaud and Dupuis as well as Lombard, Lucky Comics, Blake et Mortimer and Kana); Groupe Glénat (which includes Vents d'Ouest); Delcourt (which includes Tonkam); Groupe Flammarion (which includes Casterman, Sakka, Jungle, Fluide Glacial and J'ai Lu) and Groupe MC Productions (which includes Soleil). As to the smaller independent publishers such as Frémok, Cornélius, Ego Comme X or Les Requins Marteaux, they share the remaining quarter of BD sales. (p. 224) Some of the classic BDs are digitized on Gallica. External. This bibliography will provide a selection of popular and new authors as well as a few general resources about the evolving role of bande dessinée in France and the Francophone world. Titles in French as well as English translation are included and a catalog search under the author's name will bring up publications in both languages that are held in the Library.

For a bibliography on graphic novels about the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, see the guide, France in WWII: The French Resistance, Romans Graphiques. A recent publication on French bande dessinée, Ninth Art: Bande dessinée, Books and the Gentrification of Mass Culture, 1964-1975 External, is available online via select institutions and onsite at the Library of Congress. The author, Sylvain Lesage, is associate professor in history at the University of Lille, and editor-in-chief of the journal Neuvième Art, published by the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée in Angoulême.

Angoulême Prize-Winning BDs

Over the years since its inception, the Festival at Angoulême has awarded a variety of prizes that have shifted and altered. The first prizes were awarded in 1976, which was the third Festival. During the 1980s they called the prizes "Alfreds" and later "Alph-Arts" in nods to popular characters and albums. Prizes were added in 2004 (including best artwork, "dessin", best script, "scénario" and best for various age categories) and then removed in 2007 to be replaced with six "Essentiels d'Angoulême" which included a Prix du meilleur album "best album", Fauve d'Or. As Laurence Grove points out in his comprehensive study, Comics in French: The European Band Dessinée in Context (2013), factors for consideration, as with many accolades in the literary world, seemed to change over time. The Festival today is more popular than ever and reflects new trends and developments. For example, there is an entire space dedicated to manga. The Quartier Manga External boasts "The whole world of manga in a space dedicated to popular Asian cultures. Stands, entertainment, goodies, meetings, signings, performances, food". Below are the winners of the Prix du meilleur album from 2001- Present. Keep in mind that some of these prizes were awarded to non-French recipients (Shaun Tan, for example is Australian). The French translations are posted below. Occasionally dates of publication and award are skewed.

2001-René Pétillon, L'Enquête corse External (Paris: Albin Michel)
2002- Christophe Blain, Isaac le pirate: Les Amériques (Paris: Dargaud)
2003- Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan (Paris: Delcourt)
2004- Manu Larcenet, Le Combat ordinaire (Paris: Dargaud)
2005- Marjane Satrapi, Poulet aux prunes (Paris: L'Association)
2006- Gipi, Notes pour une histoire de guerre External (Arles: Actes Sud)
2007- Shigeru Mizuki, NonNonBâ (Paris, Cornélius)
2008- Shaun Tan, Là où vont nos pères (Paris: Dargaud)
2009- Winshluss, Pinocchio (Albi: Les Requins Marteaux)
2010- Riad Sattouf, Pascal Brutal External (Fluide Glacial-Audie)
2011- Manuele Fior, Cinq mille kilomètres par seconde External (Atrabile)
2012- Guy Delisle, Chroniques de Jérusalem External (Delcourt)
2013- Christophe Blain and Abel Lanzac, Quai d'Orsay External (Delcourt)
2014- Alfred, Come Prima External (Delcourt)
2015- Riad Sattouf, L'arabe du futur External (Allary)
2016- Richard McGuire, Ici External(Gallimard)
2017- Éric Lambé and Philippe de Pierpont, Paysage après la bataille External (Actes Sud BD/Frémok)
2018- Jérémie Moreau, La Saga de Grimr External (Delcourt)
2019- Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters External (Fantagraphics)
2020- Florent Grouazel and Younn Locard, Révolution, vol.1 Liberté External (Actes Sud/ Édition de l'An 2)
2021- Landis Blair and David L. Carlson, L'Accident de chasse External (Éditions Sonatine)
2022- Marcello Quintanilha, Écoute, jolie Marcia External (Éditions çà et là)

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Classic & Contemporary Graphic Novels

Algues vertes : l'histoire interdite by Inès Léraud, illustrations, Pierre Van Hove
ISBN: 9782413010364
Published/Created: 2019
No fewer than three men and 40 animals were found dead on the beaches of Brittany. The identity of the killer is an open secret: green algae. Half a century of silence, samples that disappear in laboratories, bodies buried before being autopsied, games of influence, pressures and a leaden quiet. The plot is set on the Breton coast and has been played out for decades. Inès Léraud and Pierre Van Hove are proposing an unprecedented investigation, involving whistleblowers, scientists, farmers and politicians. More than a BD or graphic novel this is an educational treatise and a call to action for the environment and the animals and humans who depend upon it for survival. Journalist and cartoonist Pierre Van Hove adapted a report on green algae into this format (an extract of which was published in the Revue Dessinée in autumn 2017) . The full version was released in 2019 under the title Algues vertes, l'histoire interdite, and details the role of Breton's intensive agriculture (in particular pig farms which produce slurry, which causes these algae to proliferate). A whole cohort of local elected officials – from the left, as well as from the right – held in silence by the powerful agricultural unions and above all by the agro-food lobbies. Journalist and researcher Inès Léraud hopes this format will reach more people. She continues her work on the environment, the problems with the food industry and in 2021 she co-founder and sponsored a regional bilingual online investigative media called Splann!
Algériennes by Swann Meralli; Deloupy; Ivanka Hahnenberger (Translator)
Call Number: PN6747.M47 A4413 2020
ISBN: 9780271086231
Published/Created: 2020
The Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), also known as the Algerian Revolution, was a messy and vicious conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. Waged primarily in Algeria, it severely traumatized citizens on both sides of the Mediterranean, and it continues to have a troubled legacy to this day. Inspired by real events, this poignantly narrated and beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the story of this confrontation through female protagonists. Algériennes follows the investigative efforts of Beatrice, the daughter of a French-Algerian War veteran. Beatrice's father was never able to talk about what he had experienced during the war. Wanting to know more about this part of her family's history, Beatrice sets off on a voyage of discovery that eventually leads her to Algiers. Along the way, she meets women who recount their experiences during the war. Saïda was a child who made a harrowing escape with her family to France, only to end up in an internment camp. Djamila was a mujahidate rebel who fought alongside the men and witnessed firsthand the barbarity of war. Bernadette was a French woman who refused to leave Algeria after the conflict ended and was ostracized as a pied-noir. Malika was a terrorist bomber fighting on the side of the resistance. Over the course of the narrative, their stories intersect and complete one another, resulting in a powerful and moving picture of what both women and men lived through during the Algerian Revolution—and a clearer understanding of why these events have been, for so many, nearly impossible to discuss. For French edition do an author search. [Algériennes]
The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf
Call Number: NC1499.S337 A2 2015
ISBN: 9781627793445
Published/Created: 2015
The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators—Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father. The ultimate outsider, Riad, has flowing blond hair. In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria—but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace. Brimming with life and dark humor, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, and also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus and Persepolis.
The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi (Artist); Kim Thompson (Editor)
Call Number: PN6747.T38 D4613 2011
ISBN: 9781606994351
Published/Created: 2011
In its ongoing quest to showcase Jacques Tardi's wide range, Fantagraphics is publishing one of his earliest and most distinctive graphic novels: a satirical, Jules Verne-esque "retro-sci-fi" yarn. In 1899, a ship navigating the Arctic Ocean comes across a stunning sight: a ghostly, abandoned vessel perched high atop an iceberg. Soon, the sailors' own ship is dispatched via a mysterious explosion. Enter Jérôme Plumier, whose search for his missing uncle, the inventor Louis-Ferdinand Chapoutier, brings him into contact with the sinister, frigid forces behind this—and soon he, too, is headed towards the North Pole, where he will contend with mad scientists, monsters of the deep, and futuristic submarines and flying machines. Told with brio in hilarious slabs of vintage purple prose, The Arctic Marauder finds Tardi in fantastical mode and is a keystone of his oeuvre. For French edition do an author search. [Démon des glaces]
Asterix and the Falling Sky by René Goscinny; Albert Uderzo (illustrator)
Call Number: PN6748.A8 U34313 2005
ISBN: 0752873016
Published/Created: 2005
René Goscinny was born in 1926 and died in1977. Along with famous comic artist Albert Uderzo, Goscinny was the French comic artist responsible for the Astérix comic book series—maybe the most well-known series to an American audience. He also collaborated with the Belgian cartoonist Morris to create the comic Lucky Luke about a gun-toting character from the American West. He also wrote the children's series, Le Petit Nicolas. Goscinny was born in Paris to Jewish immigrants from Poland but he spent his childhood in Argentina. He collaborated with figures such as Albert Uderzo, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Marcel Gotlib and Jean Tabary. In this particular edition of Astérix, which has been translated, the Gauls have only one fear: that the sky may fall on their heads tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, says Chief Vitalstatistix. Or does it? It looks as if it's come at last for Asterix, Obelix and the other villagers. And some surprising new characters fall along with the sky. Our friends soon find themselves in the middle of a space race. For French edition do an author search. [Ciel lui tombe sur la tête]
Babar and Zephir by Jean De Brunhoff; Merle Haas (Translator)
Call Number: 0394805798
ISBN: 0394805798
Published/Created: 2002
In the most fantastical of the classic Babar stories, we follow Zephir, Babar's monkey friend, home on school holiday. The monkey princess, Isabelle, has been kidnapped by the horned monster Polomoche, and everyone is very worried. But Zephir, with the help of a tiny mermaid named Eleanore, is certain that he can save the princess himself. For French edition do an author search. [Vacances de Zéphir]
Blacksad: Amarillo by Juan Díaz Canales; Juanjo Guarnido (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6777.D53 B5713 2014
ISBN: 9781616555252
Published/Created: 2014
Blacksad was created by two Spanish authors but it is in French and intended for French readers. "Noir", the color black in French, is also a term used since the 1940s in cinema. It is now applied to works with a dark or mysterious atmosphere. In this particular adventure, feline detective John Blacksad, lands a side job driving a rich Texan's Cadillac across 1950's America, he thinks it will provide him with a well-earned rest. Before long, however, the car is stolen and Blacksad finds himself caught up in another murder mystery. Roughneck bikers, a shifty lawyer, a down-and-out Beat generation writer and some sinister circus folk form part of this troubled journey. A tightly-written story and sumptuous artwork form another instantly appealing instalment, a twisted anthropomorphic take on the great American road trip. While full of the classic detective genre themes these stories also address serious topics such as racism. (see "Somewhere in the Shadows", Arctic Nation", "Red Soul", Silent Hell" and "They All Fall Down").
Blanc autour by Wilfrid Lupano and Stéphane Fert
ISBN: 9782505082460
Published/Created: 2020
The illustrations of Stéphane Fert render beautifully this scenario of Wilfrid Lupano (Les Vieux Fourneaux), which was inspired by real facts to tell this story of solidarity and sorority from the point of view of black students in 1832, Canterbury. In this small Connecticut town, teacher Prudence Crandall runs a school for girls. One day, she welcomes a young black girl, Sarah, into her classroom. The local white population immediately sees this "exception" as a threat. Although slavery is no longer practiced in most northern states, white America remains haunted by the specter of Nat Turner: a year earlier, in Virginia, this black slave, who could read and write, headed a bloody revolt. For the people of Canterbury, education now rhymes with insurrection. They threaten to take their daughters out of school if young Sarah remains admitted. Prudence Crandall takes them at their word and the school becomes the first school for black girls in the United States, thirty years before the abolition of slavery. Nestled in the heart of an ultra-hostile community, a few young black girls who have come from all over to study will become aware in spite of themselves of the danger they embody and the hatred they arouse when they have the nerve to want to rise above their condition. The counterattack will be led by Judge Judson, who will take the case to the Connecticut courts. Prudence Crandall, accused of having violated the law, will be imprisoned.
Brazen by Pénélope Bagieu
Call Number: PN6747.B34 C8513 2018
ISBN: 9781626728691
Published/Created: 2018
2019 Eisner Award Winner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material. Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit. With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.This title has Common Core connections. Pénélope Bagieu is a French illustrator and comic designer. She is best known for her blog BDs My Quite Fascinating Life and Les Culottées. Les Culottées was compiled and released in English as the graphic novel Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, which received widespread recognition.
Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle; Helge Dascher (Translator)
Call Number: PN6790.B93 C4713 2008
ISBN: 9781897299500
Published/Created: 2008
A timely and incisive portrait of a country on the tipping point. After developing his acclaimed style of firsthand reporting with his bestselling graphic novels Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, Guy Delisle is back with The Burma Chronicles. In this country notorious for its use of concealment and isolation as social control—where scissors-wielding censors monitor the papers, the de facto leader of the opposition has been under decade-long house arrest, insurgent-controlled regions are effectively cut off from the world, and rumor is the most reliable source of current information—he turns his gaze to the everyday for a sense of the big picture. Delisle's deft and recognizable renderings take note of almsgiving rituals, daylong power outages, and rampant heroin use in outlying regions, in this place where catastrophic mismanagement and ironhanded rule come up against profound resilience of spirit, expatriate life ambles along, and nongovernmental organizations struggle with the risk of co-option by the military junta. The Burma Chronicles is drawn with a minimal line, and interspersed with wordless vignettes and moments of Delisle's distinctive slapstick humor. For French edition do an author search. [Chroniques birmanes]
Cas de Force Majeure : Histoires de Violences Policières ordinaire by Rémédium (alias)
ISBN: 9782234092990
Published/Created: 2022
Christophe Tardieux uses simple text and drawings to recount dramatic events. By illustrating individual accounts of police violence in France with his powerful drawings and portraits, he denounces the impunity of the police. By telling the stories of 20 victims of racial, social and religious discrimination and abuse of power Rémédium opens our eyes to the verbal and physical aggression that operates in French society.
Catherine's War by Julia Billet; Claire Fauvel (Illustrator); Ivanka Hahnenberger (Translator)
Call Number: PZ7.7.B527 Cat 2020
ISBN: 9780062915603
Published/Created: 2020
A magnificent narrative inspired by a true survival story that asks universal questions about a young girl's coming of age story, her identity, her passions, and her first loves. At the Sèvres Children's Home outside Paris, Rachel Cohen has discovered her passion--photography. Although she hasn't heard from her parents in months, she loves the people at her school, adores capturing what she sees in pictures, and tries not to worry too much about Hitler's war. But as France buckles under the Nazi regime, danger closes in, and Rachel must change her name and go into hiding. As Catherine Colin, Rachel Cohen is faced with leaving the Sèvres Home--and the friends she made there--behind. But with her beautiful camera, Catherine possesses an object with the power to remember. For the rest of the war, Catherine bears witness to her own journey, and to the countless heroes whose courage and generosity saved the lives of many, including her own. Based on the author's mother's own experiences as a hidden child in France during World War II, Catherine's War is one of the most accessible historical graphic novels featuring a powerful girl since Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi--perfect for fans of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Anne Frank, or Helen Keller. Includes a map and photographs of the real Catherine and her wartime experiences, as well as an interview with author Julia Billet. "Many of the settings are beautifully detailed, and the characters undeniably expressive. Catherine's ability to find beauty in the world makes for a forward-looking read."
Chaos by Mœbius
Call Number: NC980.5.M63 A4 1991
Published/Created: 1991
French artist and cartoonist Jean Giraud (pseudonym Moebius) was born in 1938 and died in 2012. He was a true master and has been called the most influential cartoon artist since Hergé. His famous works include the series Blueberry, Arzach and The Incal. He wrote in the Franco-Belgian tradition in the genres of science fiction and fantasy but he did not limit his artistic style to those who came before him. He is known and respected world-wide, and contributed to concept designs for fantasy films. He was held in high esteem by figures such as Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki. In one foray into American comics he drew the illustrations for a two-issue Silver Surfer miniseries written by Stan Lee (1988). He is a legend among comic artist with more work than can be discussed. Chaos is an attempt to showcase his imagination and diverse artistic styles to the world in one volume.
Cher pays de notre enfance : enquête sur les années de plomb de la Ve République by Étienne Davodeau
ISBN: 9782754810852
Published/Created: 2015
Étienne Davodeau, born in 1965 is a comic book author. Benoît Collombat, born in 1970 is a senior reporter at France Inter. They grew up under the Fifth Republic founded by General de Gaulle, in a still prosperous country, but already subject to "crisis". Italy and Germany are not the only nations to suffer political violence. Under the presidencies of Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing, the country is also experiencing real “years of lead” in the French style. In those years, we kill a too troublesome judge. Banks are robbed to finance election campaigns. The assassination of a minister is disguised as suicide. Employers' militias were created from scratch to break strikes. We can no longer count the abuses of the Civic Action Service (the SAC), the militia of the Gaullist party, then all-powerful. This political violence, a persistent stain in the DNA of this breathless Fifth Republic, is largely unknown today. By traveling the country to meet direct witnesses to the events of that time - deputies, journalists, trade unionists, magistrates, police officers, or even former mobsters -, by carrying out an in-depth investigation, Étienne Davodeau and Benoît Collombat reveal to us the staggering reverse side of the decor of what remains, despite everything, the dear land of their childhood.
The Comics of Hergé by Joe Sutliff Sanders (Editor)
Call Number: NC1559.H47 C66 2016
ISBN: 9781496807267
Published/Created: 2016
As the creator of Tintin, Hergé (1907-1983) remains one of the most important and influential figures in the history of comics. When Hergé, born Georges Prosper Remi in Belgium, emerged from the controversy surrounding his actions after World War II, his most famous work leapt to international fame and set the standard for European comics. While his style popularized what became known as the "clear line" in cartooning, this edited volume shows how his life and art turned out much more complicated than his method. The book opens with Hergé's aesthetic techniques, including analyses of his efforts to comprehend and represent absence and the rhythm of mundaneness between panels of action. Broad views of his career describe how Hergé navigated changing ideas of air travel, while precise accounts of his life during Nazi occupation explain how the demands of the occupied press transformed his understanding of what a comics page could do. The next section considers a subject with which Hergé was himself consumed: the fraught lines between high and low art. By reading the late masterpieces of the Tintin series, these chapters situate his artistic legacy. A final section considers how the clear line style has been reinterpreted around the world, from contemporary Francophone writers to a Chinese American cartoonist and on to Turkey, where Tintin has been reinvented into something meaningful to an audience Hergé probably never anticipated. Despite the attention already devoted to Hergé, no multi-author critical treatment of his work exists in English, the majority of the scholarship being in French. With contributors from five continents drawing on a variety of critical methods, this volume's range will shape the study of Hergé for many years to come.
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Call Number: PN6747.S245 P4713 2007
ISBN: 9780375714832
Published/Created: 2007
Iranian-born French cartoonist Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis has been compared to Art Spiegelman's Maus. She later adapted her own works into a film that was nominated for an Academy Award (2008). Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir, Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up. Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom—Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today. For French edition do an author search. [Persepolis]
Corps Public by Mathilde Ramadier, Camille Ulrich
ISBN: 9782491241537
Published/Created: 2021
Written by Mathilde Ramadier and illustrated by Camille Ulrich, this BD examines the sexism that girls and women face in the world as well as the issues that come up in romantic relationships and life. It follows the daily life of Morgan from adolescence until the birth of her first child. The authors examine the issue of what it means to be in charge of one's own body and how society negotiates difficult choices around women's rights to control their bodies. Camille Ulrich is a young and upcoming French comic artist who is becoming increasingly well known.
Crime et châtiment by Bastien Loukia
ISBN: 9782848767376
Published/Created: 2019
Bastien Loukia is a painter, illustrator and comic book writer. He was born in Honfleur, France. He has been inspired by various artists and writers, notably French composer Erik Satie who was the subject of one of his other graphic novels. This is his most recent publication, an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. His dramatic and stark artistic style and creative interpretations have been recognized throughout France and Europe (particularly connected to Czech Republic). Audio version available see digital resources page. [Crime and Punishment]
Esther's notebooks by Riad Sattouf
Call Number: PN6747.S247 C3413 2022
Published/Created: 2022
From the author of The Arab of the Future, comes the first book in a bestselling series of graphic novels that follow the hilarious, heartbreaking, and all painfully true life of a real girl growing up in Paris. Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf has a chat with his friend's 10-year old daughter, Esther. She tells him about her life, her family, her school, her friends, her hopes, her dreams and her fears. And then he creates a one-page comic strip based on what she says. This book is a collection of 156 of those strips, comprising the first three volumes as they appeared in Europe, spanning Esther's life from age 10 to 12. Cahiers d'Esther translated from the French by Sam Taylor. First American edition.
Exquisite Corpse by Pénélope Bagieu; Pénélope Bagieu
Call Number: PN6747.B34 C3313 2015
ISBN: 9781626720824
Published/Created: 2015
Pénélope Bagieu is a French illustrator and comic designer. She is best known for her blog BDs My Quite Fascinating Life and Les Culottées. Les Culottées was compiled and released in English as the graphic novel Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World, which received widespread recognition. In this work, Zoe isn't exactly the intellectual type, which is why she doesn't recognize world-famous author Thomas Rocher when she stumbles into his apartment . . . and into his life. Zoe doesn't know Balzac from Batman, but she's going to have to wise up fast . . . because Rocher has a terrible secret, and now Zoe is sitting on the literary scandal of the century. [Cadavre exquis]
Femme Vie Liberté by Marjane Satrapi
Call Number: HQ1735.2 .F446 2023
ISBN: 9782378803780
Published/Created: 2023
On September 16, 2022, in Iran, Mahsa Amini succumbed to the blows of the morality police because she had not worn her veil "properly". Her death sparked a wave of protests across the country, which developed into an unprecedented feminist movement. Marjane Satrapi has brought together three specialists: Farid Vahid, political scientist, Jean-Pierre Perrin, reporter, Abbas Milani, historian, and seventeen of the most talented comic artists to tell the story of this major event for Iran, and for all of us.
Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds
Call Number: PN6737.S46 G46 2005
Published/Created: 2005
It a coincidence that Gemma Bovery has a name rather like Flaubert’s notorious heroine? Is it by chance that, like Madame Bovary, Gemma is bored, adulterous, and a bad credit risk? Is she inevitably doomed?
Gemma is the pretty second wife of Charlie Bovery, the reluctant stepmother of his children, and the bête noire of his ex-wife. A sudden windfall and Gemma’s distaste for London take them across the Channel to Normandy, where the charms of French country living soon wear off.
Gemma’s neighbor, the intellectual baker Joubert, is consumed by fascination for her. Denying voyeurism but nonetheless noting every change in the fit of Gemma’s jeans, every addition to her wardrobe, all of her love bites and lovers, Joubert——with the help of the heroine’s diaries——follows her path toward ruin. Adultery and its consequences. Disappointment and deception. Fat and slim. Then and now. Familiar ingredients of the novel are given new life in Gemma Bovery’s unique graphic form. Posy Simmonds is the author of several books for adults and children, including Lulu and the Flying Babies and Fred. Her weekly cartoon strip ran in The Guardian from 1977 to 1987. She lives in England. She won the Grand Prix at Angoulême Comics Festival in 2024, the first British winner of the top prize at this festival.
Il était une fois en France by Fabien Nury (scènario) Sylvain Vallée (dessin)
Call Number: PN6747.N87 Available Onsite via Stacks
Published/Created: 2019
Based on the true story of Joseph Joanovici, a Romanian Jew who immigrated to France in the 1920s and became one of the richest men in Europe as a scrap-metal magnate. During the Second World War he becomes a Nazi collaborator and war profiteer who provides the Nazi regime with the metals it needs, but secretly he uses his wealth and influence to finance the French Resistance and free fellow Jews from Nazi hands. Due to his tactics he was one of the three Jews who were denied Israeli citizenship. Translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger. Available in both French and English editions. [Once Upon a Time in France]
In the Kitchen with Alain Passard by Christophe Blain
Call Number: TX649.P37 B5313 2013
ISBN: 9781452113463
Published/Created: 2013
Available in English for the very first time, In the Kitchen with Alain Passard is the first graphic novel to enter the kitchen of a master chef. Over the course of three years, illustrator Christophe Blain trailed acclaimed chef Alain Passard through his kitchens and gardens. With simple yet sublime drawings and thousands of colorful panels, this book gives the reader an inside, uncensored look at the world of Passard, who shocked the food universe in 2001 by removing meat from the menu at his celebrated Paris restaurant, L'Arpege, and dedicating himself to serving vegetables from his own organic farms. It combines a portrait of an amazing chef, an inside look at his creative process, and a humorous riff on fine dining culture—plus fifteen recipes for the home kitchen—in one haute cuisine comic book for foodies. For French edition do an author search. [En cuisine avec Alain Passard]
Isadora by Clement Oubrerie (Illustrator); Julie Birmant
Call Number: GV1785.D8 B5313 2019
ISBN: 9781910593691
Published/Created: 2019
This extraordinary graphic novel takes in her arrival in Europe, her rise to stardom and the development of a style of dance - inspired by natural forms and Greek sculpture - that would become her enduring legacy. "There was never a place for [Isadora Duncan] in the ranks of the terrible, slow army of the cautious. She ran ahead, where there were no paths." - Dorothy ParkerIn 1899, performing in the drawing rooms of London's elite, Isadora Duncan was already laying the foundations for modern dance. The 22-year-old's movements were visceral, free-flowing, and expressive; she performed barefoot. She shattered the conventions of traditional ballet and, in doing so, enchanted high society. A year later, in Paris, she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin, whose work proved a revelation, and the influential dancer Loie Fuller, whose support marked the beginning of a dazzling on-stage career.In Isadora, Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie capture the astonishing life and scandalous times of the so-called "Mother of Modern Dance."
Kent State : quatre morts dans l'Ohio by Derf Backderf
ISBN: 9782369902829
Published/Created: 2020
From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form. Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy, the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19). On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, 4 students were killed and 9 shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children—a shocking event burned into our national memory. The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than 4 million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in the history of the United States at that time. It was a day that shocked the nation and helped turn the tide of public opinion against America’s war in Vietnam. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, which published on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent—as relevant today as it was in 1970.
-Publisher
L'Arabe du futur : une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient by Riad Sattouf
ISBN: 9782370730145
Published/Created: 2014
In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria—but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment.
La jeune femme et la mer by Catherine Meurisse ; mise en couleur, Isabelle Merlet
Call Number: PN6747.M496 J48 2021
Published/Created: 2021
"I would like to paint nature,” declares the young French designer arriving in Japan. On his way, a Japanese painter seeks to “paint a woman”. What nature? The one that soothes or the one that overwhelms? And which woman? Nami, who runs the spa inn where the two artists will stay? Nami is not an easy role model. Mysteriously linked to natural elements, she knows how to read the arrival of typhoons in the folds of the sea. In any case, this is what the cheeky tanuki, an essential Japanese mythological animal, claims, which emerges during the wanderings of the two travelers. A philosophical tale, The Young Woman and the Sea reminds us that our life depends on our ability to resonate with nature.
La légèreté by Catherine Meurisse
Call Number: PN6747.M496 L45 2016
ISBN: 9782205075663
Published/Created: 2016
Catherine Meurisse was born in 1980. She is one of the most famous French female artists. She draws caricatures based off of real-life events. After a course in modern literature, she studied at the Estienne school then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Designer, author, caricaturist, reporter and illustrator of children's books, Catherine Meurisse is a prolific artist. Sharpening her gaze and her line for fifteen years in many press titles ('Le Monde', 'Liberation', 'Les Échos', 'L'Obs' ) and more particularly at 'Charlie Hebdo', she directed comics. She was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts on January 15, 2020. La Légèreté is a moving story of her return to life, to drawing and to memory, after the attack on 'Charlie Hebdo' from which she escaped. In 2021, she was awarded the Töpffer Grand Prix, an award named after the Swiss "father of comics".
La vengeance du chat by Philippe Geluck
ISBN: 2203340045
Published/Created: 1988
Philippe Geluck is a Belgian comedian, television writer and cartoonist. He is best known for this comic, Le Chat. He is one of the ten best-selling comic writers of Franco-Belgian comic series.
Le duplex by Jean-Claude Götting
Call Number: PQ2667.O762 D87 1994
ISBN: 2859202404
Published/Created: 1994
Jean-Claude Götting was born in Paris in 1963. After studying at the Arts Appliqués, Duperré in Paris, he made his first comic books with the fanzine PLG, then at Futuropolis. Creve-Coeur, his first comic book, received the prize for the best first album in Angoulême in 1986, before he began devoting himself mainly to illustration for the press and publishing, as well as to painting. He produced numerous covers of novels for various publishers, and in particular the covers of the French edition of the Harry Potter series, as well as several children's books, and collections of drawings.
He collaborates with various newspapers and magazines such as Libération, Elle, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. In this work, a comfortable duplex can be rented at Place de la Bastille. Two candidates who desperately want to snag this spot make a pact: if one or the other is chosen by the owner, he agrees to share the place with the loser.
Les enfants de la Résistance by Vincent Dugomier and Benoît Ers
ISBN: 9782803635580
Published/Created: 2015
This series follows a group of kids during the French Resistance. The Germans are actively looking for the survivors of a downed Allied plane just above Pontain l'Écluse. Members of the Lynx, a small group led by a handful of youngsters, plan to find them before they do. They then hope to use their contacts to drive the military out of France. To get there, one of the three kids, François, shows impetuosity. Is it for the cause or to impress Lisa, who has eyes only for the wise Eusebius? Although the places, events and people remain fictitious, Vincent Dugomier inscribes his story in a very real historical framework. In this seventh volume, everyone is delighted that General de Gaulle has created the National Council of Resistance, a network of cells weaving its web throughout France. The relationship between the young revolutionaries is revealed. [J. Milette]
Les sauveurs : 7 héros de la cause animale, 7 destins extraordinaires by Fabien Morin, Julien Derain, Laurent Hopman ; Ia Chhuy-Ing ; Yann Arthus-Bertrand
ISBN: 9782493184016
Published/Created: 2022
Profiles some of the most colorful advocates for animals around the world: including wilder animals such as sharks, gorillas and bears.
Les Tuniques Bleues: Les bleus dans la gadoue by Raoul Cauvin ; illustrations, Willy Lambil
ISBN: 2800105844
Published/Created: 1978
Les Tuniques bleues is Belgian comic that recounts the adventures of Sergeant Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch, soldiers in the Union army opposed to the Confederate army during the US Civil War. Beyond the comedy of situations and characters, this series relates the horrors of war. Bluecoats is the name given to the cavalry troops responsible in particular for the protection of the colonists during the conquest of the West and the Indian wars in the American West. Spirou published this cartoon in 1968 with Louis Salvérius and Raoul Cauvin. After the death of Salvérius in 1972, the design was taken over by Lambil. The series has 66 published albums. In September 2019, Raoul Cauvin announced that he would stop writing the scripts for series 2. In June 2020, Éditions Dupuis announced new authors for the third series, with Béka and Munuera. In 2021, screenwriter Kris is announced to take over the fourth series.
Madeleine, Résistante : 1 - La Rose Dégoupillée by Madeleine Riffaud, Dominique Bertail, Jean-David Morvan
ISBN: 9791034742752
Published/Created: 2021
Madeleine Riffaud, born in 1924, lives happily with her grandfather and her parents who are teachers. At least until the Second World War separated the family, sending Madeleine, suffering from tuberculosis, to a sanatorium. Undoubtedly the worst possible place for the stubborn teenager to carry out a crazy and necessary project: to join the Résistance. Madeleine will succeed, however, under the code name "Rainer", becoming an actress and a privileged witness of her time. An exceptional destiny that she recounts today in a first trilogy that is just as exceptional, nourished by thousands of details from a memory that has forgotten nothing....
Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet
Call Number: PN6747.L37 O7413 2008
ISBN: 9781561635337
Published/Created: 2008
Marco comes to terms with having a child, the loss of his father and their relationship, his mother has to deal with living alone, a man dies in the countryside, a journalist cracks under pressure. The final part of this extraordinarily moving story which has received top acclaim. It's about small things, rare moments, banal sadness and an ordinary guy who's just trying to live the best way he can.
Paysage après la bataille by Éric Lambé, Philippe de Pierpont
Call Number: PN6790.B44 P39 2016
ISBN: 9782330069988
Published/Created: 2016
It’s not surprising, but then it’s totally surprising that Paysage après la bataille was awarded the best comic of the year prize in 2016 at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. It’s not surprising, as both Belgian artists – illustrator, Eric Lambé and author, Philippe de Pierpont – present a story that is a genuine masterpiece. Then again, it’s a total surprise because this Landscape After the Battle is more unusual, eccentric and challenging than the conventional Angoulême award winners. Fany is sitting in the taxi. Her destination is a remote camping site. The season is over, and only a few people are spending the winter in the rows of neatly aligned caravans – they have nowhere else to go: a retired couple, a retired boxer and huntsman and the camping attendant who is not very bright and dreams of travelling the world. Fany seems to have sought out this emptiness, remoteness from the world and loneliness. We find out why, slowly and steadily, over 420 pages. The subject – without giving too much away – is the loss of a child. Invisible wounds Paysage après la bataille is very calm. Few words are spoken and nothing is said for long periods. The images also focus on emptiness: Lambé’s illustrations are reduced, stylized; the black-and-white ink strokes are fine and fragile; the various grey tones give the images perspective and depth. Now and then, an additional colour note makes the page brighten up. Although there is little text, one soon senses that Lambé and Pierpont accentuate the big themes in their novel: life’s fragmentary nature, death, grief and suppression, silence and escape – and the tentative attempt to make a new beginning. Lambé and de Pierpont convey this with hints and allusions, which leave the reader plenty of scope, while also demanding his or her involvement. Winter arrives; the world outside the camping site dissolves into white and grey. Yet Fany doesn’t quite manage to keep herself to herself. In the secluded and oppressing isolation of this forgotten location relationships, tensions and intimacies subtly evolve among the characters. The past and the outside world are never that faraway, and even the iciest winter ends. By Christian Gasser, Translated by Suzanne Kirkbright -European Literary Network
Phantoms of the Louvre by Enki Bilal
Call Number: PN6747.B54 F3613 2014
ISBN: 9781561638413
Published/Created: 2014
Superstar comic artist Enki Bilal reimagines the Louvre as a ghostly place in this series of 22 portraits. The Mona Lisa , the Winged Victory of Samothrace , a reclining Christ, an Egyptian bust--these and other works of art are seen through the eyes of their own particular phantom. The motley collection of men, women, and children presented in these vignettes - a Roman legionary, a muse, a painter and a German officer, among others - have little in common other than their often violent demises and an eternity spent haunting the iconic Parisian museum. Bilal recounts the life stories of these lost souls in dramatic biographies that combine fiction and historical reality, often evoking the creation of the works in question. The paintings that compose this graphic novel were presented in a special exhibition at the Louvre in early 2013. [Fantômes du Louvre]
Pinocchio by Winshluss
Call Number: PN6747.W56 P56 2018
ISBN: 9782849611289
Published/Created: 2018
This award-winning graphic novel re-imagines the story Pinocchio as a noir fairy tale both comic and tragic. In this dark rendition, a greedy Geppetto builds Pinocchio as a metallic weapon of war, while Jiminy Cockroach is a homeless squatter living the good life in Pinocchio's skull. Critically acclaimed, Pinocchio won the Grand Prize at France's Angoulême comics festival in 2009. Exquisite drawings by celebrated cartoonist Winshluss bring to life a rich tale of greedy fools, lust, sadness, redemption, and hope. Teamed with brilliant colorist Cizo, Winshluss creates an epic adventure through a lush world. As we follow Pinocchio along the way, the stories and vinettes intertwine, offering subtle political critiques and send ups of popular culture. We meet seven sleazy ....
The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia by Mary M. Talbot; Bryan Talbot (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6737.T356 R43 2016
ISBN: 9781506700892
Published/Created: 2016
The creative partnership of acclaimed writer and academic Mary M. Talbot and graphic-novel pioneer Bryan Talbot has produced some of the most challenging and entertaining graphic novels in recent memory, including 2012's Costa Award medalist Dotter of Her Father's Eyes. The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia explores the life of revolutionary French feminist Louise Michel, a visionary teacher, poet, and radical who took up arms against a reactionary regime that executed thousands. Even deportation to a distant penal colony could not stop Michel from taking up the cause of the indigenous population against French colonial oppression.
The Reprieve by Jean-Pierre Gibrat
Call Number: PN6747.G49 S8713 2018
ISBN: 9781684051915
Published/Created: 2018
Meet Cecile as she tries to help escaped prisoner-of-war Julien Sarlat avoid capture during the Occupation of France in 1943 in this prequel to the award-winning graphic novel Flight of the Raven. Julien has escaped from a prisoner-of-war train headed for Germany, but fate intervenes when the train is bombed and among the victims a body is identified as his. Dead to the world, he takes advantage of the situation and hides in the small village of Cambeyrac, using his secret observation post overlooking the village square to watch the permanent theater that people offer in the course of the day. Loves, hatreds, jealousies, cowardice, acts of heroism... nothing escapes the observer's eye, especially not the beautiful waitress Cecile. Until the moment comes when, spectator no more, he must become an actor himself and meet his destiny. This hidden life he had hoped to live was just a reprieve. The book also includes a portfolio of pin-ups and sketches featuring its heroine.
La saga de Grimr by Jérémie Moreau
Call Number: PN6747.M667 S24 2017
ISBN: 9782756080642
Published/Created: 2017
1783. Iceland, overwhelmed by poverty, he must submit to the yoke of Denmark. The fate of Grimr, who became an orphan, is even more cruel in this country where a man is defined first and foremost by his lineage. Endowed with impressive strength, he knows he is capable of competing with the most famous heroes of the saga even if he is no one's son. All he needs is the opportunity to prove his worth...
Snowpiercer Vol. 1: the Escape by Jacques Lob; Jean-Marc Rochette (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6748.T73 L6313 2014
ISBN: 9781782761334
Published/Created: 2014
Snowpiercer is the enthralling and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic graphic novel that inspired the critically acclaimed movie starring Chris Evans (Captain America, Fantastic Four). Originally published in French. In a harsh, uncompromisingly cold future where Earth has succumbed to treacherously low temperatures, the last remaining members of humanity travel on a train while the outside world remains encased in ice. The surviving community are not without a social hierarchy; those that travel at the front of the train live in relative luxury whilst those unfortunate enough to be at the rear remain clustered like cattle in claustrophobic darkness. Yet, things are about to change aboard the train as passengers become disgruntled.... For French edition do an author search. [Transperceneige]
The Stranger by Albert Camus; Sandra Smith (Translator); Jacques Ferrandez (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781681771359
Published/Created: 2016
A visually stunning adaptation of Albert Camus' masterpiece that offers an exciting new graphic interpretation while retaining the book's unique atmosphere. The day his mother dies, Meursault notices that it is very hot on the bus that is taking him from Algiers to the retirement home where his mother lived; so hot that he falls asleep. Later, while waiting for the wake to begin, the harsh electric lights in the room make him extremely uncomfortable, so he gratefully accepts the coffee the caretaker offers him and smokes a cigarette. The same burning sun that so oppresses him during the funeral walk will once again blind the calm, reserved Meursault as he walks along a deserted beach a few days later—leading him to commit an irreparable act. This new illustrated edition of Camus' classic novel The Stranger portrays an enigmatic man who commits a senseless crime and then calmly, and apparently indifferently, sits through his trial and hears himself condemned to death. For French edition do an author search. [L'Etranger]
Ted, drôle de coco by Émilie Gleason
ISBN: 9782889230709
Published/Created: 2018
Émilie Gleason is a Belgian-Mexican illustrator born in 1992. She often depicts characters who are neuroatypical (as opposed to neurotypical) and was strongly inspired by the experience of her brother (who was diagnosed with Asperger's) to tell a story about the very strange days of Ted, whose experiences with life don't always make sense. Gleason puts into words and images the experiences of a unique character. Much more than a "report" or a "testimony", Ted is an immersion in an uncommon spirit and offers a rare reading experience, a whirlwind of colors and energy, much like those of its main character.
Thorgal by Jean Van Hamme; Grzegorz Rosinski (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6790.B43 H3713 1987
ISBN: 096178850X
Published/Created: 1986
Jean Van Hamme is a well-established Beglian writer and comic book artist who has collaborated with works such as Blake and Mortimer. He created this viking character to great acclaim in France and became the second best-selling comic writer in France. In Thorgal, a foundling raised by Vikings discovers his extraterrestrial origin through the psycho-transmitter he carries as a talisman. The mix of medieval lore and engaging plot made this a highly popular BD. For French edition do an author search. [Thorgal, les archers]
Tintin: the Complete Adventures Collection by Hergé
Call Number: PN6790.B44 T51414513 2019
ISBN: 9780316495042
Published/Created: 2019
Young boy reporter, Tintin became one of the most well-known characters in the comic world. His travels and encounters reflected the political and social context of Belgian author Hergé (George Remi). Remi was the editor and illustrator to a conservative Belgian newspaper (Le Petite Vingtième) and many of his arguably well-meaning depictions of both Native Americans and other ethnicities (e.g. Tintin in the Congo) ultimately served to reinforce insulting stereotypes, and in all probability push the agenda of the conservative views of his employers who wished to glorify colonial sentiments and vilify both the Soviet Union and America. Regardless of whether this constitutes propaganda, an interesting fact is that Tintin was the first fictional character to be awarded the Dalai Lama's Truth of Light award (in 2006) as a result of his adventures in Tintin in Tibet. Hergé had a longtime friendship with Chinese artist Zhang Chongren which may have influenced this more modern adventure and the character of Chang. It is considered his best work and was completed during a time of deep personal reflection. This collection includes all 23 of the original Tintin adventures, including :Tintin and Alph-Art Tintin in America Tintin in the Land of the Soviets Tintin and the Picaros Tintin in Tibet Tintin: The Black Island Tintin: The Blue Lotus Tintin: The Broken Ear Tintin: The Calculus Affair Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws Tintin: Destination Moon Tintin: Explorers of the Moon Tintin: Flight 714 to Sydney Tintin: King Ottakar's Sceptre Tintin: Land of Black Gold Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls and Tintin: The Shooting Star. For French edition do an author search. [Aventures de Tintin]
Une histoire de France : Tome 1/ La dalle rouge by Thomas Kotlarek, Michel Onfray and JEF
Published/Created: 2019
This is a BD series co-written by Thomas Kotlarek and philosopher Michel Onfray that depicts current day Lyon with the illustrations of comic artist Jef. A highly cerebral series that examines French history from WWII on, incorporating aspects of Nazism as well as debates over Islam in contemporary France. The interview and forward by the authors give an intricate explanation of their artistic and philosophical aims. The first volume, La Dalle Rouge refers to a "red slab" which is literally a red square in the street at 12 rue de la République in Lyon. This marks the spot where French President Sadi Carnot was stabbed to death on June 24, 1894 by the Italian anarchist, Santo Caserio. It is across from the Palais de la Bourse where he had dined that evening. It stands as a reminder of the incident but many are unaware of its meaning after so much time has passed.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets the Art of the Film by Mark Salisbury
Call Number: PN1997.2.V325 S25 2017
ISBN: 9781785654008
Published/Created: 2017
Valerian is rooted in the classic French graphic novel series, Valerian and Laureline—the all-time most popular comic series in France written by comic artist Pierre Christin and his childhood friend and artistic partner the famous Jean-Claude Mézières. Visionary French writer, director and producer Luc Besson advances this iconic source material into a contemporary, unique and epic science fiction saga. Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are special operatives for the government of the human territories charged with maintaining order throughout the universe. Under directive from their Commander (Clive Owen), Valerian and Laureline embark on a mission to the breathtaking intergalactic city of Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis comprised of thousands of different species from all four corners of the universe. Alpha's seventeen million inhabitants have converged over time—uniting their talents, technology and resources for the betterment of all. Unfortunately, not everyone on Alpha shares in these same objectives; in fact, unseen forces are at work, placing our race in great danger. Many critics see similarities between aspects of this series and Star Wars. [No French Edition]
Washing-Town by [scénario de] Lisa Lugrin, Clément Xavier ; [dessins de] Fanny Grosshans
Call Number: T40.G23 L84 2023
ISBN: 9782330180522
Published/Created: 2023
Nothing predestined Frances Gabe (1915-2016), an ordinary housewife from Newberg, Oregon, to embark on a ruthless crusade against the patriarchy. To free herself from domestic chores, this tireless handywoman transformed her house into a giant dishwasher, under the horrified gazes of her husband and the neighborhood. She then attempted to share her invention with the rest of exploited humanity, creating Washing Town, a self-cleaning city...Inspired by this true story, Washing-Town illuminates with humor the inequality which persists in the distribution of chores between the sexes but also between social classes and proposes a method as original as it is radical to put an end to it.

General Resources on BDs & Graphic Novels

The Algerian War in French-Language Comics by Jennifer Howell
Call Number: PN6745 .H69 2015
ISBN: 9781498516068
Published/Created: 2015
The decolonization of Algeria represents a turning point in world history, marking the end of France's colonial empire, the birth of the Algerian republic, and the appearance of the Third World and pan-Arabism. Algeria emerged from colonial domination to negotiate the release of American hostages in Iran during the Carter administration. Radical Islam would later rise from the ashes of Algeria's failed democracy, leading to a civil war and the training of Algerian terrorists in Afghanistan. Moreover, the decolonization of Algeria offered an imperfect model of decolonization to other nations like South Africa that succeeded in abolishing apartheid while retaining its white settler population. Algeria and its war of national liberation therefore constitute an inescapable reference for those looking to understand today's "war on terror" and ever-expanding islamophobia in Western media circuits. Consequently, it is imperative that students and educators understand the global implications of the Algerian War and how to best approach this conflict in school and at home so as to learn from the consequences of misrepresentation at all levels of the memory transmission chain. These objectives are all the more important today given the West's misunderstanding and mischaracterization of Islam, the Arab Spring, the Muslim-majority world, and, most importantly, the continuing influence of French colonialism--especially in the postcolonial era. Conceived as a case study, The Algerian War in French-Language Comics: Postcolonial Memory, History, and Subjectivity argues that comics provide an alternative to textbook representations of the Algerian War in France because they draw from many of the same source materials yet produce narratives that are significantly different. This book demonstrates that although comics rely on conventional vectors of memory transmission like national education, the family, and mainstream media, they can also create new and productive dialogues using these same vectors in ways unavailable to traditional textbooks. From this perspective, these comics are an effective and alternative way to develop a more inclusive social consciousness.
Bande Dessinée: thinking outside the box by Laurence Grove; Michael Syrotinski
Call Number: PQ1 .B36 2017
ISBN: 9780300225983
Published/Created: 2017
The latest installment of Yale French Studies explores the history and development of bande dessinée, Franco-Belgian comics. This special issue of Yale French Studies on bande dessinée is a multifaceted reflection on its newfound academic status. It goes beyond the question, settled long ago, of its artistic legitimacy but aims to think "outside the boxes," or cases, themselves in order to explore the mutually enriching relationship between BD and the wider Francophone cultural and intellectual world. Contributions thus intersect with art history, literary theory, cinema studies, postcolonialism, semiotics, and political sociology. Articles are by mainstream interdisciplinary scholars applying themselves to BD, leading authorities on bande dessinée itself, BD artists, and key figures in contemporary French thought whose texts appear in English for the first time.
Case, strip, action! : les feuilletons en bandes dessinees dans les magazines pour la jeunesse (1946-1959) by Alain Boillat [and 3 others].
Call Number: PN6745 .B65 2016
ISBN: 9782884748216
Published/Created: 2016
Based on the "Fonds Ghebali" collection of the Centre BD de la Ville de Lausanne.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-246).
The Colonial Heritage of French Comics by Mark McKinney
Call Number: PN6745 .M387 2011
ISBN: 9781846316425
Published/Created: 2011-
Although France has changed much in recent decades, colonial-era imagery continues to circulate widely in comics, in part because the colonial archives are easily accessible, and through the republication of colonial-era comics that are viewed as classics. The latter include the Tintin series of comic books, by the Belgian artist Herge, and the "Zig and Puce" series by Alain Saint-Ogan, a Frenchman. In this important new study Mark McKinney situates comics in debates about French colonialism, arguing that cartoonists still use representations of colonial history in their comics as a way of intervening in debates about contemporary France and its current relationships to its former colonies. McKinney argues that comics offer unique opportunities to both reproduce and thereby perpetuate colonial ideologies, images and discourses, as well as to deconstruct and contest them. The ways, and the degree to which, they do one or the other tell us a great deal about the heritage of imperialism and colonialism in French comics and society. [Volume 1 of a three-part Series by author. Volume 1: The Colonial Heritage of French Comics; Volume 2: Redrawing French Empire in Comics; Volume 3 Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics.]
Comics in French by Laurence Grove
Call Number: PN6745 .G76 2013
ISBN: 9780857459022
Published/Created: 2013
Whereas in English-speaking countries comics are for children or adults 'who should know better', in France and Belgium the form is recognized as the 'Ninth Art' and follows in the path of poetry, architecture, painting and cinema. The bande dessinée [comic strip] has its own national institutions, regularly obtains front-page coverage and has received the accolades of statesmen from De Gaulle onwards. On the way to providing a comprehensive introduction to the most francophone of cultural phenomena, this book considers national specificity as relevant to an anglophone reader, whilst exploring related issues such as text/image expression, historical precedents and sociological implication. To do so it presents and analyses priceless manuscripts, a Franco- American rodent, Nazi propaganda, a museum-piece urinal, intellectual gay porn and a prehistoric warrior who's really Zinedine Zidane.
Drawing (in) the Feminine by Margaret C. Flinn (Editor)
Call Number: PN6745 .D73 2024
ISBN: 9780814215142
Published/Created: 2024
Drawing (in) the Feminine celebrates and examines the richness of contemporary women's production in French and Francophone comics art and considers the history of representations made by both dominant and marginalized creators. Bridging historical and contemporary comics output, these essays illuminate the interfaces among genre, gender, and cultural history. Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, and across a variety of methodologies and disciplinary orientations, challenge prevailing claims about the absence of women creators, characters, and readers in bande dessinée, arguing that women have always been part of its history. While still far from achieving parity with their male counterparts, female creators are occupying an increasingly significant portion of the French-language comics publishing industry, and creators of all genders are putting forth stories that reflect on the diversity and richness of women's and gender-nonconforming people's experiences. In the essays collected here, contributors push back against the ways in which the marginalization of women within bande dessinée history has overshadowed their significant contributions, extending avenues for further exploring the true diversity of a flourishing contemporary production. Contributors: Armelle Blin-Rolland, Véronique Bragard, Michelle Bumatay, Benoît Crucifix, Isabelle Delorme, Jacques Dürrenmatt, Margaret C. Flinn, Alexandra Gueydan-Turek, Jennifer Howell, Jessica Kohn, Sylvain Lesage, Catriona MacLeod, Mark McKinney.
Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics by Mark McKinney
Call Number: PN6745 .M389 2020
ISBN: 9462702411
Published/Created: 2021
Postcolonialism and migration are major themes in contemporary French comics and have roots in the Algerian War (1954-62), anti-racist struggle, and mass migration to France. This volume studies comics from the formal dismantling of the French colonial empire in 1962 up to the present. French cartoonists of ethnic minority and immigrant heritage are a major focus, including Zeina Abirached (Lebanon), Yvan Alagbé (Benin), Baru (Italy), Enki Bilal (former Yugoslavia), Farid Boudjellal (Algeria and Armenia), José Jover (Spain), Larbi Mechkour (Algeria), and Roland Monpierre (Guadeloupe). The author analyses comics representing a gamut of perspectives on immigration and postcolonial ethnic minorities, ranging from staunch defense to violent rejection. Individual chapters are dedicated to specific artists, artistic collectives, comics, or themes, including including avant-gardism, undocumented migrants in comics, and racism in far-right comics. [Volume 3 of a three-part Series by author. Volume 1: The Colonial Heritage of French Comics; Volume 2: Redrawing French Empire in Comics; Volume 3 Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics.]
Redrawing French Empire in Comics by Mark McKinney
Call Number: PN6745 .M39 2013
ISBN: 9780814212202
Published/Created: 2013
Redrawing French Empire in Comics by Mark McKinney investigates how comics have represented the colonization and liberation of Algeria and Indochina. It focuses on the conquest and colonization of Algeria (from 1830), the French war in Indochina (1946-1954), and the Algerian War (1954-1962). Imperialism and colonialism already featured prominently in nineteenth-century French-language comics and cartoons by Töpffer, Cham, and Petit. As society has evolved, so has the popular representation of those historical forces. French torture of Algerians during the Algerian War, once taboo, now features prominently in comics, especially since 2000, when debate on the subject was reignited in the media and the courts. The increasingly explicit and spectacular treatment in comics of the more violent and lurid aspects of colonial history and ideology is partly due to the post-1968 growth of an adult comics production and market. For example, the appearance of erotic and exotic, feminized images of Indochina in French comics in the 1980s indicated that colonial nostalgia for French Indochina had become fashionable in popular culture. Redrawing French Empire in Comics shows how contemporary cartoonists such as Alagbé, Baloup, Boudjellal, Ferrandez, and Sfar have staked out different, sometimes conflicting, positions on French colonial history. [Volume 2 of a three-part Series by author. Volume 1: The Colonial Heritage of French Comics; Volume 2: Redrawing French Empire in Comics; Volume 3 Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics.]
Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics and Manga by Byron Preiss (Editor); Howard Zimmerman (Editor); Neil Gaiman (Introduction by)
Call Number: PN6726 .Y43 2005
ISBN: 9780312343255
Published/Created: 2005
Perhaps you used to love superhero comics but now think they're too juvenile to read. Or maybe you hate superheroes and love comics, but can't find alternative titles that grab your fancy. Maybe you've heard about manga but have not had the time to see what all the buzz is about. If you have an interest in any area of graphic illustration and want to see what is current and good, this volume is for you. Here you will discover a broad variety of graphic stories and modern methods of telling them. In these pages you will explore the work of new and wonderful artists and creators, as well as new stories from seasoned professionals and award-winning illustrators and writers. Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga draws from the areas of monthly comics and collections, graphic novels, manga, self-published work, and small and independent presses. You will find old favorites and make new friends. Much of the work is in full color, but excellent black-and-white stories are also included. The first of its kind, Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga will not disappoint either the fanatic comics fan or the casual reader. This volume is loaded with nuggets of gold and rare gems that await readers' discovery.
À coups de cases et de bulles : les violences faites aux femmes dans la bande dessinée by Frédéric Chauvaud, Lydie Bodiou, Jean-Philippe Martin, Héloïse Morel ; les auteurs: Laurent Bihl [and nineteen others]
Call Number: PN6714 .A27 2023
ISBN: 9782753586239
Published/Created: 2023
The first work to address violence against women in the 9th art, À coups de cases et de bulles is able to show the way in which Franco-Belgian comics, and also manga treat attacks and violence. Comics, which continue to open new projects and revisit already established areas, either by renewing them or by placing them in a tradition, continue to engage the imagination of contemporary societies. Daily newspapers, weeklies and quarterlies now give more and more space, but this is rarely the case for brutality, insults and rapes they suffer. And yet, the graphic stories are full of women victims of the most diverse forms of violence: forced marriages, humiliation, physical attacks, rape. Comic strips relate to the testimony and literature of reality, others belong to the register of the imagination, but all deal with a universal scourge, sometimes in a single panel, other times in several pages. The aim of this work is to reverse common perspectives, to show that women are not confined to the category of seductive women, nor to that of stooges, nor to those of sole victims. Indeed, even humiliated, brutalized, martyred, they retain their dignity or their pride.
European Comics in English Translation by Randall W. Scott
Call Number: PN6790.E9 S38 2002
ISBN: 0786412054
Published/Created: 2002
European comic authors produced a steady stream of comic material throughout the twentieth century, but gained the world's notice in 1975 when the French magazine Metal Hurlant was founded. A new generation of artists and writers had begun. Soon publishers were producing translations of the new comics into other languages, including English, and comics creators everywhere were inspired to innovation.This is a reference work, arranged by artist or writer, to European comics from the last quarter of the twentieth century that have been translated from any European language into English. It contains a variety of material, from the innocent imperialism of Herge's Tintin to the sadistic murder for hire in Bernet's Torpedo. Albums by a single creator or artist-and-writer team of European origin are the focus; comics in periodicals and anthologies with multiple contributors are excluded. Each entry provides a plot abstract and various notes about the original comic. An author index provides brief biographical information. There is a comprehensive general index.

France & French Collections at the Library of Congress

Bande Dessinée: Comics & Graphic Novels

Classic & Contemporary Graphic Novels

General Resources on BDs & Graphic Novels