French Comics and Characters
Information Welcome. This is by no means
a comprehensive list of the many popular French comic strip (or bande
dessines) characters. It features only some of the more well known.
Jump to • French Comics in English • French Comics Characters
See also: French Publishers
• For General Comic Character Information Click Here
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• For Manga Characters Click Here
General Links
• Wikipeda: Franco Belgian Comics
• Comiclopedia
Lambiek Comiclopedia, an illustrated compendium of over 9600 comic artists
from around the world. You can search for your favorite artists, books,
strips or comic characters
French Comics
in English
• Euro-Comics:
English translations
A list of European graphic novels translated into English
CineBooks
Web: www.cinebook.co.uk
PO Box 293, Ashford, Kent, TN23 9AD
Tel: 01233 620 176 Fax: 01233 666 108 E-mail: info@cinebook.co.uk
With sales of 43.3 million, comic strips represented more than one in every eight
books sold in France in 2004. CINEBOOK is the British publisher of the Ninth
Art, translating bande dessine from the original French into English.
Asterix the Gaul
A series of French
comic books by René Goscinny
and Albert Uderzo set in Roman Gaul. Uderzo has continued the series
since the death of Goscinny in 1977.
Official (UK): gb.asterix.com
This site include a virtual village enab
Fan: Asterix Around the World
This site is dedicated to the 33 comic albums made by René Goscinny
and Albert Uderzo, and the 100+ languages and dialects these albums
are translated into.
Fan: The Asterix Annotations
Album-by-album explanations of all the historical references and obscure in-jokes
Fan: Alea Jacta Est
Gareth Thomas' Astrix site for grown ups. "The purpose of this web site is
to provide an evaluation of Goscinny and Uderzo's Asterix books away from
the label of children's fiction," Gareth explains. "That is not to say
that the books are unsuitable for children. Far from it - those children
exposed to them will soon be gripped by the storylines, enamoured with
the characters and receive a basic classical education on the sly. However
what is important - but rarely acknowledged - is that Asterix books are
not primarily for children. Without exception they contain a vein of sophisticated
humour that goes far beyond the sops to adults added to such comics as
the Beano. (In this respect they are comparable to The Simpsons, another
sophisticated comedy that is often - in the UK at least - unwisely billed
in a children's slot.)
"Put simply, those adults who miss out on Asterix
books because they assume they are meant for children, are missing out
on some of the most sophisticated comedy of the past half-century, penned
by two of its finest comic writers.
By Edgar Pierre Jacobs
A Franco-Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs which first appeared serialised in the Belgian comics magazine Tintin from 1946, and subsequently became published in softcover and hardcover albums by Les Editions du Lombard. Three volumes of Blake and Mortimer have been published by CineBooks in English so far.
Official (in French): www.blakeetmortimer.com
Wikipedia Entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_and_Mortimer
Boule and Bill
By Jean Roba
A boy and his dog team (Bill is the dog and Boule the young boy) created
in 1959 by the Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba in collaboration with
Maurice Rosy, in 2003 the artistic responsibility of the series was
passed on to Roba's former assistant Laurent Verron.
Official (in French): www.tfou.fr/boule-bill
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle
Blanc-Sec
By Jacques Tardi
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Dry-White is an
adventure series, initially serialised in the newspaper Sud-Ouest
in 1976, prior to album publication by Casterman.
Official (French): www.adele-blanc-sec.tk
Fan: www.adeleblancsec.org
English language site devoted to the adventurer
Gaston Lagaffe
By André Franquin
A comic strip originally created in 1957 for Spirou and
named after its main character. The series focuses on the every-day
life of a lazy and accident-prone (his surname means "the blunder")
office junior. It's very popular in large parts of Europe (especially
in Belgium and France), but except for a few pages by Fantagraphics
in the early 1990s (as Gomer Goof), there is no published English
translation.
Official (French): www.gastonlagaffe.com
Iznogoud
By René Goscinny and Jean Tabary
Iznogoud (pronounced "is no good" with a French accent) is a French
comics series featuring an eponymous character, created by the comics writer
René Goscinny and comics artist Jean Tabary. The stories have been
translated into several languages, including English, and the title has been
adapted to animated and live-action film.
Lieutenant Blueberry
By Jean-Michel
Charlier and Jean Giraud
Information to follow
Lucky Luke
By Morris and René Goscinny
Information to follow. Available from Cinebooks
Marsupilami
By André Franquin and others
Information to follow
The Smurfs
By Peyo
Information to follow
Spike and Suzy
By Willy Vandersteen
Information to follow
Spirou et Fantasio
By André Franquin, Jijé and
others
Information to follow
Tin Tin
A world famous series of
comic books created by Belgian artist Hergι, the pen name of Georges Remi
(19071983)
Official: www.tintin.com
Art: Tin Tin Cover Gallery
Part of the coverbrowser site
Merchandise: The Tin Tin Shop UK
The Tintin shop, home to Tintin and snowy in the UK.
Fan: The Cult of Tin Tin
Features Tintin news, articles, reports, reviews, reference guides, discussion
forums and more. Established in 1995, The Cult of Tintin (Tintinologist.org)
is the oldest and largest English-language Tintin fan site on the Internet
Fan: Ritsanimatie
A communal blog by young creative hopefuls at the RITS film school animation
department in Brussels showing what an animated Tintin
could be without the constraints of Hergé’s rigid
style (in Dutch).
