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In my mind BD are European (more or less Franco-Belgian) comics books, distinct from 'comics', which are American style superhero stories. Just like manga is a
by Luc 2y ago
In my mind BD are European (more or less Franco-Belgian) comics books, distinct from 'comics', which are American style superhero stories. Just like manga is a separate category.
- soneca 2y agoThat’s what was in the author’s mind as well. He added a footnote: ” Worth noting that these comics fell within/adjacent to the Franco-Belgian comic tradition (Bande dessinée or BD for short), which have a very different reputation from their American comic book counterparts. Superheroes are, thankfully, approximately non-existent and BDs are generally respected as an art form, and their appeal cuts across a much broader age range.”
- pvaldes 2y ago> Superheroes are, thankfully, approximately non-existent Not in the American sense, but they have magic potions that give super strength. I suppose that Europe had super-druggos instead.
- 9dev 2y agoIf someone from the US cares to join in, are there counterexamples to this, as in, widely known American comics that do not revolve around superheroes? Calvin&Hobbes comes to mind, for example. Any others?
- keiferski 2y agoPeanuts (Charlie Brown), MAD Magazine, Garfield, to name a few.
- grp 2y agoBlack Hole (Charles Burns) But, yeah, comics == superhero (for me as well) cause the others examples are more "strips" first published in newspapers than comics.
- kjellsbells 2y agoWell, there are comic strips, that is, units published on some schedule that might then be collected and sold as a book. Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, the Far Side, Dilbert, Garfield. These all derive from the age of physical newspapers. Then there are the natively web comics, for example, xkcd, oglaf (NSFW), and a zillion others. (Special shout out to Dr Fun from the late 1990s, a very early example of hacker culture meets the Far Side.) Perhaps only xkcd has crossed into the general consciousness of the non comic reader, but I'm sure HN will correct me. Then there are graphic novels that sometimes are created as magazine-sized editions and then collated, and sometimes just put out as books. The Sandman, American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, Persepolis, Alcoholic. These are well known to the book buying regular public. Intermission: theres a stream of educational comics as well. For example my Indian friends in the US diaspora all talk about Amar Chitra Katha comics from their childhood that had editions for major cultural or religious figures (eg stories about Krishna). Then there are the graphicalizations (thats a word I just made up) of other works. For example, there's a graphical novel version of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Probably not as well known to the average reader.
- g15jv2dp 2y agoAren't calvin&hobbes stories just a few panels (4-5) each? It's a bit different from what I would call a "BD" (a single story making up the whole book, or sometimes 1-2-page stories).
- kergonath 2y agoCalvin & Hobbes definitely fits. Some European BDs are (or were) also published as strips in journals. It’s true that strips are not as common as in the UK or the US, but they are not that different from most short stories BDs. They are not a separate category like mangas or comics are.
- gumby 2y agoTons of disney, richie rich, archie etc, though perhaps not sold in the USA (pretty common in Europe and SE Asia) but are pretty American!
- StephenAmar 2y agoWhat makes Disney comics singular is that a lot of them are authored by European artists and have the distinct BD style. For instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck_in_comics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck_in_comics goes over this a bit. Also Picsou Magazine > Journal de Mickey. There I said it.