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Post by fanboystranger on Nov 29, 2014 0:27:41 GMT -5
People, if you haven't read Shamanism by Igor Baranko. you need to. This is an important work by perhaps the greatest talent in the industry. Little drunk right now, but I'll explain in future posts.
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Post by DubipR on Nov 29, 2014 22:14:31 GMT -5
I recently found the work of Michael Sanlaville. His tome, Le Fleau Vert is this crazy hyperkinetic art style that I'm really vibing on.   |
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Post by Dizzy D on Dec 1, 2014 10:36:07 GMT -5
Is there a reason why Moebius work is largely out of print or rarely printed in English? Is the interest that low? Is this just a difference between European and American comics? I read some of his stuff back in the 80s in Heavy Metal and in the first couple of Marvel reprints and am kind of surprised how little of it has stayed in any print. I'd love to be able to get English printings of Arzach, The Long Tomorrow and The Airtight Garage stories. This is especially true after watching that cool BBC4 documentary on Youtube about Moebius (which had a cool soundtrack by Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk). I'm working through The Incal right now. There was some reason involving his wife IIRC. I'll look it up. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 1, 2014 10:43:01 GMT -5
Does it count as European if the writer is Canadian? He lives in France, nowadays! Guy Delisle is an artist whose work is definitely worth looking for. His four travelogue/diaries books Shenzhen, Pyongyang, Burma chronicles and Jerusalem are at the same time moving, fascinating and wonderfully funny. I swear, you'll learn more about North Korea in one graphic album than in ten years' worth of reading Foreign Affairs! |
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Post by berkley on Dec 2, 2014 2:09:41 GMT -5
Does it count as European if the writer is Canadian? He lives in France, nowadays! Guy Delisle is an artist whose work is definitely worth looking for. His four travelogue/diaries books Shenzhen, Pyongyang, Burma chronicles and Jerusalem are at the same time moving, fascinating and wonderfully funny. I swear, you'll learn more about North Korea in one graphic album than in ten years' worth of reading Foreign Affairs! I have to start reading those. Never seem to see them on the shelves around here, might have to resort to online ordering. |
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Post by antoine on Dec 2, 2014 14:56:00 GMT -5
Been a while (not that I haven't been buying European comics recently). So the new Largo Winch was interesting. A character from another series of Jean van Hamme (and a series which I haven't read yet even though it's a classic: "Story Without Heroes".) shows up and may become a permanent addition to the cast as Largo offers him the job of head of Winch Air. It's also interesting in that the usual two-parters end part 1 with Winch in big problems. In this case Winch is in problem, but Winch himself so far hasn't noticed that anything is going on (spending most of his time on a minor B-plot). Other new comics: A new Carmen McCallum (haven't gotten time to read it yet), new Travis (also no chance to read it yet). Hope to post a bit on those once I get the chance. Oh wow! I thought I was done with Largo Winch, but I love Story Without Heroes and I'm excited to see the "crossover". I just re-read Story Without Heroes recently, and there's an epilogue "written" by Largo Winch at the end. Haven't read volume 2 yet though, i can't find it anywhere in the Province of Québec... |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 3, 2014 9:56:37 GMT -5
Been a while (not that I haven't been buying European comics recently). So the new Largo Winch was interesting. A character from another series of Jean van Hamme (and a series which I haven't read yet even though it's a classic: "Story Without Heroes".) shows up and may become a permanent addition to the cast as Largo offers him the job of head of Winch Air. It's also interesting in that the usual two-parters end part 1 with Winch in big problems. In this case Winch is in problem, but Winch himself so far hasn't noticed that anything is going on (spending most of his time on a minor B-plot). Other new comics: A new Carmen McCallum (haven't gotten time to read it yet), new Travis (also no chance to read it yet). Hope to post a bit on those once I get the chance. Oh wow! I thought I was done with Largo Winch, but I love Story Without Heroes and I'm excited to see the "crossover". I just re-read Story Without Heroes recently, and there's an epilogue "written" by Largo Winch at the end. Haven't read volume 2 yet though, i can't find it anywhere in the Province of Québec... Did you try the public library, Antoine? That's where I found a copy. |
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Post by antoine on Dec 3, 2014 19:40:24 GMT -5
Oh wow! I thought I was done with Largo Winch, but I love Story Without Heroes and I'm excited to see the "crossover". I just re-read Story Without Heroes recently, and there's an epilogue "written" by Largo Winch at the end. Haven't read volume 2 yet though, i can't find it anywhere in the Province of Québec... Did you try the public library, Antoine? That's where I found a copy. Yeah, no luck in Gatineau or Quebec City when I was leaving there. I also go to a lot of used book store in Québec City in Montréal. That's ok, I love the hunt : ) |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 18, 2015 17:42:12 GMT -5
Managed to get my hands on a hardcover of Stories Without Heroes (which also includes 20 Years Later + 5 extra pages), with thanks to my old comic shop in Sittard. (Had browsed it but couldn't find it anywhere, luckily he knew that he had a copy and that it was filed under a special collection. Haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. Also managed to get Memphis, part 2 (the first part ended intruiging enough.) and two parts of the dutch version of Ravine (the oversized softcovers showcase Sejic's artwork better than the American-sized originals, so one of the few times I go for a translation). Anyway wanted to talk a bit about Travis and Carmen McCallum last time, so here it is (sorry, only a few images. Still no scanner available and didn't have the time to search the web, but I post a random page of both series.): Carmen McCallum (by Fred Duval (w) and Gess (a)) and Travis (by Fred Duval (w) and Christophe Quet (a)) are two science fiction series, taking both place in the same universe and written by the same writer (thought the first issue of Carmen McCallum Duval had a co-writer in Olivier Vatine. Duval is mostly known for his steampunk series Hauteville House, where Quet does storyboarding, for the rest they don't seem to have done a lot of longrunning series, but quite a few standalone comics. The universe both series take place in is solid Cyberpunk: humanity is colonizing the solar system, but the stars are still too far away, A.I. is a reality and large corporations have taken the place of governments. The thing I like about both series is that they don't have straight crossovers, it's only in issue 9 that Travis (indirectly) lets the reader know that he has met Carmen. The ties between both series are seen in public figures, tv journalists, companies and so on. The series can be read independent from each other, but you get a bit more out of it if you read both (For instance, Travis' uncle gets offered a job at a company, but if you've read Carmen McCallum's first arc, you know that he really shouldn't take that job.)Both series have a rich backstory that in the main stories only gets hinted at. (Oh and there is also the series Code McCallum, but it hasn't been translated yet and I haven't read it yet. This series focuses on Carmen's younger years, about 10-15 years before the main series. Carmen McCallum was created first in 1995. She is a Spanish/Irish woman, formerly a member of the IRA, who is now a mercenary. Of the two series, this one is more straight Cyberpunk as written by Gibson; Carmen, a skilled woman with questionable ethics, gets hired by big corporations to do illegal actions that can't be traced back to them. Over the series, we do get to see that Carmen is loyal to her friends, but her circle of friends is small.  Steve Travis is more a regular guy. He is born British and his father was one of the first colonists on the moon. A preventable disaster struck the colony and Steve ends up with some compensation for his father's death. He goes through pilot training and buys a space shuttle, transporting cargo for a living. Travis story is more a standard adventure/action story with the cyberpunk setting being more background.  Of the two series, I like Travis the best. Quet is better at drawing the technology of the mid 21st century and Travis is more sympathetic a character than the rather cold and professional McCallum (Steve seems like a normal guy who just gets into trouble and he goes out of his way to protect and help others, while Carmen is a former terrorist and often willing to do rather questionable acts. She is not an outright villain, though). Also Travis builds up a cast of interesting characters around the main character which keeps things interesting. Sorry, a bit on the short side, but as I said, I didn't have a lot of time this time. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 22, 2015 12:41:18 GMT -5
So Story Without Heroes Histoire sans héros (Story Without Heroes) by Jean van Hamme(w) and Dany (a) (1977) and its sequel Vingt ans après (20 Years Later) (and appropriately came out in 1997). This is the hardcover I've bought of this story, which combines both prequel and sequel and gives an afterword written by Largo Winch:  This story (can't call it a series, it was designed as a standalone story with 20 years later a sequel to the first) was created because artist Dany (real name Daniel Henrotin, born 1943) wanted to experiment with another style. Dany was mostly famous for his series Olivier Rameau, a colourful series set in a dreamworld and filled with fantasy elements.  These days, Dany is mostly known for his comics for adults, so be aware if you want to GIS his work. (Also he is one of the few artists who is known to have done adult parodies of his own all-ages work.) For Story Without Heroes, Dany wanted to try out a more realistic style and Van Hamme wanted to do a story without a designated hero like most of his work. (Allegedly) inspired by the classic movie Flight Of the Phoenix (1965), the story would be about a random group of people surviving a plane crash in the jungle of Brazil. The story was published in Tintin magazine and was a stark contrast to the usual series in that magazine. The survivors being 17 people in total (though the story is a bit confusing on that part, as one of the ship's surviving crew members writes that there are 15 survivors, but he means 15 surviving passengers (and 2 surviving crew members)). The story starts 3 days later as the first of the passengers (Mrs. van Meer, an elderly lady who was travelling with her husband.) dies, (most of) the survivors start to realize that no rescue effort is coming and fresh water and food are starting to run out. Two survivors travel into the jungle in the hope of finding any form of rescue, but its 12-year old Laurent Draillac (son of a wealthy airplane factory owner) who has an idea based on the book of Jules Verne he has been reading: the survivors will try to make an hot-air balloon to escape the jungle. The plot is pretty straightforward with occassional surprises, but the story is mostly for the character interactions and the artwork. For a story that claims to be without heroes, several of the survivors show remarkable courage and self sacrifice that puts many so-called heroes to shame. There also are villains (one obvious one (what? A high-0ranking member of a junta turns out to be selfish and murderous? Who would have thought? The other I can't really blame that much, he's mostly a coward than out-and-out evil.)  Obviously some of them manage to survive (but I won't spoil who, except for Laurent Draillac as he is the character on the cover of 20 years later). By the way, 12-year old Laurent is remarkably unworried for a 12-year old in the middle of nowhere, though he does get more emotionally involved as people are starting to die around him. Anyway 20 years later is its sequel: Laurent, now owner of the airplane factory after his father death, is forced to return to the site of the crash with several of the other survivors. The plot is more complicated, involving Nazi's, reveals about the original stories characters backstories and it lacks the punch the original story has. Dany's artwork has evolved over the years and is interesting to compare to the original:  The motivation for certain characters to return to the original crash is a bit forced (though various characters do have completely valid reasons to do so) and the twist in motivations for certain other characters seem to come out of nowhere (I can buy the explanation giving as to why they want to do some things, but the way they go around it seems needlessly complex.) Needlessly complex could be said about most of the story really, but then again finding a logical reason to forcing a group of people to return to the middle of the Brazilian jungle 20 years after they nearly died there, can be quite hard (either return sooner or not at all, most people'd say). I'm sounding really negative here, so some good parts: again the artwork and the interactions between the characters (I'd be happy with a simple reunion of the remaining characters without the forced plot). Anyway the original is a classic and the added chapter has a bit more story with many of the same characters and good art, so it's definitely worth checking out. Note: Laurent Draillac recently appeared in Largo Winch (tying those two series together.. and there was already a connection between Winch and XIII, so that's 3 of Van Hamme's series that tie together.) and he appears to have aged in real time (looking about 50) unlike Winch, who still is 30-something. Nice little touch. Note 2: And while looking for this, I found this awesome page (sadly in dutch) with artists giving commentary on their own work www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Commentator.php . It has commentary by Franq on the new Largo Winch and mentions some nods to this story in that. |
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Post by antoine on Jan 22, 2015 21:30:25 GMT -5
So Story Without Heroes Histoire sans héros (Story Without Heroes) by Jean van Hamme(w) and Dany (a) (1977) and its sequel Vingt ans après (20 Years Later) (and appropriately came out in 1997). This is the hardcover I've bought of this story, which combines both prequel and sequel and gives an afterword written by Largo Winch: This story (can't call it a series, it was designed as a standalone story with 20 years later a sequel to the first) was created because artist Dany (real name Daniel Henrotin, born 1943) wanted to experiment with another style. Dany was mostly famous for his series Olivier Rameau, a colourful series set in a dreamworld and filled with fantasy elements. These days, Dany is mostly known for his comics for adults, so be aware if you want to GIS his work. (Also he is one of the few artists who is known to have done adult parodies of his own all-ages work.) For Story Without Heroes, Dany wanted to try out a more realistic style and Van Hamme wanted to do a story without a designated hero like most of his work. (Allegedly) inspired by the classic movie Flight Of the Phoenix (1965), the story would be about a random group of people surviving a plane crash in the jungle of Brazil. The story was published in Tintin magazine and was a stark contrast to the usual series in that magazine. The survivors being 17 people in total (though the story is a bit confusing on that part, as one of the ship's surviving crew members writes that there are 15 survivors, but he means 15 surviving passengers (and 2 surviving crew members)). The story starts 3 days later as the first of the passengers (Mrs. van Meer, an elderly lady who was travelling with her husband.) dies, (most of) the survivors start to realize that no rescue effort is coming and fresh water and food are starting to run out. Two survivors travel into the jungle in the hope of finding any form of rescue, but its 12-year old Laurent Draillac (son of a wealthy airplane factory owner) who has an idea based on the book of Jules Verne he has been reading: the survivors will try to make an hot-air balloon to escape the jungle. The plot is pretty straightforward with occassional surprises, but the story is mostly for the character interactions and the artwork. For a story that claims to be without heroes, several of the survivors show remarkable courage and self sacrifice that puts many so-called heroes to shame. There also are villains (one obvious one (what? A high-0ranking member of a junta turns out to be selfish and murderous? Who would have thought? The other I can't really blame that much, he's mostly a coward than out-and-out evil.) Obviously some of them manage to survive (but I won't spoil who, except for Laurent Draillac as he is the character on the cover of 20 years later). By the way, 12-year old Laurent is remarkably unworried for a 12-year old in the middle of nowhere, though he does get more emotionally involved as people are starting to die around him. Anyway 20 years later is its sequel: Laurent, now owner of the airplane factory after his father death, is forced to return to the site of the crash with several of the other survivors. The plot is more complicated, involving Nazi's, reveals about the original stories characters backstories and it lacks the punch the original story has. Dany's artwork has evolved over the years and is interesting to compare to the original: The motivation for certain characters to return to the original crash is a bit forced (though various characters do have completely valid reasons to do so) and the twist in motivations for certain other characters seem to come out of nowhere (I can buy the explanation giving as to why they want to do some things, but the way they go around it seems needlessly complex.) Needlessly complex could be said about most of the story really, but then again finding a logical reason to forcing a group of people to return to the middle of the Brazilian jungle 20 years after they nearly died there, can be quite hard (either return sooner or not at all, most people'd say). I'm sounding really negative here, so some good parts: again the artwork and the interactions between the characters (I'd be happy with a simple reunion of the remaining characters without the forced plot). Anyway the original is a classic and the added chapter has a bit more story with many of the same characters and good art, so it's definitely worth checking out. Note: Laurent Draillac recently appeared in Largo Winch (tying those two series together.. and there was already a connection between Winch and XIII, so that's 3 of Van Hamme's series that tie together.) and he appears to have aged in real time (looking about 50) unlike Winch, who still is 30-something. Nice little touch. Note 2: And while looking for this, I found this awesome page (sadly in dutch) with artists giving commentary on their own work www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Commentator.php . It has commentary by Franq on the new Largo Winch and mentions some nods to this story in that. Could you tell me just a little more about the Winch/XIII connection? In what book can I read about that? Thanks! |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 23, 2015 3:24:36 GMT -5
The Winch/XIII connection is pretty subtle, but it is in The XIII mystery : l'enquête (published over here as part 13 of XIII's main series): the publisher of the journalists working on the XIII mystery and the one who finally blocks the story, is Stephen Dundee. Stephen Dundee is also head of the newspaper division of Group W.
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Post by DubipR on Jan 23, 2015 16:24:57 GMT -5
I love Dany's artwork. Yeah, I know him mainly from his Rooie Oortjes stuff, but I really became enamored with his work when I saw Equator and Oliver Rameau. He's on the short list of European artists I need to meet.
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Post by antoine on Jan 23, 2015 19:11:26 GMT -5
The Winch/XIII connection is pretty subtle, but it is in The XIII mystery : l'enquête (published over here as part 13 of XIII's main series): the publisher of the journalists working on the XIII mystery and the one who finally blocks the story, is Stephen Dundee. Stephen Dundee is also head of the newspaper division of Group W. Wow, subtle indeed! |
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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 2, 2015 12:09:28 GMT -5
So I want to write a bit about a random Axel Moonshine comic later this evening, but I'm running into the problem that so far none of the randomly picked issues have a cover I can post on this board.... Ah, the 70s/80s with their easy approach to nudity. Meh, there should be a usable cover somewhere in this series.
And while researching a bit of the background, I've noticed that the original title is actually Le Vagabond des Limbes (The Vagabond of Limbo) rather than the main characters name (which is also written phonetically as "Axle Munshine", which make a few comments in one of the comics more understandable.
More later...
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