Blake and Mortimer is a great choice, but be sure to select books by Edgar P. Jacobs himself and not one of the pastiches produced after his death. They are real classics, even if the earliest volumes are tinged with colonialist overtones (the "yellow menace" was still a thing in those days). What's great is that the series easily goes from cloak and dagger war stories (Le secret de l'espadon) to archaeology (le mystère de la grande pyramide) by way of science-fiction (le piège diabolique and l'énigme de l'Atlantide) or police procedurals (le collier de la reine).

Another series I must recommend is Franquin's Spirou. It has adenture and humour, and Franquin's is without a doubt one of the best cartoonists the world has known.

I second what Roquefort says, but I don't think you should stop Spirou after the Franquin's issues. I personally loved the Jean-Claude Fournier issues, and then the 3 or 4 Cauvin/Nic issues were also good. After that, I think it's Tome and Janry, and although they are entertaining, they are not nearly as good as the beginning of the series... (An exception would be "La frousse au trousse" and "La Vallée des bannis", they were really good if I remember correctly....I have to re-read some Spirou!)

It's a lot of tell, not show indeed.

(This is why I put it on the list in this thread: classiccomics.boards.net/thread/561/most-verbose-comic?page=3&scrollTo=32088).

I don't think Jacobs art changed that much over time, but I should go back and look at them.

Spirou: I have no idea what's in the collections, but it could be the Spirou magazine collections, yes.

I don't think the pre-Franquin issues have ever been reprinted (maybe a few of the Jidehem issues?)

The Spirou and Fantasio series has the following issues (there are also 2 Franquin issues that predate 4 adventures (#1). #1 and #3 are mostly short stories. #2 containts 2 stories that are connected. From then on most of it is 1 story per issue and a few two-parters. Franquin is definitely the best of the artists on Spirou so far; he's one of the great writers/artists in Western European comics.

The other teams definitely have worthwhile content, but none of it (unless you go into the Une Aventure .... par..-series) compares to Franquin's work. I like Tome&Janry a lot. Fournier is good. Nic&Cauvin are not bad, but are hampered by editorial directives. Vehlmann and Yoann (current team) are IMHO pretty good as well. Morvan and Munuera are the weakest by far.

So if you want Franquin's work there are 20 issues of Spirou and Fantasio. His best works are around late 50s/60s period:

FRANQUIN:
1. 4 aventures de Spirou ...et Fantasio 01/1950            => 4 short stories.
2. Il y a un sorcier à Champignac 01/1951
3. Les chapeaux noirs 01/1952                                     => Several short stories.
4. Spirou et les héritiers 01/1952
5. Les voleurs du Marsupilami 01/1954
6. La corne de rhinocéros 01/1955
7. Le dictateur et le champignon 01/1956
8. La mauvaise tête 01/1956
9. Le repaire de la murène 01/1957
10. Les pirates du silence 01/1958
11. Le gorille a bonne mine 01/1959
12. Le nid des Marsupilamis 01/1960                             => I believe this one has a short 2nd story.
13. Le voyageur du mésozoïque 01/1960
14. Le prisonnier du Bouddha 01/1960
15. Z comme Zorglub 01/1961                                      => two-parter (but the first issue also works as a standalone story)
16. L'ombre du Z 01/1962                                             => two-parter
17. Spirou et les hommes-bulles 01/1964
18. QRN sur Bretzelburg 01/1966
19. Panade à Champignac 01/1969                                 => contains two stories. 2nd story is more a Gaston Lagaffe story.

FOURNIER
20. Le faiseur d'or 01/1970 => second story forms a two-part with the next issue
21. Du glucose pour Noémie 01/1971 => two-parter with the second half of the previous issue.
22. L'abbaye truquée 01/1972
23. Tora Torapa 01/1973

FRANQUIN
24. Tembo Tabou 01/1974 (Was written earlier, but was published during the Fournier-years. Also contains various Marsupilami stories)

FOURNIER AGAIN
25. Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba 01/1974
26. Du cidre pour les étoiles 01/1975
27. L'Ankou 07/1977
28. Kodo le tyran 04/1979                                                => Two-parter
29. Des haricots partout 07/1980                                      => Two-parter

NIC and CAUVIN
30. La ceinture du grand froid 04/1983
31. La boîte noire 07/1983
32. Les faiseurs de silence 01/1984

TOME and JANRY
33. Virus 07/1984
34. Aventure en Australie 01/1985
35. Qui arrêtera Cyanure ? 07/1985
36. L'horloger de la comète 01/1986                              => Two-parter (though the first part can be read alone)
37. Le réveil du Z 09/1986                                            => Two-parter
38. La jeunesse de Spirou 01/1987                                => various short stories.
39. Spirou à New York 09/1987
40. La frousse aux trousses 10/1988                               => Two-parter
41. La vallée des bannis 11/1989                                    => Two-parter
42. Spirou et Fantasio à Moscou 12/1990
43. Vito la déveine 12/1991
44. Le rayon noir 04/1993
45. Luna fatale 09/1995
46. Machine qui rêve 11/1998

MORVAN and MUNUERA
47. Paris-sous-Seine 09/2004
48. L'Homme qui ne voulait pas mourir 09/2005
49. Spirou et Fantasio à Tokyo 09/2006
50. Aux sources du Z 11/2008

VEHLMANN and YOANN
51. Alerte aux Zorkons 09/2010
52. La face cachée du Z 10/2011
53. Dans les griffes de la vipère 01/2013
54. Le Groom de Sniper Alley 11/2014

I read 'Swords of Rome'... pretty good (though pretty low production value)... anyone have any idea if more than just the first volume ever got translated? I found it in a half-price books on a trip a bit ago... didn't even realize it was European until I opened it to read .

Also, the same guy has a Crusades series that looks pretty good (if not historical, as the Rome one is).. anyone ever read it?

The breakdown is exceedingly useful. I picked up one of the Tome & Janry books in Brussels, as they had it in English translation. (The english subtitle is "RUnning Scared") It was quite enjoyable, but I wasn't sure where it fit into the Spirou history, as it's the only one I've read.

Just purchased (in translation) from Amazon. Looking forward to it.