Serious money for comic strip heroes in France

The English-speaking world can never fathom the French and continental passion for comic strips.  That disparaging expression does not do justice to the Bande Dessinée, the genre more respectfully known in English as the graphic novel. In the French-speaking countries and beyond, the BD, with its heroes from Belgium's Tintin to Switzerland's modern Titeuf, are not just for kids. They are revered and treated as a serious, ninth art of a kind that mixes the novel and cinema.

La BD (pronounced bédé) is big business. Last year 34 million albums were sold in France. As further proof, a Paris sale of original comic art broke world records last weekend. A cover illustration for a Tintin album went for 764,200 euros (1.22 million dollars). The indian ink and gouache, bought by an anonymous French collector, was drawn in 1932 by Hergé for Tintin en Amerique, the third adventure of his intrepid boy reporter [picture above]. The previous BD record was 177,000 euros, paid a year ago for a drawing by Enki Bilal, one of the titans of the French BD [picture below]

The ecstatic Artcurial saleroom said the auction of 653 items earned 3.4 million euros. "This marks the veritable consecration of the bande dessinée," said Eric Leroy, the house's expert. "People are no long ashamed to say that they collect BDs. The market is expanding fast."

As an honorary Gaul, I have long been a Tintinophile. The nostalgia-inducing tales have a certain magic. Like many French, I recognise lines from his adventures that have passed into the language. For example, everyone knew what le Monde meant the other day when it noted that the bad reputation of one of President Sarkozy's ministers "clings to him like Captain Haddock's Band-Aid" (Le sparadrap du capitaine Haddock). This refers to a running gag involving the whisky-soaked mariner in Tintin's Affaire Tournesol and Vol 714 pour Sydney. On a flight to Beijing with a French Prime Minister a few years ago, I noticed that his staff were briefing up by reading Le Lotus Bleu, Tintin's tale of late 1930s China.

I can also understand the attraction of some of the masters like Bilal, who created post-apocalyptic world that draws heavily on old Soviet bloc life.  And yes, Art Spiegelman has shown in the USA how the comic strip can be used to high brow ends. Yet... I still find it hard to take the bande dessinée as serious art, with its high-brown criticism, annual festival at Angoulême and venerated stars. In the past week, the media have feted the publication of the latest adventure of Blake and Mortimer, a pair of old world military Englishmen who exclaim "by Jove" on every second page. Le Monde's literary supplement on Friday ran a cover on a new BD version of Dickens' Oliver Twist.

A lot of creative work goes into the art and plot of a BD album. They have come a long way from the American comic strips for kids that inspired them in the early 20th century. It's also fair to note that the thriving genre is accessible to young creative talent in a way that the movie industry and classical publishing are not. But I still see them as fast food beside entertainment that takes more mental effort to consume. I'm happy to be contradicted by my French regulars and anyone else, so fire away....

PS: I see that Steven Spielberg is likely to cast Thomas Sangster, a 17-year-old English actor as Tintin when he makes a long-awaited movie version of the cartoon hero this year. Movies of comic strip heroes are rarely as good as the original.  I'll stick to the cardboard and paper version.

[Blake and Mortimer's latest]

Bilal's Bleu Sang sold for record price in 2007]

Comments

[Maggie G]

I agree with you, Mr Bremner. I have always thought that the reason the French like BDs so much is because they avoid having to use the passé simple and other more complicated stuff that is necessary in a normal text. BDs just have dialogue, so it's mainly in the present tense.

In fact I often wonder if reading aloud is less common in French families and schools than in English culture. I find it a pain reading aloud even the simplest picture books in French because they are written in the passé simple with verbs that you are never sure how to pronounce (eûmes, pus, fimes, etc). And you can't read aloud BDs very well either, since they're just dialogue. So I have the impression that the bedtimes story,and the quiet time at school with the teacher reading aloud to the class, are not so common in France. Is this correct?

Tintin is okay because it's for kids and the images are very appealing. But most BDs I find just plain ugly. I admit I have never read any of them, though.

Superman and Tintin are special.

[Juliette]

I don't know about Tintin, but if I had the money, I would gladly have spent over 200,000€ for the original Corto Maltese that also broke a record...

[Craig McGinty]

I thought Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi was excellent:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(comic)

And I've recently discovered Shaun Tan, who won a prize at Angoulême:

http://www.shauntan.net/

Granted he is not French ;-)

All the best, Craig

[Daniel Strohl]

A famous journalist was nicknamed may be 25 years ago by the chansonnier Thierry le Luron "l'homme qui cire les bottes plus vite que son ombre" (the man who polishes boots faster than his shadow), as a paraphrase of a funny Wild West BD in which the cow-boy Lucky Luke "shoots faster than his shadow". Some other characters of this BD made by Goscinny and Morris are famous : les frères Dalton (Dalton Bros), Ma Dalton, Calamity Jane.

I have a very funny caricature of Ségolène, represented as Calamity Jane having killed her opponents Jospin, Lang, Strauss-Kahn. She holds a rifle with a rose sticked in the barrel (the emblem of the Parti Socialiste is a rose).

"But I still see them as fast food beside entertainment that takes more mental effort to consume" (Charles)

Yes, but well made fast food is not bad either.

[Brussel Sprout]

I've just finished the first in a trilogy of BD by Bruno Marchand, Quelque Pas Vers La Lumiere. The story is of a young woman in Paris, half English and half French, in about 1960, trying to uncover the mystery of her father's final days and death during the second world war. Her father is widely regarded by his former comrades as a traitor.

In addition to an interesting story using Marianne as first person narrator (and consequently requiring a range of tenses as she is thinking of the distant, mid-term and immediate pasts as well as the present), the illustrations are phenomenally well-researched and vivid depictions of both Paris and London.

NB Tintin is Belgian - and if you live in Brussels, you can see many sights still straight out of Herge's notebooks. BDs are not only a way of getting reluctant readers to engage with print and paper, but also can be a wonderful record of a specific time period.

I'm increasingly with the French and the Belgians - BD are art, no question.

[Zirglob]

I believe that it is in "L'affaire Tournesol" that Captain Haddock struggles with a piece of "sparadrap", not in "Vol 714 pour Sydney"...

[Christine]

I never really liked Tintin, but loved the Astérix albums (those written by Goscinny of course), which are a wonderful satire of France and can be read at all age (everytime I read one again, I discover a joke or allusion I did not get the time before). I think the singularity of the BD is the way the author is able to create a very unique universe, an imaginary vision of a distorted reality that in no way can be matched by a book or a movie.
Est-ce que la qualité d'une oeuvre se mesure à l'aune de l'effort mental qu'il faut dépenser pour y accéder? Dans ce cas, le bidet de Deschamps ne vaut pas un penny, pas plus que les fresques religieuses peintes dans les églises (fresques qui étaient d'ailleurs les ancêtres de la BD!).
My favourites: Gotlib and Goscinny for the humour, Bilal and Corto Maltese, and of course Franquin's Idées noires.
But I guess it's really a cultural thing, I never managed to read an american comic strip to the end.
The only problem, speaking of money, is that BD albums are really expensive, which is probably why so many people go read them at the FNAC.

@Maggie G
Reading aloud to children is quite common. As surprising as it sounds, french speaking people actually know how to pronounce "eûmes"... Reading aloud stories is precisely the way children get familiar with the passé simple.

[xine]

Maggie,

Having been raised in France, I don't recall getting much of "the quiet time at school with the teacher reading aloud to the class", so you might have a point there, and it's a great pity. As for bedtime stories, on the other hand, I'd like more substantial proof. My feeling is that there's as much of it in both countries and that the difference in socio-economic backgrounds is the main criterion.

I can't help reacting to your remark that "you can't read aloud BDs very well either, since they're just dialogue." Reading to children usually involves showing them the pictures and commenting them, as well as doing different voices for different characters, so unless you're thinking of reading aloud to blind people or old people with poor eyesight for instance, I don't really see your point!
As for the pronunciation of "fimes, eumes, pus", it's the first time I hear someone (native French speaker at any rate) say that they don't know how to pronounce them. What people often do find difficult is to put them in the right form if given the infinitive ("il serva" instead of "il servit", for instance), but when they see the right form in writing, they know how it's pronounced. probably because the "passe simple" is so frequent in written narrative that even though it's hardly used in everyday conversation, most people have heard those verbs often enough.

[B. Samuel Davis]

Heck I love comics and graphic novels. I'd pay a million for some of the art of Henniman (sp) for any of his Krazy Kat strips. (if I had a million, of course which I don't...).

If you don't think graphic novels are an art form, well...phooey on you!

[Helen]

As a child, I had a particular fondness for 'Alix' (takes place in the Roman antiquity, like Asterix, but a little later, about Augustus' time) and 'Lefranc' (70's? nice cars!). I also loved 'Yoko Tsuno' (a bit sci-fi) and 'Barbe Rouge' with the beautifully and accurately drawn ships (early 18th century, privateers, pirates, war between France and England, the infamous 'pontons' on the Thames etc.). The nautical terms are used correctly too, unlike in most movies!
BD are particularly handy when you're in bed recovering from the flu or some other bug, and your head feels like a punching bag!

[Marco Milone]

Interesting!

[Léopold Schonbach]

Christine,
Marcel Duchamp's most famous piece was a urinal not a bidet... Probably another "gender" hang-up :)
But your point is very well taken.
Art has nothing to do with intellectual effort. It has some magical emotional content that is hard to define.
So many people praise Proust without having read it beyond "Longtemps je me suis couché de bonne heure.." and berate Hergé while having avidly read all Tintin's adventures from Tintin chez les Soviets to Vol 714 pour Sidney.
Of course, I am sure our good Charles Bremner has read all of Proust. And I am not trying to be cute here. Charles, your Honorary Gaul's badge has been and is still being well earned.

And Maggie, I love reading bedtime stories to my grand-daughters even when they are laced with passé simples. And they love it: not the passé simple, but the stories. And maybe they will speak proper French (and also proper Swedish, when their mother reads Pippi Longstockings stories in their original language; and also proper English when they listen to their London teacher).

[The3rdColumn]

Isn't (or wasn't -- don't know if he's still around) the author of Tintin Belgian?

[dot king]

Brussel Sprout - are you the person I think you are? Did you once go by the pseudonym of Brian Boring?
No mean cartoonist yourself if so.

Not keen on BD myself these days, sort of grew out of it several decades ago, but don't discount it as a perfectly respectable language medium. Years ago, asked a class to bring Romeo and Juliet into C20 and tell the story as a comic strip. Dead and dying pink and orange-haired punks everywhere, Romeo in his tights yelling "Havatye!" and despatching them with drawn sword. Ambulances roaring off blaring "nee-no-nee-no" in sound bubbles. Lots of excellent parody.

Maggie, even I read out loud with kids in French in school, but I don't know what happens in the primary section. The passé simple doesn't change the pronunciation, follow the same general rules.

[Lily]

Re : Christine/Maggie ‘reading to children’

It has never occurred to me to read comics to my children. Most comics aren’t well suited for 3 to 5 year olds. Little story/picture books seem to be better adapted for the very young. Once they start reading on their own, comics become interesting, and difficult stories will then be the preference for reading to them.

We have the whole Tintin collection at home (a worthwhile investment for three boys!). They first looked at the images, here and there, then one after the other – and read one book in 10 minutes. Then they discovered a “oui” here, “atchoum” there, etc. – until eventually reading Tintin from A to Z. This has been the second night that our 7 year old has taken the entire collection into his bed to have a choice when he’ll wake up. (Daylight savings time doesn’t help with reading before school, though.)

Thanks for pointing out the importance to read out loud stories containing a lot of passé simple to get the kids used to it. I have never thought that reading stories to my children could have as a purpose to teach them their passé simple. But why not? It’s an interesting aspect.

The large majority of French BD aren’t really suited for children – IMOPO (in my overly protective opinion), although parents might be happy about their children’s good ‘reading’ habits when entering a book shop. They really ‘love’ to ‘read’ and put their noses into adult stuff.

At my boys’ small OP village school library, there are some volumes of ‘titeuf’ that they may not read (VERY interesting reading material). My 9 year old knows much of what’s in there nonetheless and will comment every “no” with a “tchôo, c pôo vrai!!” (I don’t know how it’s spelled). I repeated the same thing after him but was ‘wrong’ each time I tried. It wasn’t the pronunciation that I had gotten wrong but my VOICE wasn’t right. My son had a very distinct idea of the voice that belonged to titeuf’s “tchôo,…” and mine was clearly wrong. - :) or :( .

As for the “fimes, eumes, pus” – I rather have some difficulty to get the liaisons always right when reading aloud in French.

[Marguerite.]

J'aimais beaucoup lire Tintin, Spirou, Asterix quand j'etais jeune. J'ai toujours les Tintin dans ma bibliotheque mais je n'arrive pas a les relire maintenant. Je ne les ouvre que pour verifier une "citation" quand il y a un debat avec des copains.
Je ne sais pas si les adultes qui lisent encore Tintin sont si nombreux que cela. A part ceux qui font partie de la "secte" des tintinophiles...

[Francois D]

"Movies of comic strip heroes are rarely as good as the original."

Perfectly true: it's probably impossible to rivalise with the original.

Response to Maggie G.

I don't think you quite right about conjugation of verbs that would constitute an obstacle to the narration. Children bed stories always begin like this "there was a time". In addition, we have what is called the "present of narration," witch is very useful to tell stories without being forced to conjugate.

Back to Tintin ..

In addition to the words or phrases created by Herge (Tonnerre de Brest, etc), the terms of "Tintinophilie" and "Tintinologie" (science of Tintin) were created.

If you have, like me, a "Tintinophile" in your family, it's easy for a Christmas present, to go shopping in Bruges, where there is a special shop (near the Great Place).

For those interested in this very broad subject (one could talk about it for days and days), several discussions may took place;
- Psychanalytics studies: Tintin sexuality (very, very poor), Captain Hadock's alcoholism, the personality of Professor Tournesol..

And what is Tintin's responsability for the vocation to become international journalist? (CB, we wait the answer!).

- Also interesting remarks suggesting the role of Jules Verne to inspire Herge (but don't too say that in Belgium even if Jules Vernes was a Picard man). Note also that Tintin has been translated in Ch'ti

- Very delicate question: does Tintin vehicles some form of racism?(Tintin au Congo).

A previous article on this subject in Express:

http://livres.lexpress.fr/dossiers.asp?idC=7781&idR=4

It seems there were even in the National Assembly a discussion whether Tintin was left or right.

Had it not also a bit of Tintin, in our "dear Nicolas" when he has gone recently in Chad, a sunday afternoon, to look for members of the Ark of Noe (out of prison tonight ..).

Teachers will also tell you that they have made love geography to children thanks to Tintin.

And "Tintin in Tibet", 50 years after, is terribly in the actuality....

CB's article gives me in any case want to buy the book "Tintin in the light of Lacan" (Lacan is a very known psychanalist ).

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/images/222003478X/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=301061&s=books

In any case it's cheaper than buying original designs ..

[Phil]

Anyone interested in comics or BD should read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.

It's a beautiful book, entertaining as any comic, but it shows you *why* comics work!

Great book.

[paparuga]

Hello,

I will back Phil on Scott McCloud, "Understanding Comics" - a comics about what is so special in the BD's narration process - is a pure jewel, very clever and pedagogic, it was a revelation for me.

I am a little disappointed that the article doesn't mention more contemporary French BD and authors. Tintin, Asterix are very indeed good, but if you want to explore all the possibilties of BD you have to check at more moderns works specially at the independent editions "L'Association" (Joan Sfar, Trondheim, David B., Satrapi) that have engaged a real revolution in the discipline in the 90's, but also the editions Cornelius, Rackam, Vertige Graphics.

What concern american graphic novels, beside Art Spiegelman, you can not forget Will Eisner, a monument of the discipline (specially in "The Dropsy Avenue", he has an incredible ability to speak about the immigration story of US and about the Great Depression, he is a real "story teller", it amazed me each time I read him...), Joe Sacco (in particular his book about Gorazde in Bosnia, as a journalist), Crumb (I love Mister Nostalgia and his developpement about the musical movement Blues in the 30's in teh US). I will not forget Alan Moore (who is english I believe) and who made a very good job with V for vendetta (and his other books).

I will not comment on asian Comics that are very different but so rich and diverse : history, litterature,... they treat every subject of life (Taniguchi is one of my favorite author, he has written an "anthology" (4 comics so far) about the main japanese writers of the beginning of the 20th century and their involvment in politics, it's very enlightening about the social and political contexte of Japan and its relation with the Western civilization).. as do european BD (contrary maybe to american graphic novels that have been so far less diverse in their thematics, but it is changing quickly !).

So I invite everybody to discover BD beyond the classics of twenty years ago.... I think this approach is very restrictive and does no justice to the diversity, dynamism and creativity of the "9th art" that really deserves this title...

Paparuga, Paris
PS: I have really to apologize for my english, by the way....:)

[dot king]

Comic strips are also a good way of teaching direct and indirect speech as well as onomatopoeia - this for good, progressing and/or already motivated readers.
And are a good way of coaxing the less motivated reader into a reading habit.

Maggie, when I learned the passé simple, at school, it was called the "passé historique" because it was used more or less exclusively for telling "(his)tories" in the written and hardly ever spoken form.
We were taught then more to be aware of it than to learn it thoroughly.
But the Anglophone children in French schools need to be more than aware of it and indeed find it quite difficult. When they "study" its use (as they do in "grammaire pûre") they have to combine it with the imperfect and the passé antérieur (literary equivalent of the pluperfect - plus que parfait). They also have to understand the story! And with any luck, enjoy it -though this seems less important, more's the pity.

[Anne]

Tintin for children ? i am afraid that is missing a point. the great thing about Tintin or Asterix for example is that reading them as a kid or an adult you get different things from these stories.
Charles, "fast food entertainment" seems pretty harsh to me ... e.g. Corto Maltese or La Tour (can't remember the author) are far better than a lot of the "real" litterature in terms of style, themes, creativity. Le Petit Nicolas was a master piece of delicacy and "tender" humor long before Calvin & Hobbes.
PS : and i have read comic books aloud to children, it is great fun to do the different voices (and be scolded because you've mixed up the voices between the characters ;-))

[Pierre Bear]

Salut. A propos des bandes dessinees , qui se souvient des Pieds Nickeles ( pardon j'ai pas d'accents sur ce clavier )? Les aventures de Croquignol, de Ribouldingue( le fameux barbu ) et de Filochard m'ont constamment amusees lors de mon enfance en France.

Pierre

[Pierre Bernardi]

French more visual than English. Hence BD, cinema... hence couture, impressionism, jewellery, the feel of Montmartre... hence pillar-box chic... the view from the pont des arts... British TV works with a strong storyline - Question of Sport, Never mind the buzzcocks, evening news, etc. Only French equivalents are Canal Four and Thierry Ardisson - his shows feel taut as a result.

[Lily]

"French more visual than English." (PB)

This is probably the reason why France doesn't experience the same audiobook market boom as Germany or the Anglo-Saxon world (?) -

[Robert Marchenoir]

This Tintin illustration sold for more than a rather interesting Paul Klee picture, which went under the hammer just a few days ago.

[Romain]

Captain Haddock's Band-Aid" (Le sparadrap du capitaine Haddock).
I believe the first occurence of le sparadrap is in "Le sceptre d'Ottocar" . It takes place in Geneva, near Cornavin railway station, when Capitaine Haddock receives an optician shop sign on his nose. 764000€ for that gouache, just nonsensical.

[john o'doe]

Seems Max Mosley paid £2,500 for a not very comic strip in Chelsea on Friday afternoon.

[Maggie G]

Thanks to all the people who replied to my comments about reading aloud in the passé simple, reading aloud BDs, and to my question about whether reading aloud is as common in French as in English.

"Reading aloud stories is precisely the way children get familiar with the passé simple." (Christine)

"the "passe simple" is so frequent in written narrative that even though it's hardly used in everyday conversation, most people have heard those verbs often enough." (Xine)

"I love reading bedtime stories to my grand-daughters even when they are laced with passé simples." (Léopold Schonbach)

These comments reminded me of some interesting points I once underlined in a book called "Contributions to an understanding of literacy": "Written language is stored in the ear....Reading aloud is introducing the patterns associated with written language by the familiar vocal means....Never to have encountered the classic folk tale or blank verse [or the passé simple] is to have these forms erased from the page."

So my next question is, what about the children who come to school without having been read to -- do they have a hard time adapting to the passé simple? Or do they purposely get a lot of stories read to them in maternelle and jardin?

What about story-tellers -- what tense do they use? Is is the "present of narration", as mentioned by Francois D? I know there are a lot of story-tellers in France; a friend of mine heard one recently in the arrière pays and said it was fantastic.

As far as I know, my mother-in-law (age 85) never read a story to any of her children or grandchildren, but she grew up in a village in the Alps where they had the "veillée" -- that is, when the people of the village gathered together in the evening to tell stories together. I will have to ask her more about this.

Another comment: In anglophone magazines, radio discussions etc we hear over and over again, "If you want your children to do well in school, the single most important thing you can do is read aloud to them". There is just absolutely no question about this. Yet I have never heard or read any comment like this in French -- does this mean anything?

Finally, when I said that BDs don't read aloud well, I meant that they don't flow along as smoothly as a traditional text -- they are more jerky, as you have to "fill in the gaps". Anne said, "I have read comic books aloud to children, it is great fun to do the different voices (and be scolded because you've mixed up the voices between the characters ;-))" This is very true, of course. I think this would be with children in the age range about five to nine. I agree with Lily that for younger children BDs are not really suitable, and you wouldn't read a BD to an older child, though you would still read them stories like Watership Down or Treasure Island.

[dot king]

Maggie,
It must be for a French child, just as they learn to use the subjunctive naturally and come to formal learning of it later, when they already "know" it, the same with the passé simple.
Good question about raconteurs though, whether they use the passé simple in oral story-telling. That I don't know.
I do notice occasional use of the passé simple in spoken language on the radio and in songs - think of: "bien sûr nous eûmes des orages" from "Les vieux amants" de Jacques Brel. That is written to be "told", and I think sometimes, radio and TV reporters write like that, in written form to be read aloud.
I think what François means is that "there was a time" corresponds to "once upon a time" (il était une fois) and is the imperfect used with the passé simple and the passé antérieur for stories written in the past tense.
Jules Renard's story "Poil de Carotte" is written in the present tense for example, and past tenses used only in letters sent between characters.
All the examples you cited as being complicated to pronounce were from irregular verbs, you just need to know those, but for the rest there are patterns, entirely regular once you have them under your belt.
I think readng aloud WITH children is the way to help them learn to read, perhaps more than TO them.
I noticed years ago that children had already forgotten how to listen. However, I also found that they loved to be read to in school. Some would fall asleep even - so reading WITH children has quite a different effect from reading TO them!
Nowadays, so much of children's response is visual, that I fear for reading as a simple, enjoyable activity where the child alone with his/her imagination interacts with the written word.
Not every household has books, not every parent encourages reading, some are not even good readers themselves, there has been and there always will be that problem, in whichever country, culture, language.
As a general rule, children from households where they are included in general conversation and encouraged to read books, which are a natural part of their environment, will, excluding, for the generalisation any other learning difficulty, have at least, a better start in school.

BTW you might be interested to hear this: today I tried to buy a book token for my friend's soon-to-be 8-year-old, so she could actively go to a bookshop and choose her own book.
In France this isn't possible. The lady in the librairie patiently explained to me all the rules and regulations and conditions under which such a thing is possible. She also did this very loudly and syllable by syllable "spon-sor-is-és" - she didn't seem to have noticed I spoke French and wasn't wearing my strait-jacket :)
Seems that they're only available from the Conseil Régional for set books for students who qualify for a grant, from businesses for their employees; or from that one shop to be exchanged for a book in that one shop if you weren't covered by the other two cases.
As the little girl in question lives just outside Pau, this was no good. And the FNAC in Bordeaux was a bit far. So I came home empty-handed and have 48 hours to think of something else.
In the UK book tokens can be bought and exchanged in any bookshop - unless things have changed in my absence.
So, there's a suggestion for France to encourage children in active reading. She could have had what she wanted - BD, anything, now she'll get what I choose for her. Not the same, is it?

[Tom]

Did this article have anything to do with the title? i followed this from digg and i have to say, i'm extremely disapointed with this article. useless and boring, try again with more effort mr. author.

[Thomas V.]

Back to the Bande dessinée topic, I must back Marjane Satrapi, Hugo Pratt (author of the Corto Maltese series among others... but he's not French, even though his work enjoy a real success in France, as much as in Italy).

As Paparuga mentionned it, there's now in France a new generation of auteurs de bande dessinée - we don't have any equivalence for "cartoonist" : these authors have helped establishing the bande dessinée (which doesn't have to be comic) as an art.

Around the group l'Association several authors (who were both doing the writing and the drawing) explored this art, starting ten years ago. Some worked on the very core of the art, the text/image relation ; they called themselves OuBaPo (Ouvroir de Bande [dessinée] Potentielle, a reference to Queneau, Perec, Roubaud & co did to literature with their OuLiPo). Some pretty intellectual stuff, more experimental than really interesting. Still, it added to the seriousness of the genre, being aimed at theoritecal study - a bit like the text/image studies flourishing in universities around the world (Anglo-Saxons first, by the way ; these authors, Ayroles for instance, were somehow in advance, at a time when French universities weren't that interested in text/image studies.

From that group an author called Lewis Trondheim distinguished himself, with his Lapinot series : a mix of fun (parody of the childish side of BD) and serious themes, handling with loneliness or death. He also experimented, with a never fading sense of fantasy, the registers of autobiography (Approximativement), or more recently History (l'Ile Bourbon).

Along him emerged Joann Sfar, who deals with a similar humour with topics such as religion or virility. Some of his series are aimed at teenagers (Grand Vampire, by far the more interesting soap I've ever known), others at adults (his huge success Le Chat du Rabbin, that made him one of France's favorite commentators about judaism - in spite of him being rather godless). Both Sfar & Trondheim worked on child series.

Others authors could be mentionned : David B (l'Ascension du Haut Mal) deals with disease hitting a family ; Larcenet's le Combat ordinaire (a masterpiece) is about death, aesthetics, world revolving, neurosis... always in a very subtle way, and without forgetting humour either.

Aside from the Association authors, the Belgian Schuiten & Peeters have built the Cités Obscures, a deep reflexion about modern Europe through the bias of architecture and politics. Aforementionned Bilal is a great success too, even if I'd say his genius lies rather in his drawings than in his scenarii.

Plenty of others exist ; these ones are just a reflect of my taste.
I hope you'll forgive me this long enumeration ; I just intended to show some authors who have worked on raising the bande dessinée above the mere childish entertainment. They have mainly met great success (Larcenet's new album, concluding the Combat ordinaire series, is one of the best-selling books these weeks), and have been swiflty translated to English (I'm pretty sure in the case of Sfar's the Rabbin's Cat and David B.'s Epileptic, english for the quite poetic L'ascension du haut mal).
They almost all work in order to be read by a majority, but by no means are cheap, underculture.

The point is, they perhaps are managing to do what French literature has failed to ; today's prominent writers, such as Sollers, Modiano, Quignard, le Clézio... are not read as Balzac, Hugo or Gide used to be. I'm not trying to compare them really, just to have a look at the contemporary habits in French reading.

Hope you'll all forgive my rather poor english.

[dot king]

"today's prominent writers, such as Sollers, Modiano, Quignard, le Clézio... are not read as Balzac, Hugo or Gide used to be. I'm not trying to compare them really, just to have a look at the contemporary habits in French reading."
(Thomas V)

Anything that keeps people reading, thinking, coming back for more and keeping reading habits alive, is a worthwhile literary form.
Thanks to Thomas V and Paparuga for their informed and wide-ranging posts.
From what you describe, BD also goes in for socio-political angles, so that challenge is included too.
I don't know whether I'll be tempted over from the typeset to the illustrated page, whether my conversion will be complete, but I promise to look more closely at modern BD.

[Zeke Szabolcs]

I write to you only express my feelings about comic strips.

I have just read your article in the TimesOnline.

When I was a child, I always read Asterix and Obelix, and my other favourite: Pif et Hercule.

It changed my life. I was born in a communist country, Hungary, and these comics were my "home and world", which allowed me to be free, and gave me a wide perspective. Recently I am going to study animation, and I hope I will make animation films in the future. I am so grateful to Uderzo, Goscinny, and others, who invest their talent in the comics and in me...

[John Styx]

Maggie, passés simples are the least of your worries when you get read "old school" bedtime stories. When I was in holidays, my grandmother read my cousins and me stories by Mme d'Aulnoy and Perrault. There were lots of things we didn't understand, yet we wouldn't have missed it for the world. How many French kids actually understand the famous sentence "Tire la chevillette, la bobinette cherra"?

[Valentin]

John Styx ("There were lots of things we didn't understand, yet we wouldn't have missed it for the world") :

If I understood well, it was for herself that Maggie G was annoyed by passés simples, and less for the children :)