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To be honest, I'd wanted to just quickly upload one of Giancola's pieces matching a "Here at the End of All Things"* series I'd like to get started, more or less reflecting my current level of shock, deep sadness, and growing fear about what's currently happening in the States. Unfortunately, image uploads don't seem to be working here at the moment, so all that will have to wait for another day. :S

the series is themed to Sam & Frodo resting 'pon the slopes of Mt. Doom, awaiting the lava flow, not realising that giant eagles are coming to rescue them [you know]

On the positive tip, I'm quite chuffed to have recently discovered Donato Giancola's art! If I understand correctly, he's first-gen Italian-American, here covering this ultra-famous British series by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Without further ado, here're the art pieces & interview:
**https://donatoarts.com/inte

Gatekeeper!
We have travelled too far and lost too many to turn back!
Surrender your blade!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxR-oKkwJLI

NOTE: suggestion to turn on CC/subtitles, as the dialogue is a little muddy in places.

This is from the classic Les armées du Conquérant / Conquering Armies, by JP Dionnet and JC Gal.

Slight backstory-- publishing house Les Humanoïdes Associés (or "Humanoids") had been established just three years before (in 1974), by Mœbius, Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and financial director Bernard Farkas. It went on to change the world in terms of BD and comics, I humbly submit.

Now here-- there was a great deal of novel experimentation in this series, which could sometimes feel a bit archaic, yet sometimes feel beweirdingly progressive. In any case, these books are collections of short-story works about a Roman army-type takeover of the known Mediterranean+ world, but one which kept running in to unusual, unexpected, or even unholy problems.

So it's the emperor (conqueror) who kept tripping over his own shoelaces, one might say. But enough ado, here's the story link:

https://imgur.com/gallery/lets-all-raise-glass-to-bosom-friendship-of-alphons-donatus-from-conqueri

I found this a lovely little series, ostensibly meant for young Czech readers, but rather Grimm at times (as you can see).

I'm guessing the series was published in the ~1970's. Happily for English-speakers, it was recently translated by one "Tomalakis." So then, here's 13 mini-chapters you can read:

----> https://imgur.com/t/pochal <----

Artist Jiří Kalousek worked effectively in a variety of styles, and passed away in 1986. More samples of the artist here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22jiri+kalousek%22+artist&udm=2

Michel Kichka is a cartoonist borne in Belgium with Jewish roots, who became intrigued with Israel, and decided to do a permanent move, marrying and raising a family there with his French wife.

"Aliyah" is a somewhat complicated word as I grasp it, but from what I understand at the basic level, refers to going back to one's roots / homeland.

-----> https://imgur.com/a/kjMohrs <-----

The way the sequence above concluded really shocked me, and even brought a tear to my eye, honestly. Me, I'm not remotely used to dealing with people like that, and yet I guess that's how it works in certain parts of the world? (gadzooks, mistress goose)

In terms of the comic itself, I found this sequence rather current & relevant to the USA, and a pretty excellent, interesting survey of the artist's life and Israeli culture. At the same time, it established little to no emotional connection with the characters, which is usually how we do these things, but... oh well?

https://www.bedetheque.com/a

This comes from a rather ambitious, five-tome series called Le jour des Magiciens ("Day of the Magicians"), by an Italian duo, Michelangelo La Neve & Marco Nizzoli. I found it much in the style of Alejandro Jodorowsky, full of fanciful ideas and powerful sequences that sometimes hit the mark, and sometimes seemed a bit nonsensical.

The plot involves "Lancaster," a renegade, modern-day magician, who's disgusted by the stagnation of his order, who has the idea to father an offspring to become a sort of new magi-messiah. This doesn't sit well with his old order, who keep trying to kidnap his son and assassinate the father. The mother of the boy is in fact "Ash" (the lead assassin's) sister, so the bad blood only builds, as you can see:

---> https://imgur.com/gallery/movie-esque-sequence-from-day-of-magicians-by-la-neve-nizzoli-bFiAH7N <---

(I thought it was a neat, movie-like juxtaposition, having the main act

So... I was just re-reading Woodring's One Beautiful Spring Day, which was a grand attempt to tie together his major classics Congress of the Animals & Fran, and then another one, Poochytown.

Now, if you haven't read the first two? Then I strongly advise you to start screaming at the top of your lungs, running around like a headless chicken, and making your way over to the nearest comics shop tout de suite, even were that to involve a grueling dogsled race across the vast, desert wastes of Siberia. That's how amazing those two titles are, in mine humble bumble.

Okay, let's get to it-- (lol)
So, what I really liked about the panel above was the fact that there's an optical illusion there of sorts, suggesting areas of "grey," even though the image is totally in B&W. You can see this around the pillars, and a bit around the roof of Frank's home. (might possibly help to unfocus your eyes a bit, squint, or just move closer or farther to the pic)

See what

A riff on an old joke, but a relatively safe place to start, I guess. Things will only get weirder.

Artist Herr Seele ("Mister Soul," did I get that right?) was born in 1959 as Peter van Heirseele in Torhout, West-Flanders. His father was an office clerk and his mother a professional painter, who stimulated her son's artistic interests. His grandmother Valerie Haesaert was also an artist, and once won a national award for amateur painting. As a child, van Heirseele already drew complete comic book stories. --Lambiek

"C-H" is an outrageous, absurdist Flemish-Belgian comic published for over 40 years.

Believe me, the three above are the barest, most-kid friendly examples that still contain some chuckles that I could find at the moment.

Also, and I hesitate to say this, but-- CH is also about shitting. I mean, the characters delivering excrement and making jokes out of it. I don't think I'm going to post that stuff, but if you like, you can search on all that.

(even "Mr. Hankey" from Southpark is somehow more appropriate XD)

. . .

[WARNING] [MATURE] [WARNING-BELOW]

. . .

The lead comic from the Dental Floss tome is this:
[!

Haha, gotta love that last panel for the Red Rackham vibes. 😁

So, I found Alas to be a nice, provocative read that also raised a lot of unsettling questions. It's set in a Paris of ~1900, in which anthropormorphic animals have caused humans to go near-extinct, hanging on here and there only in the wilderness. Story-wise, a hunting party finds a little human family of four, slaughters the parents, then captures a small boy and a girl named "Leaf." The rest of the book involves her story, as well as a porcine protagonist, "Léopoldine."

Why does Leaf, a little human captured by poachers, cause such a stir in the country's political and scientific class? She speaks, of course! But that is not the only reason for the prosecution to which she will be subjected, despite the help given to her by the journalist Fulgence and the young Léopoldine, a science student and daught

I've read my share of whimsical, surreal graphic novels by Manara, but this was one of the few times I've come across one his short stories. In this one, I was thoroughly impressed how he tackled the chilling, abusive power of the Italian Catholic church in post-Ren times.

I also thought the jump cuts in the story were truly masterful, in which the reader gets exactly the amount of necessary info and context to move forward without waffling or delay. Note: The story was translated to English in the Heavy Metal Summer '88 issue.

----> https://imgur.com/gallery/w1CbNC1 <----

As for Manara himself, there's so much to say that I'm not sure where to really begin. To me, he's without question a genius of human expression, pathos, and the mysteries of human nature. I'm sometimes a bit frustrated by the same-ness of his female characters, the lack of story structure, and the fact that there always seems to be an erotic context to his stories, but based on my experience with Italia

The premise here is light as a feather-- a Dungeons & Dragons-type character is in a videogame setting, in which he's attempting to 'exit the game level,' presumably to take a nice rest. Frequently that involves attempting to rescue a princess along the way.

Altho he's rather dwarfish in stature, the problem isn't the hero's energy, fierceness or ingenuity, but rather that something's always going wrong. And by 'going wrong,' I mean that he typically suffers all variety of gruesome deaths at the hands of the dungeon's traps. He, the princess, the endless stream of monsters-- just everyone.

As an Elvis fan and singer this one hurt, but it was just too funny not to share. 😅

Pieter De Poortere is a Belgian comic artist, children's book illustrator, graphic artist and animator, most famous for his internationally succesful pantomime comic "Boerke," about the mishaps of a generally unlucky moustached farmer. The series combines an innocent-looking graphic style with pitch black comedy. De Poortere is also known for his large crowd paintings. He is part of the new wave of the Flemish humorists, together with Kim Duchateau (see the EGN+ index for samples of Esther Verkest), Jeroom, Bart Schoofs and Nix. --Lambiek, with Johnny's edits

What's also nice is that his comics are largely wordless, so the original Dutch / Flemish collections are usually fine no matter the reader's native tongue(s).

Lots more de Poortere info and comics samples here:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/de-poortere-pieter.htm

A theft 17 centuries in the making!

Well, this is in fact Albert Uderzo's fun tribute to the famous painting from 1632, from the series Astérix, specifically tome 19, Asterix and the Soothsayer (1972), made during the classic period when René Goscinny was still alive and plotting the series. I seem to recall that there's a couple more direct tribute pieces like this across the series.

.

Oh... right, The Raft of the Medusa one certainly comes to mind:

Barbe Rouge, in his shock, is punning on the name of the famous painting, exclaiming "I'm stunned!"

Fernando de Felipe is a Spanish university professor, born in Zaragoza in 1965 . He also works as a film and television scriptwriter, in addition to having been a major Euro cartoonist of the late-80's &amp; early-90's. [more]

I was originally exposed to the "Basil Headstone" series in 1996, through the American version of Métal hurlant magazine, i.e. "Heavy Metal." As far as I can tell, there were five total "Headstone" stories published to the American market, but there may have been more published to the Euro market, I believe through "Comix Internacional" (Toutain).

Anyway, the story can be read by clicking either the title, or HERE.

Personally, I felt this introduction story was one of the best of the stories, nicely illustrating what a complete lunatic the host was. This also reminded me a bit of UK genius' Pat Mills stuff, such as **

Why this community?

Good question. 😅
Well okay, in some regions (I'm thinking Japan and the USA), BD might be kind of unknown, but around the world, I assure you, they're quite popular, and in fact go back all the way to the 20's - 30's era (more HERE). Indeed, one of the earliest BD's, Tintin, was turned in to a major motion picture in America, Indiana Jones-style, made by director Steven Spielberg in 2011.

Now, while BD might be the 'core' of European comics, Franco-Belgian comics are only part of the whole Euro comics experience. For example, there's British (Pat Mills, Bryan Talbot, Alan Moore), Spanish (Paco Roca, Segura y Ortiz), Italian (Fior, Manara, Pratt, Crepax, Bonelli), German (Mawil, Schultheiss), Polish (Rosiński & Makuszynski), Dutch (Kolk, Wit, Kuijpers, Seele) and many other terrific Euro comics creators wo