If there’s one person responsible for the influx of high-quality European comics here in the states (Get a Life, Mister I, Epileptic), it’s Bart Beaty. His Euro-Comics for Beginners column in The Comics Journal back in the 90s introduced a whole slew of eager readers like myself to the work of folks like Joan Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, David B and on and on.
The good news is Bart’s still writing about this stuff, though now it’s for Tom Spurgeon’s Comics Reporter. The latest column focuses on what Trondheim’s been doing since his supposed “retirement,” and reflects on the recent en masse departures from the L’Association publishing house.
Seriously, go check it out. Beaty’s one of the best comic critics around. He writes in a breezy, informal, but knowledgable style that makes you want to track down these books, even if it means you’ll need a French/English dictionary to read the blessed things.
February 9th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I like reading a lot of French blogs with the Babelfish or Google’s translator website open at all times, to help learn the language. I can get roughly through some French kiddy comics that way, but I’m still a long way away from being fluent. It’s annoying that so many of the classes that want to teach you French are aimed at verbal French. I don’t care about pronunciations — I just want to read the stuff! =)
February 10th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Trondheim is great! I met him on the latest Angoulême Comics Festival (where he was the president) and he was a very nice guy.
And his comics are wonderful, innovative and different from anything else on the stands (even in France). To me, he is the very best comics creator active nowadays.
For those who don’t know french, he has done a bunch of wordless comics (Mister O, Mister I, La Mouche, ALIEEN, OVNI and the Petit Père Noël series). Also, a lot of his comics have been translated to english (including many of the above, where not much real “translation” was needed after all), mostly by NBM.
Check him out! Every comic fan should love at least one of Trondheim’s series and he is great for making those who don’t read comics enjoy the medium. So far, I’ve turned a cousin and a friend into big Trondheim fans.
Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)