Franco - Belgian comics

Franco-Belgian comics, together with American and British comic books and Japanese manga, are one of the three main markets. The term is broad, and can be applied to all comics made by French and Belgian comics authors, all comics originally published by French and Belgian comics publishers, or all comics in the styles appearing in the Franco-Belgian comics magazines Tintin and Spirou, possibly expanded to include later magazines like Pilote, Métal Hurlant, and A Suivre. Comics which are not created in French but in Dutch are sometimes included and sometimes excluded from the Franco-Belgian comics. For this list, a broad definition is taken, including all notable comics series first published by a French or Belgian publisher, no matter what language or nationality the authors have. For series with many different authors (e.g. Spirou and Fantasio), only the most important authors have been included.

The Franco-Belgian comic industry is a monumental example of what comics can become as a storytelling medium for the world. This is impart due to the French declaration in the 1960s referring to the sequential art (comics) medium as “The Ninth Art”. Mostly unknown to english, and especially American audiences, the Franco-Belgian Comic industry is a giant to be reckoned with. In this editorial piece we will take a brief look at the history, sphere of influence, and how the Franco-Belgian comic industry fares against its largest competitors in the world: The United States of America and Japan.

Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created for French-Belgian (Wallonia) and/or French readership. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bandes dessinées (literally drawn strips) in French and stripverhalen (literally strip stories) or simply strips in the Dutch-speaking part of Europe, the first non-Francophone territories where the Franco-Belgian comics became a major force on their comic scenes from 1945 onward, brought forth by the bilingual nature of Belgium.

Among the most popular Franco-Belgian comics that have achieved international fame are The Adventures of Tintin (Hergé), Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin), Asterix (Goscinny & Uderzo), Lucky Luke (Morris) and The Smurfs (Peyo) in the humoristically drawn genres, whereas such bande dessinées as Blueberry (Charlier & Giraud, of the latter also the body of work created under the pseudonym "Moebius"), Thorgal (van Hamme & Rosiński), XIII (van Hamme & Vance), as well as the various creations of Hermann have done particularly well internationally in the realistically drawn genres - albeit not all of them necessarily in the English-speaking world.