The above is Procession, I think?

Me, I just love it.
Now IIRC, Maggie did that one because of a dream about spoons her kiddo had. (must be nice to have such a parent, haha)

Oh, a flier!

Maggie Vandewalle was born and raised just outside of Iowa City, Iowa, in a rural setting. As a child she divided her time between roaming fields and woods, scouring the public library for good books, and forever doodling. Out of high school she received an art scholarship to the University of Iowa, where she worked towards a BFA in printmaking. After several years she took a break from college to explore life without the constraints of school. As time went on, she determined that while school might not continue to play a part in her life, art most definitely would in the form of drawing and painting. Ever since, she has used watercolor or graphite to convey her love of the organic world and that of a really good story:

“While growing up, if I wasn’t outside I spent most of my time with my nose in books. When I look back, the pictures are as clear to me as the stories, they are intertwined in a way that creates magic for me. Because I’m not a writer but love the story, I try to create visual narratives through the use of paint.”

Midnight Revelry, i.e. “Moondance”

Now, me? I don't know if we need to battle over what's more American vs. what's more Euro? (sod that, laddies) To me this is some great stuff that rather exemplifies the heights of both, altho I do find Maggie's last name interesting in that regard, in that it's evidently a classic Dutch / Flemish name.

Straight on Till Morning

In any case, I find her stuff rather wonderful, seemingly referencing England's Richard Adams' Watership Down, the great Polish-American Maurice Sendak, and whatever else, creating her own utterly unique, delightful style in the end.

http://www.maggievandewalle.com/

These are by classic Spanish scenarist Ángel Segura Moreno & artist José Ortiz, about an ultra-cynical survivor attempting to get by in a brutal, post-apoc world:

----> https://imgur.com/a/4u3F2AL <----

EDIT4: Below is page four, which got not-uploaded due to filters, or I-don't-know-what: https://i.imgur.com/nBg2TrI.jpeg

Pardon the short-form, here. I'm dealing with something at the moment, and will get back to y'all.

EDIT: There should be 12 pages in all. Please let me know if anything seems to be missing, so I can re-upload it. I did have to censor one page a little to get by the Imgur filter. Hopefully it worked.

EDIT2: More notes about the series in comments.

This Moebius tarot deck is by "QuirkyMagic," a pen-name for Englishman Clive Austin. The deck was evidently a handmade, one-off creation for a friend. The rest of the deck can be seen here.

Speaking of which, he also 'Kickstarted' a hand-crafted collection of cards called The Unremarkable Oracle. The idea I believe is similar to the way Runestones, The I Ching, and The Tarot work, i.e. they're all tools with a randomising quality to help one regain momentum in one's life, and perhaps some personal insights.

I find the cards and the concept intriguing, altho unfortunately his "QuirkyMagic.com" site now seems to be down, which is where the deck and a guidebook could once be had for £25. Bugger. Still, for anyone curious, it seems the cards (front and back) and booklet have been somewhat preserved across the Instagram link above, as well as at his general Pinterest site.

(wow, I sure do love to embed dem links, huh?)

Jansson of course was the Swedish-Finnish genius who created the Moomin series for kids, as well as for all-ages audiences. I want to say it drew upon American Charles Schulz' work on Peanuts, in which novel character-types were introduced in a fairly LC-style, exploring just what it is to be a thinking, emotional being, bumping up against others of different variety.

https://i.imgur.com/2ZkJXgV.jpeg

What I really liked about these in particular is that AFAIK, Jansson worked almost exclusively in B&W (not unlike Schulz, classically). So these full-color watercolors just kinda blew me away as a chronic Moomin fan!

https://i.imgur.com/eVbwz3k.jpeg

The story itself involves a girl searching for her lost cat, a fairly standard story-device, I suppose. But along the way she meets some wild & wonderful folks. Again a pretty classic story-device, but what makes this one stand out is the silly poetry, which I'm not sure Jansson had exactly attempted, before.

https://i.imgur.com/NycL9SR.jpeg

TBC-- all of these splash pages feature some amusing Seussian, playful poems underneath them. Here's the one for the balloon trip above:

At this point I'll quote the fadeout of this excellent little book, here:

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is Scandinavia's best known and best loved children's author. She began publishing sketches and cartoons at the age of fifteen and in 1945 wrote the first in a series of internationally renowned Moomintroll books. The Dangerous Journey (published originally in 1977) was the final Moomin book that she wrote and illustrated, and offers a memorable last glimpse of Moomin Valley. Jansson lived in Helsinki but spent a large part of her life on an island in the Gulf of Finland.

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/j/jansson_t.htm

NO, I'm not trying to go back to posting once per day again, but I just had to share this one. Okay, then? Are we clear on that? *phew*

So, this is evidently un affiche for the 2nd International Salon of the Comic Strip, organized in Kortrijk/Courtrai, Belge, from the 13th-15th, May of 1989, during the annual Sinksenfeesten Festival.

See how many characters can you recognise, and then I'll share the answers below.

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We recognize from the left corner, top-to-bottom:

E.P. Jacobs’ Blake & Mortimer, Dupa's Cubitus, Jacques Tardi's Adèle Blanc-Sec, André Franquin's Fantasio et Spirou (whose legs stick out behind Adèle's head), Jean Giraud’s Jimmy McClure (from 'Blueberry’), Jean Roba’s Bill, Peyo’s Smurf, Willy Vandersteen’s Lambik, Gotlib’s Professeur Burp (from 'Rubrique-à-Brac’), Hergé's Tintin, Albert Uderzo’s Obelix, Morris’ Jolly Jumper, Victor Hubinon’s Barbe-Rouge, Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese, Willy Linthout’s Urbanus, JC Mézières' Shingouz (from 'Valérian et Laureline') and Albert Uderzo’s Tanguy (from 'Tanguy & Laverdure').

In the right corner we notice Franquin’s Marsupilami, with Spip the squirrel (from 'Spirou') hanging on the tip of his tail in the left upper corner. Beneath the Marsupilami's legs JC Mézières’ Laureline et un grognon from "Bluxte" (both from 'Valérian et Laureline’) can be spotted. High in the air we see the pterodactyl from Jean Giraud’s Arzach. --LBK & Johnny

Yesterday I ran in to matttt's excellent video exploring this question, i.e. "was Ballad of the Salt Sea (1967) the first GN?," altho to be clear-- it's mostly about the total comics career of legendary Italian artist / writer Hugo Pratt.

TBH, I wasn't really expecting to sit through a 17min video, but "matttt" is just such a great talent, that it wasn't hard. I only wish he covered more Euro comics specifically, but in any case, he's a terrrrific, home-grown comics historian who speaks with passion and precision. (did you like that?)

NOTES: 1) there's a built-in sponsor-ad starting just after 5min that lasts a full minute, 2) If you want to skip specifically to the Corto Maltese stuff, you can start about halfway through, in which matttt gets in to what makes the series so special:

-----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIKSeNJrC8 <-----

As for what really was the first GN? Good question. There's an old idea that a bunch of short comics collected in to hardcover format fit this definition, but I'm not sure I buy that. Personally, I tend to think of a 'proper GN' as a long-form narrative that's not just gag-related. So the Tintin albums would fit the bill for me, but in fact there are examples going back to the 1920's, possibly even earlier.

I guess matttt's proposal of Ballad of the Salt Sea as the first GN (in which Corto was only one of several prominent characters) is based on the idea that it was the first (modern-era at least) example of comics in fusion with literature, for what that's worth.

Now, I don't think we need to make war over this stuff; moreso, I find it a fun debate-topic in which to better understand comics as a whole.

Fair?

Hello out there in Inter-land! This is a little side-project for the community. These are some favorite web-games, meant to kill a little time & have a little fun. Emphasis is generally on simplicity over fancy graphics & complicated rules.

(NOTE: most of these will jump to full-screen mode if you click a button in the bottom right corner)

--GAME--	(clickable thumbnail)	--DESCRIPTION--
8VENTURE		An ingenious riff on the classic Atari 2600 game. Unlike the other 'sequels' I've seen, this one reworks most of the elements and gameplay.
Prince of Persia		The mega-classic, pioneering platform game with smooth animation. Note that you can jump levels and boost health by fiddling with the URL.
Super Star Trek 1978 x 25th Anniversary edition		The original Star Trek computer game from 1978, overlaid with lovely pixelated graphics and sounds from the 16-bit anniversary adventure game.
type	has	to
be	in	tables
column 6	6	6

https://www.izneo.com/fr/editeurs/europe-comics-218

I really appreciate how /u/joerst pointed this out to me, and... it seems to be true!

Now, the pic above is from some new-ish book by... pretty much my favorite Euro comics artist ever, i.e. Kerascoët (a brilliant, husband-and-wife team).

Haha okay, and if you wanted to soil your soul by going to Reddit, then here's my big, chonky master-list of favorite comics artists: https://www.reddit.com/r/JohnnyEnzyme/comments/poitvk/who_are_my_favorite_bd_gn_artists/

https://www.google.com/search?q=suske+en+wiske&udm=2

I've never understood why this simple, delightful children's comic keeps getting randomly renamed for evidently zero reason. What the heck, man? "Bob & Bobetter?" "Spiking Suzy?" "Willy and Wanda?" (why not just throw in the dang chocolate factory?) "Luke and Lucy?" (no, I don't want to see that soap opera again)

Daggit, maties-- Suske en Wiske is not that hard to say, it seems to me.

Not unlike James Bond strolling up to the minibar and suggesting something like "Whish-key, no watta."

So... unfortunately, this is going to be very 'ME'-based, and I'm not a big fan of that in general. Oh well. Eat your crow, Johnny. Gobble it up, please.

So, so, so-- I had a bit of a meltdown here last Thursday, ranting a bit and posting generally useless threads. First and foremost, I apologise to the community, and hope I haven't harmed its reputation too terribly much. I also want to talk about what happened to cause that, and what's going to change, going forward. Fact is, it was a killer-combo of things that day, so maybe I'll just list them out:

• BURNOUT: For a long time now I've been aiming for a 'post per day,' because I wanted to stock up the community with lots of content, such that users could dive in to it whenever they liked and have a good, long, fun read. As a matter of fact, after hitting the one-year anniversary mark on August 1st, we actually did average over a post per day, in large part thanks to my co-pilot Nacktmull. At this point, however, I think it's time to retire that goal and NOT artificially push myself as hard on that stuff, anymore.

• PERSONAL HEALTH: I happen to have CFS/ME, which tends to be an incurable, fatal disease. In effect, I'm fairly-exhausted 24/7, and have a fraction of the stamina that most people my age do. My wrists, feet, and lower back regularly ache, and I spend about 95% of my awake-time lying on my couch. I'd love to do lots more (including exercise, which I adore), but unfortunately when I DO, I tend to get something called "PEM," just like others in my boat. Anyway, this disease is hugely & regularly frustrating to me, and it literally (not figuratively!) seeps in to almost every part of my life. For some quick examples, I had to end my career at around ~30yo, and various relationships are just too hard to maintain, sadly.

• BOOZE: To be perfectly honest, I was having some vodka drinks that day. I'm not proud of it, but one thing alcohol crazily, wonderfully does is to temporarily mask my pain, as well as artificially boosting my blood sugar. And of course, too much can obviously get me off the track of 'production mode.' Yeah, whoops......

• FLAWED: One of my other frustrations here is that I get the impression that people wrongly conceive of this place as my personal blog, with the occasional brilliant guest appearance, but that's not something I never aimed for, nor wanted. I think my posts are generally good, interesting and informative, but I'm not some super-human-production-machine here, and frankly I rather resent being looked at that way. So in a sense, I don't mind letting the mask slip at times, revealing that I'm just as much a flawed, troubled doofus as the poor chap down the road, who lives in a makeshift tent on public land. I mean, say what you want-- but I'm sure that guy/gal has their talented qualities as well. At least, that's how I'd like to think of such things, y'know?

• DISAPPOINTMENT #1: Honestly, I'm disappointed in the readers here. I've repeatedly welcomed anyone to post any sort of thought or material related to BD, and yet the more the subscribers seem to grow, the less prone they seem willing to do so. Almost as if everyone's waiting around for ME to furnish my content, read as they like, then move on to something else. Wellsir, that is definitely NOT why this community was founded. Indeed-- I still haven't had a single response to the volunteer requests I made last month. And please understand-- these are light volunteer jobs that require a very small amount of effort on a weekly basis.

• DISAPPOINTMENT #2: Altho I LOOOVE my host & instance, I really can't say that I'm super-happy with the Lemmy community au total. As in-- when a bunch of us broke away from Reddit over a year ago (and note that I'm straddling the line under my same username there, haha), to me I thought the main idea was just beautiful, specifically involving a P2P, open, volunteer-based alternative, free of corporate greed. Well, as of now, the future of the FV (including Lemmy) still seems unclear, and frankly I'm a bit gobsmacked by the relative-lack of community-spirit here, in which I thought there might be far more common affection for the whole project. Not from the people who made real sacrifices (because they DID!), but moreso from a theoretically involved, knowledgeable userbase. Instead, no-- it's almost like Spez' freakout from a year+ ago, plus the way Reddit just doubled-down on extracting value from their userbase, essentially never happened. To me that's both creepy and weird. Shame! Shame on everyone here for thinking 'they had no personal responsibilities, nor gratitude for the new place.' And shame on you all who bought in to that.

• SHAKY PROFESSIONALISM: Despite everything said above, this indeed is my self-appointed volunteer job, and I don't think it's good to have little meltdowns very often, and I doubt this is really the place for making "a cry for help." So again, I apologise to everyone, and... tell you what-- I'm going to be looking after my own health better from now on, which immediately means retiring the 'aim for one post per day' mentality. Indeed, let the record show that this is YOUR community now, and no longer my 'personal blog.' Now if you're wondering how I am as a moderator? I've had almost 25yrs of experience as a mod, super-mod, admin & head-admin across a variety of sites, the most recent one pinball-simulation-based, with hundreds of thousands of users. In any case, my general aim is to listen with kindness and find amicable solutions, where possible.

Hey, thanks for reading, folks!
Haha, I guess sometimes you just have to embarrass yourself sufficiently in order to make the proper course-change, mais non?

EDIT: oof, I forgot the pic. This seems to be from outside a prison in Gdańsk!

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

https://i.imgur.com/qBJcot0.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/H3i2VBl.jpeg

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

https://i.imgur.com/BcHL2Yl.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/xsznHSp.jpeg

Writer Kamagurka, real name Luc Zeebroek, was born in 1956 in Nieuwpoort, a town near the Belgian coast. He came into the world with a bad Achilles tendon, which left him with crooked feet. The boy was bullied and suffered tremendous pain until an operation solved the problem. In the hospital, a young patient in the bed next to him died. All these traumatic experiences gave Zeebroek a combative attitude. In his opinion, life is so absurd, tragic and meaningless that it's best to not take things too seriously. Growing up, he therefore wanted to turn everything into a joke, even severe tragedies.

https://i.imgur.com/cSfvqcS.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/GpyHhf4.jpeg

More (and I mean more):
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/seele.htm
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kamagurka.htm

It's by Tintin pastiche-artist Harry Edwood!

(and just like Beldar the Conehead, he comes from France)

The pic is of course a tribute to arguably the most famous album cover of all time. (it's also in our banner, if you can pick it out)

Side note: There's two people who I can't quite figure out at the moment. They're both in the 3rd row, 4th from the right and 4th from the left. Both have grey-white hair, and are wearing shades (prescription sunglasses). Anybody know..?

Credit to my genius Reddit friend-- u/dunkelbunt235.

Theme song: Charline Mignot, et Dormir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTx7Skm30uQ

I think this Spanish webcomic is worth mentioning, so let's do just that.

Now, as with great webcomics, like the ingenious, thoroughly-awesome Back, as well as Aethernaut), this one has a unique, undeniable charm for the ages. ('he said, hoping to sound unpretentious,' lol)

First off-- the author ("Inky") doesn't want the content shared around (see the bottom text?), which is part of why I'm only offering a few stills:

https://i.imgur.com/MiVyIFF.jpeg

Anyway, what we have here is a naughty, gentle, light-hearted comic about two young women spending a funny, adventurous summer with their cousins (the two boys). They're about 20yo, so I shouldn't really call them "boys" and/or "girls," sorry.

To be clear-- it's naughty in nature, but playful and clever; a thoroughly unique delight.

------> https://inkdolls.com/comic/0100/ <-------

Grandma?!?
https://inkdolls.com/comic/0304/#comic

...I also find it kind of cool and interesting to me (I'm middle-aged), thinking back about those days... about the silly, ridiculous, and (haha) sexy fun we once had.

Oh, and our theme song, "Frisco Blues" by Ofman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCOGyh9YFE

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

https://i.imgur.com/UKWjSM4.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/FtxBmFT.jpeg

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:

That seems to be the only image released so far.

Also, there seems to be a new film: Astérix, the Kingdom of Nubia launching the year after. [news link]

Just bumped in to this artist's work the other day, and I find them both hilariously pleasing and pleasingly hilarious. A bit like Lewis Trondheim's style.

Check out all the goodies:
https://www.tumblr.com/caloucalou
http://caloucalou.unblog.fr/

TAGS: Lucky Luke

It's a non-standard vampire-thriller (4 tomes) by a great writer-artist duo, Jean Dufaux & Enrico Marini. [BDT]

Just before the above, our two detectives leap for their lives:

https://i.imgur.com/AIPNTa6.jpeg

While two raptors comfortably watch, a brother and sister:

https://i.imgur.com/S18uBSo.jpeg

Hundreds of years before, a ruling council of vampires decided that in order to better manage humans, they should embrace the light, renouncing their traditional, raw meat & blood-loving ways.

Now, one member of the council vehemently objected, the father of the two we see above. He was destroyed, and his children became bitter enemies of the 'new-age' vampires, who went on to rule humanity in secrecy.

Over time, the new-age vampires developed vulnerabilities that the raptors used to assassinate them, conducting a vendetta-based campaign of terror. Meanwhile, detectives Lenore & Spiaggi are assigned to investigate...

https://i.imgur.com/xIqqr5A.jpeg

...later, Lenore somehow manages to straggle home. (just above)

https://i.imgur.com/DkYoZzW.jpeg

On top of the fact that this was a cool, movie-like thriller, I enjoyed the added historical and political elements, plus the existential questions posed against the two vampire factions.

I also found the ending shocking but satisfying, in which there's a tragic, yet uplifting 'changing of the guard.'

It's a minor classic I'd say (it's really good), and another feather in the cap of Dufaux, who consistently churns out fascinating series. Same for Marini, really.

You never know what will happen on a first date -_-

That's Black Bittern above, which represents the bird.

Sheyenne's from Alberta, Canada, and their art reminds me just enough of certain Euro art that I think it's worthy to be added here.

https://i.imgur.com/nCcVMyz.jpeg
We stare into each other's eyes

https://i.imgur.com/zl5RNSc.jpeg
Banana Deer and friends, from the game Fin Fin: On TEO, the Magic Planet

https://i.imgur.com/hxZzKCV.png
Ocean Procession

https://i.imgur.com/jDTOdP8.jpeg
This Moment in Time

https://i.imgur.com/q5EVXd8.jpeg
"Fast Food!"

https://i.imgur.com/48smKFz.jpeg
Kestrel

https://i.imgur.com/mowcXpn.jpeg
Snake in Grass (can you spot all the bugs?)

Oh, and they are also known as "Uzon":
https://www.tumblr.com/uzon
https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/uzon/

"I'm fearing the worst, but hoping for the best!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pif_le_chien

I mean, seriously-- walk in the water, and... suffer the consequences?

Oh, HEY, my old 80's favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bM1CqHoBY

Imladris was also known as "Rivendell" in the J.R.R. Tolkien mythos. Interestingly, both The Hobbit and LotR used this Elven refuge as a key staging-point, but somehow it felt like I was discovering it afresh, each time. (are you taking notes, Peter Jackson & Disney?)

I'm also a little sheepish to admit that all the lovely pieces here are, to the best of my determination, AI-created! (damnit, but they fooled me at first)

Ahhhh, so what the hey-- let's empty out this drawer and move on. Now, the reason I chose to lead with the above is because we'd been sorta talking about Tolkien's stuff recently, and the above piece reminded me a lot of his early illustration work (yes, he was also a pretty-decent artist who worked in a 'turn-of-the-century' style).

Okay then, the following might be a bit random, but--

https://i.imgur.com/MVArIH8.jpeg
Now where might that be..?!

https://i.imgur.com/pEkNSNx.jpeg
Another stained-glass style lighthouse, sorta-kinda.

https://i.imgur.com/FLI2Zk1.jpeg
As someone who used to sail a bit, I love these. Of course, being AI-generated, there are a slew of similar pics out there, for better or ze wurst.

https://i.imgur.com/D5D2DSb.jpeg
San Francisco streets, credit to MidJourney specifically!

I'd say hold on to your hats, though! In retrospect, there's a bunch of art here that helps explain its origins, but in future? I would say all bets are off. *gulp*

(i.e. AI-art will doubtless keep improving, so stuff like this which fooled me initially but which I later managed to bust, will likely bust ME, in future)

https://lemm.ee/post/7895573
Hello, @Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world!

EDIT: Corrected a couple typos & errors, plus added a little context to help make things clearer.

Welp, I had something of a personal catastrophe this past weekend, but am finally recovering. I must say, though-- when there are little gaps like that, it sure would be nice if one of the readers could step in and post whatever.

Okay, enough whining.

So, I just finished re-reading the first color work by the fascinating "Blutch" [BDT], made in 2002. TBH, I feel like I need to re-read it a couple more times to get a better sense of it, but for now I can say that it's a surreal series of interconnected scenes that have a movie-like touch, not unlike the work of David Lynch or Fellini, perhaps.

Two women are the lead characters, with the one above ("Lola") struggling to deal with her merciless dance instructor, her absurdly eccentric father, and of course, a big galoot of a celloist chasing her skirts. Oh, and also Renée, the other lead, an obsessed writer who wants to do a book about Lola. The overall tome however is really about the absurdness and even scary sides of humanity, as reflected nicely in the drawing style. Blutch is definitely NOT after pretty, conventional LC here!

Here then are the first six pages of Vitesse Moderne:

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

Btw, I find some major similarities between Blutch's work and that of the great Frederik Peeters of Switzerland and Grégory Mardon of France. All three seem willing to look at the human beast straight in the eye and give you notes that you might not have thought about or wanted to see in comics. In conclusion, I don't know if I'd call this book a 'classic,' but it's a mature work, worthy of many re-reads, that might just feed some part of your soul (or intellect).