this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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European Graphic Novels++

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“BD” refers to Franco-Belgian comics, but let's open things up to include ALL Euro comics and GN's. Euro-style artistry from around the world is also welcome. ^^

-BD = "Bandes dessinées"
-BDT = Bedetheque
-GN = graphic novel
-LBK = Lambiek
-LC = "Ligne claire"

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John Tenniel was the original artist for Lewis Carroll's* "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865), and its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass" (1871). *pen-name for Victorian-era renaissance-man Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

His detailed black-and-white drawings remain the definitive depiction of the Alice characters, with comic book illustrator and writer Bryan Talbot stating, "Carroll never describes the Mad Hatter: our image of him is pure Tenniel." --WP

.

Personally I love that art, finding it thoroughly immersive and delightful, yet also somewhat quaint, and 'belonging to its time.'

A hundred years later (~1970), Welsh artist Ralph Steadman created one of the many reinterpretations of the art, but remained steadfastly true to his own wild-child style. Ralph was going to do it his way, which as usual was to bring in elements of madness, everywhere.

As it happened, this was a deliciously (and borderline disturbingly) perfect fit for the books, which themselves were heavily steeped in nonsense, fantasy, and outright madness, whilst also being something of a commentary on the times, as I understand it.


I've been working on putting together a small collection of my favorite Steadman art across these two books, so here's my first share, from the chapter "Wool and Water." More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep

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[–] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Really like his style, I was trying to find more from this series and only turned up 4 visible though his official print shop if there are more to be found I love to know where to look.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Just googling around, I found a bunch more here: (great blog, btw)
https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/01/10/alice-in-wonderland-illustrated-by-ralph-steadman/

The ones I have generally come from a digital version of the collected book "The Complete Alice," which collects the first two books, plus "The Hunting of the Snark." Not sure how physically big that one is, but the original Steadman books are HUGE, and well worth holding in your hands, to read and appreciate properly. I'd hope your local library has them...