french-speaking comic/manga scene (EDIT! :D)

Since I regularly find myself in the french-speaking part of Switzerland next to the French border, I decided to try and post regular follow-ups on the happenings in the french-speaking comics (bande dessinee)/manga world.

For those who might be unfamiliar with the french-speaking comics/manga scene, I think it's worth mentioning that french-speaking comics (aka "bande dessinee") had (and still have) a big presence and role in Europe, beginning with the world-famous TinTin. Several prestigious art-schools dedicated to sequential art exist in France, Belgium and Switzerland and have produced numerous best-selling artists.

Traditionally, a standard BD volume is published full-color, hard-cover, and has around 48pages for an average price of 20USD. In the past decade, however, french-speaking BD market has seen an enormous boom of manga titles, which was largely enabled by several french TV shows for teens that aired for several years in the late 80ties - early/mid 90ties and ran numerous cult anime series (such as Dragon Ball, Rose of Versailles, Knights of Zoodiac, Lupin the 3rd, Orange Road, Golgo 13, Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Sherlock Holmes, and a good hundred of others) with an excellent voice-dubbing, which led to the creation of a whole "Generation Manga" of hard-core anime fans who naturally enabled and devoured the paper manga boom that followed in the libraries.

Currently, every big BD publisher also has a manga-publishing line. Moreover, gradually more and more french-speaking and european artists inspired by the manga style started to create their own titles and be published in BD color format but with a heavily manga-influenced style.

One of the artists (Aurore) has just seen her first title "Pixie" (scenario by Mathieu Mariolle) licensed by Tokyopop and published in a smaller format, soft-cover, full-color in the US: http://auroreblackcat.deviantart.com/art/Pixie-USA-released-112832461.

This movement is definitely similar to the OEL movement in the US, although probably more of a blend between BD and manga than its american counterpart. So this is it for an ultra-fast introductory post! Let me know if you have specific areas/questions you would like to see covered (or if you have interesting stuff to add) :D

EDIT: Amy Kim Kibuishi, the creator of the lovely "Sorcerers and Secretaries" published by Tokyopop asked me the pertinent question of whether I had more european/manga hybrid titles to recommend.

And this definitely sparked my interest... because I don't really know much about them! So I am setting out on a crusade to discover the hybrids over Europe and bring them to light! :D

In that sense, I feel that I cannot close this post without mentioning the excellent work of Yishan Li, a chinese artist based in UK with already an impressive number of titles under her belt. I shall definitely come back to her work later on, but would just like to mention that you might well already know her, since she has taken over the "Adventures of CG!" in Cosmogirl from 2007 to 2008, the page strip started by Svetlana Chmakova: http://www.cosmogirl.com/funandgames/manga/

Cheers!

-tacto

east coast adventures

Once again, I made the now almost traditional several days stop in Boston on my way over to Geneva. Aside from putting Dee hopelessly behind on her packing for the big move to Singapore there was, of course, plotting for comics, the amazing food orgy with the now traditional coconut shrimp, a killer lemon cake, some delicious sushi and breakfast waffles etc etc. Needless to say, I was glad they don't make you pay extra on the plane for your own extra weight afterwards.... >_<;

Of course, it's impossible to sum up all the good stuff that happened but I am going to focus on 2 highlights: Onikimono pages and a flash 1,5 day trip to NYC.

Indeed, I had the immense privilege to go digging through (under the cover of packing it) Dee's original pages and illustrations for her webcomic "Onikimono,the Detectives of the Orient". Of course I already knew Dee's amazing inking and toning skills, but I have to say that seeing actual original inked pages was a very unique, moving and humbling experience. So I forced her hand a bit and made some pics for your enjoyment too - here is the first (!!!) Onikimono page evar with the traditionally applied japanese screen-tones (!!!!!) and some pages from a side story about Kamrauch's childhood (which has not been seen by anyone except the author, which is, in my view a huge shame) and finally some great backgrounds of japanese-styled houses.

I am sure that Onikimono fans will be as moved as I was and if you haven't read the story yet, do yourself a favor and go read it on Wirepop now - www.wirepop.com (but don't tell Dee I said that or she'll get mad..>.<)!!!!

Finally, on a whim of a not too bad weather we took off for a 1,5 day to go to NYC and visit the remains of the World Fair 1964 in the Corona Park in Queens. We wondered there for several hours looking for vestiges of the past, comparing the now and then and imagining stories along the way. For me, the most impressive thing was definitely the Unisphere, but the Tent and Towers of Tomorrow (see Men in Black) were very amazing too.

We had also a great meal in a very nice japanese restaurant that we discovered with the merry manga-tribe during our trip to NYCC this February (where we had to figure out a technique to eat whole grilled fish without its bones..) If you get a chance to pass by NYC, definitely try Donburi-Ya on the 47th street! :D

and a big, big highlight for me: the Vagabond mural by Takehiko Inoue in NYC Kinokunya! Gasp!!! @__@

Last but not least.... you remember I found a Spiderman on a Genevan wall? .. well, I _do_ suspect that he follows me around.. LOOK!!!! in NYC!!!! :O

So that's it for now about the Boston stop. Some missed planes and traveling hours later, comic news from Geneva will be coming up later this WE! :D

Cheers!

coffee junkee (2)

I somehow caught myself on the fact that most of my main characters are men. I wonder why is that? So now I make a conscious effort to pay more attention to my female heroes.

Have you a preference in identifying yourself in your stories? A dashing knight? A tomboy? A Teddy Bear?? :D