European Comic Art

Among the many new books on comic strips published in the past year one of the most provocative has been Nicolas Rouvière’s Astérix ou la parodie des identités [‘Asterix or the Parody of Identities’].1 Rouvière provides a fascinating analysis of questions of national identity in René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s famous series of albums. Grosso modo, he suggests that the strips undermine hard nationalist prejudices, to create universal understanding between peoples. Rouvière contends that the Astérix series encourages the French to question the myths of their own national identity, and satirises their stereotyping of their neighbours (the French image of the British, the Belgians, the Swiss, etc.). He concludes that Astérix runs counter to a world based on the ‘clash of civilisations’ model famously employed by Samuel Huntington.

'National' culture, one that is linked to the daily perception of cultural artefacts and inevitably affected by the context of globalisation, can be considered through the optic of Belgian comics. And although Belgian national culture escapes easy characterisation, it can at least be explored from three different angles. Firstly, Flemish comics will be discussed in terms of the Flemish way of 'doing comics' or, more broadly, anti-Belgicism, in terms of both political subtext and language issues. Secondly, francophone Belgian comics can be approached as an example of cultural blindness, marked by 'evasion' or the playing-down of Belgian specificity in broad cultural as well as more precise linguistic terms. Drawing upon the works of Deleuze and Guattari, these examples can then be used as an outline for a framework of broader analysis regarding national cultures in peripheral situations.

The Bec Doux et ses amis comics series, written by Cajun authors in Cajun French, is little known outside of its native French-speaking Louisiana. Although it can be inscribed within the wider Cajun ethnic revival that began in the late 1960s, it constitutes a unique example of graphic self-representation in this field of cultural productions. This article examines how the series' use of regional French, in the context of increasing acculturation by a dominant English-speaking America, is not only a statement of cultural resistance, but also a creative negotiation of communication with a dialectal readership, within the comics format. The article also focuses on the iconic effectiveness of the series, and more specifically on its nuanced and authentic depiction of the Cajun minority's ethnic habitus, in order to understand the complexities of such cultural self-caricature.

In this article I propose to elucidate the pioneering role played by the publishing house Fayard at the beginning of the twentieth century in the promotion of French comic strip and in the development of its distinctively national characteristics. I firstly review the chronology of events and publications, situating the picture stories in the wider context of the company's output, and considering their function as part of its marketing strategy. I then go on to discuss Fayard's innovations in relation to the choice of publishing formats, which cemented the link between comic strip and mass-circulation weekly newspapers, and defined it for almost three-quarters of a century as a popular genre aimed mainly, if not exclusively, at young readers. Finally, I will analyse the major formal, graphic and thematic features of the comic strips created in these magazines.

This article discusses the issues faced by two French artists who have produced a bande dessinée adaptation of a novel, říliš hlučná samota ['Too Loud a Solitude'], by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, and the reception of their work in the Czech comics community. In adapting the novel to another medium, the artists have not merely illustrated the original, but have used a variety of techniques intended to convey its emotional coloration and its self-referentiality. Furthermore, they have changed its context from Prague during the Communist era to twenty-first-century Lyon at a time when the jobs of print workers are threatened by out-sourcing. The article argues that the adaptation thereby enhances the contemporary resonance of the original.

Algerian and Algerian-French cartoonists have often thematised national identity in their art. Their interest in this subject has created problems for them when they have crossed the 'affrontier', a line of demarcation whose nature and place have been determined to a considerable degree by the military regime. The analysis of some of its key dimensions - political, religious, spatial, historical and symbolic - allows us to understand how it operates. By studying striking examples of cartoons and comics, their production and consumption, we can come to an understanding of how the affrontier has functioned since 1962, when Algeria gained its independence. The year 1988, when the Algerian regime killed and tortured hundreds of young rioters, stands out as a watershed, because cartoonists then began to redefine their relationship to the military regime, the nation and the affrontier.

NEWS

Francis Lacassin, 1931-2008

BOOK REVIEWS

Thierry Groensteen, La bande dessinée, mode d’emploi [‘Comic Strip: A User’s Guide’] (Brussels: Les impressions nouvelles, ‘Réflexions faites’, 2008). 224 pp. ISBN: 978-2-87449-041-5. EAN: 9782874490415. (€22.00)

Tom McCarthy, Tintin and the Secret of Literature (London: Granta, 2006). 211 pp. ISBN: 978-1-86207-831-9 (hb, £14.99)

Antonio Gil González and Anxo Tarrío Varela, eds., Olladas do Cómic Ibérico [‘Perspectives on Iberian Comics’]. Special issue of Boletín Galego de Literatura [‘Galician Bulletin of Literature’] 35, 1º semestre, 2006 (Santiago: Servizio de Publicacións, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2007)

Notes on contributors

Index to Volume 1