A primer on French-Belgian comics

I don't know those, but feel free to make a page.

So I decided to try out Tin Tin, I started with the crab with the golden claws (I learned about the series from the Jackson movie so I wanted to start were Captain Hadock was introduced) and I’ve read the shooting star, which I unfortunately didn’t like as much. I’m looking forward to secret of the unicorn but I’m wondering if there were any previous albums I should read first or any I would be better of skipping altogether.

The albums generally come in pairs.

• Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
• Tintin in the Congo
• Tintin in America
• Cigars of the Pharaoh/The Blue Lotus
• The Broken Ear/The Black Island
• King Ottokar's Sceptre
• The Crab with the Golden Claws
• The Shooting Star
• The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure
• The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun
• Land of Black Gold
• Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon
• The Calculus Affair/The Red Sea Sharks
• Tintin in Tibet
• The Castafiore Emerald
• Flight 714 to Sidney
• Tintin and the Picaros
• Tintin and Alph-Art

Avoid Soviets and Congo unless you are morbidly curious about Herge's work before he actually became good. America is better but still not as good as later comics. Shooting Star is a bit of a weird outlier in a long line of good comics.

Starting with Emerald, Tintin enters a more experimental, deconstructive, and cynical phase. Emerald is an attempt to tell an exciting story without the usual trappings and settings of Tintin, and is still pretty good. 714 is a deconstruction of one of Tintin's biggest villains, and this is where the cynicism starts. Picaros is a really cynical deconstruction of revolutions and of Tintin's effectiveness in changing things for the better. Alph Art was never finished.

I recommend sticking between Cigars and Emerald, and exploring the rest if you're curious.

Thanks for the advice. So one more question. Can I enjoy Blue Lotus without having to read Cigars of the pharaoh? I want to read Blue Lotus because I’ve heard it be called “Hergé’s first masterpiece.”

You can, but some things will be clearer by reading Cigars first. In these pairs, there IS continuity, but they also function as self contained adventures with a clear beginning and end. One of the first albums I read was Men on the Moon, and I read the lead up story much later, but it was very enjoyable on it's own.

My favourite pairs would be Cigars of the Pharaoh/The Blue Lotus, The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure, and Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon.

Of course I read most of Tintin as a kid.

Having recently re-read my whole Tintin collection (they still are quite enjoyable as an adult), I can confirm that the Blue Lotus really stands out. That does not mean the others are bad, apart from Congo and Soviets, which are only interesting if you want to see how Hergé started.
And yeah, it is better to read Cigars of the Pharaoh before Blue Lotus, but the story can be enjoyed on its own. Cigars is already quite good anyway, even if it carries on some of the Early-Installment Weirdness of the previous books.

Now that I started working and earning money, I can finally delve deeper into modern Franco-Bergian comics, which I could never really do before (because let's face it, albums are bloody expensive). I grew up with old classics like Gaston Lagaffe, Achille Talon, Lucky Luke, Tintin and Asterix, but ever since I started reading manga I've mostly ignored European stuff and I feel like I've been missing out. Thankfully I live near Bordeaux where there are a lot of excellent comic book stores.

I started with Le Roy des Ribauds, a thriller set in medieval France with excellent artstyle and an interesting plot, which could make for a great movie adaptation if you ask me. I particularly like the character conflicts surrounding Tristan, with his daughter and father and the King.

Then more recently I started Méta-Baron, the latest entry in the Jodoverse (which I bought because I thought it came before La Caste des Méta-Barons, but it was actually a sequel… d'oh…). I have extremely mixed feelings on this one. I like the general concept and universe, and even the plot to some extent, but man do I hate every character in this. It also has notable pacing issues, with everything happening way too fast. And the less said about the treatment of female characters, the better… I'd really like to explore this universe further, but I hope the other entries are less… this.

On the contrary, the recently released Le Château des animaux is my favorite so far. It is a retelling of Orwell's Animal Farm where the protagonist is a female cat living in a tyrannical regime led by the bull Silvio, whom no one dares to stand up against. Only the first of 4 volumes is out so far, but I really like its depiction of the subtle and less subtle ways autocrats use to control people… and the ways people can break free from them. And out of all the FB comics I've read, this is by far the one using the graphic potential of its medium best. It looks so fluid and expressive, truly a treat for the eyes.

I'm now halfway through Block 109 (from the same authors as Le Roy des Ribauds), which was compiled in a single big volume; and as implausible as its alternate history is, the personal stories it tells are quite compelling. A bit of a shame that it suffers from Only Six Faces, making the action confusing at times. There's aso a lot of Fridge Horror when you realize that the concentration camps and gas chambers probably kept operating way after 1945 in that universe… (also, I'd swear the flamethrower scene in Soleil de Plomb is a Watchmen reference…)

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 23rd 2019 at 12:54:41 PM

I discovered the series Comic Book/Violine a while back, which is a pretty fun adventure story about a young girl who can read people's minds by looking into their eyes. It's mostly lighthearted, though it has plenty of dramatic moments, as well as some Black Comedy Burst moments.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 23rd 2019 at 1:48:09 PM

While I disliked La Caste des Méta-Barons (I thought it was very repetitive) I really like The Incal and its prequel. While set in the same universe, they tell very different stories.

The Incal does seem to have more of an adventure vibe, which would be my jam… Hopefully my library has them though, because it's an old series.

Heh, I like the concept. Might check this one out someday.

It is not until "America", that he could even choose where Tintin would travel.

Thus, he was only marginally interested in doing actual research about the Soviet Union or Congo.

So he just threw something together without caring much to please his boss and his audience.

That is why these adventures feel more dated and sillier than later adventures at the same time.

When he started to care though, he would be able to create masterpieces like "Blue Lotus".

That was even a controversial work at the time, as it was very radical in its portrayal of the racism against the Chinese.

Edited by Kickisan on Jul 3rd 2020 at 1:37:48 PM

Also, these comics were influenced by World War II, which is why they demonize the Japanese so heavily. You see something similar in Asterix, where the Germanic tribes are practically Nazi precursors with all the Nazi references filed off, and plunging them into a few thousand years of strife is seen as staving off the Third Reich, basically.

These comics are very much a product of their time.

"Lucky Luke" is not really a favorite of mine, but it's good enough.

Edited by Kickisan on Jul 3rd 2020 at 1:46:41 PM

And a sympathetic Japanese character appeared in "The Crab With The Golden Claws", which was actually made during the WWII.

And as for Goscinny and Uderzo, they too were fair enough to let sympathetic proto-Germans appear in later adventures. They must have realized that they went too far in "Goths".

Edited by Kickisan on Jul 3rd 2020 at 1:59:36 PM

I like the Lucky Luke cartoons, I think they are sometimes even better than the comics, at least the early ones. I read an early Lucky Luke a while ago, and it was really awkwardly paced, more focussed on singular gags than an actual story. They do get better, though.

Lucky Luke took its stride when Goscinny started writing for it. There have been a lot of other authors afterwards, but it is really hit and miss.

Achille Talon is a very interesting read, if only for the convoluted way the characters speak, the constant fourth wall breaking and tongue in cheek humour. I have no idea if they have been translated, but that must be a challenge.

Edited by C105 on Jul 4th 2020 at 9:46:01 PM

Achille Talon is very verbose, it may be a challenge indeed to the non-native French speakers, or difficult to translate.

If you want to read more comics set in a western setting, Blueberry is very good.

Edited by gropcbf on Jul 5th 2020 at 3:12:09 PM

I can't seem to find the name of whoever was responsible for the censorship of Franco-Belgian comics before the 60's. There was one - it is one of the reasons why so many comic heroes of that time are Heterosexual Life-Partners and feature very few female characters (especially not attractive ones) - but I can't find any name for it like The Comics Code or even if there was one such organisation instead of unilateral decisions from the editors.

With the recent changes to the Getting Crap Past the Radar trope that require to explicitly mention the radar involved, this prevents adding some examples for this medium.

I'm not sure there ever was one. It's just how most people wrote their comics.