European Comics in Official and Fan Translations
This is an autobiographical tale in which Michel Kichka goes back over the significant moments of a childhood, an adolescence, and a life overshadowed by the Holocaust, from Belgium to The Promised Land, from nightmares to funny anecdotes, moments of joy and liberation.
Caroline is a 33-year-old single mom. To help her cope with the difficulties she faces as such in her personal and professional life, she’s a regular at the M.A (mothers anonymous) association, a conversation group for women who are a little overwhelmed by their motherhood. Caroline shares her tragi-comic attempts to find love and companionship, while Philippe, a slightly out-of-place new arrival at M.A., reflects on his status as a ‘dad 2.0’. A funny, intelligent, and moving graphic novel, a touch of chick lit with a feminist twist that comments on one of the big social subjects of our time: the new family model.
What is cinema? What is its effect on us? Why do we love it so much? These are all questions to which Blutch seeks the answers in his considered and humble way, drawing on his prodigious cultural knowledge and his gift for the comic book form. He references Burt Lancaster, Jean Gabin, Michel Piccoli, Luchino Visconti, Claudia Cardinale, Tarzan, Psychose, and many more. As much comic book as graphic essay, this reverie on the narrative art of image marks the advent of one of today’s masters of the 9th art.
By all appearances they are a happy couple. Married, religious, hardworking. What happens behind closed doors, however, is a secret, even to those closest to them.
“Kwaśne jabłko” (Sour Apple), written by Jerzy Szyłak and illustrated by Joanna Karpowicz, tells a story of domestic abuse, a story of a victim and persecutor. This story of violence spiraling out of control brings no hope, instead playing on emotions and powerful illustrations, painted with acrylic on canvas-textured paper, to create a unique atmosphere of horror.
It is violence as seen by a painter. In truth, no one would like to hear this kind of story, and yet such stories are told, and need to be told. They need to be told because they happen to real people, be they old or young, educated or uneducated, pious or atheist. None of these people wants to take a bite from the sour apple in the basket. However, it happens to some. That is why such stories must be told.
Sun is the story of a little boy and his mother. The child is the result of a drunken roll in the hay the mother has after a fight with her family. Filled with shame and guilt, the mother is incapable of showing the child love and affection. Her father, the boy’s grandfather, sees the boy as the son he never had and the heir to his fortune. He takes care of the boy and the bond between the two grows very strong. But the day comes when grandfather dies. In an effort to get rid of the boy, he is told to take his demented grandmother for a stroll. And that’s when the accident happens. The boy is charged with murder and ends up in jail. The mother is relieved to be rid of him and shows no intent to defend him. And that’s when the boy’s father shows up. The mother had bribed him to keep his mouth shut, but he cannot fail his son now. He helps the boy escape, but the police catch up with them. Will they get away?
It’s 1537.
Deep in the lost mountains of Jura, a group of fanatical Catholic mountain people track a young Protestant and his guide.
Big mistake.
The latter is no other than the ex master-at-arms of Francois I, Hans Stalhoffer. After being defeated in an unfair fight, Hans had decided to exile himself from the court. Some years later, the surgeon that saved his life and his young apprentice ask for his help.
They wish to travel undercover to Switzerland to publish the Bible in French. The only possible route is to take the infamous Jura Pass. Hans, who is buried in debt and has become a hardened alcoholic, is willing to sacrifice a few days to guide the two men through the hostile mountains.
But when the authorities get wind of the scheme, they launch a wide-scale manhunt. Tracked, injured and cold, Hans will have to surpass himself to win the most difficult fight of his life.
From the very first moment he meets “Sentence” Sykes, young Jim Starret instantly recognizes a legend of the Old West, just like in the comic books he learned to read with. But his new hero is nowhere to be seen when the fearsome Clayton gang murders his mother before his very eyes. From that moment on, the now-orphaned Jim becomes obsessed with a sole objective: joining Sykes to track down his mother’s killers. But what he doesn’t yet realize is that legends of the Old West are forged by their demons.
In this documentary comics we meet Belgian journalist Pascale Bourgaux as she travels with a cameraman back to a small village in the north of Afghanistan that she has been visiting regularly for ten years. The village is controlled by the warlord and resistance fighter Mamour Hasan, who fought to expel the Taliban from his land just like the Russians before them. To her great surprise, she finds the people there weary of the Europeans and corrupt Afghan officials and even the warlord’s own sons seem ready to welcome the return of the Taliban. This book uses the pacing and observational skills of artists Vincent Zabus and Thomas Campi to give a palpable sense of daily life in this troubled, faraway land as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse of two seasoned journalists at work.
Three friends, their schoolgrounds, a secret. And fifteen years later, the discovery that they all thought there was only one secret, but each had their own. And there was one more, bigger than the others, that none were aware of. This is Zerocalcare’s second graphic novel, the one that made him stand out as an intelligent, delicate, merciless narrator when it comes to describing his own weaknesses, which may be everyone’s. A complete story in three parts at different times in the coming of age of young Calcare; three moments that have in common the all-too-familiar feeling of having tentacles at the throat.
It all begins with a man speaking about how everyone is blind to the powerful message of Gaudi’s works. It begins when Toñi, a mere employee, saves an old man from being run over on the same spot where Antoni Gaudi was hit by a tram. It begins when Jaime Calvo, a cold and calculating detective, is ordered to investigate on how a realtor can be murdered in Casa Vicens, the first house created by Gaudi, without any clues whatsoever. When a serial killer named Trencadis leaves corpses at the most important Gaudi buildings and the police cannot stop him, a ordinary woman finds herself trapped in the middle of the case… guided by an old man that appears to be the ghost of Gaudi.