European Comics in Official and Fan Translations

Life Under Occupation

“Life under Occupation” is the adaptation of author José Pablo García’s trip to the occupied Palestinian territories, in collaboration with Action Against Hunger and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). From high-security airports to tension on the ground, García’s ten-day trip from Nablus to Gaza makes for a non-fiction graphic novel full of emotion and eye-opening discoveries.

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Lydie

On a forgotten cul-de-sac in a nameless city, a child is born. It doesn’t take long for the charming little girl to work her way into the hearts of all the residents on this cozy little street. Does it really matter that she’s invisible? The child’s mother delivered a stillborn, fatherless baby. Two months later, she becomes convinced that her child has returned from heaven. The neighbors don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise, and so they play along. After all, “why bring somebody pain when it’s so easy to bring joy instead?” …But is Lydie really a figment?

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Fragments of Femininity

This is a collection of portraits of 7 women, of all different ages, backgrounds, circumstances and eras. Each one of them is facing a defining moment in her life. They are bound together by the symbol of their femininity: their breasts. We see an awkward college girl getting to grips with her womanhood; a 1960s house-wife freeing herself from the restraints of propriety; the manager of a small underwear shop fighting against corporate giants; a woman nude modeling for an unexpected reason… Love, illness, sex, liberation, sensuality: Olivier Pont draws us into the lives of these women with astounding force.

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Macaroni!

The touching story of a child getting to know his grandfather, an Italian immigrant living in Belgium.

11-year-old Romeo thinks of his grandfather as nothing but an “old pain-in-the-butt.” So when he finds out that he’s going to have to spend a few days with him at his crumbling old house, without even a TV to keep him entertained… well, it’s his idea of hell. But there are some surprises in store for Romeo during his visit.

He changes his mind about a few things, perhaps thanks to his grandfather’s neighbor, Lucy, who tells him about her own “nono,” and shows him how a spoil tip can be a thing of beauty. Or perhaps it’s thanks to Romeo’s dad, who speaks for the first time about his childhood relationship with his father.

But it’s mostly thanks to Ottavio who, beneath his old, grouchy exterior, conceals the hard life he has led, full of suffering and sacrifice. It is a life the 11-year-old Romeo finds hard to comprehend, but which gives him a deeper understanding of someone from another century.

It started off as just a short holiday to a grey Belgian town. But this holiday turns into an opportunity for three generations of men to lift the silence that surrounds them. A touching story about Italian immigration, coal mining, communication between the generations and the difficultly of opening up when you’ve spent your whole life in silence. 

“The book has an almost meditative quality with its quiet images of outdoor gardening, silent hallways, and phantom memories <…> Recommended for fans of family dramas, WWII history, and slice-of-life stories.” The Quietus

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Gaia Blues

Gaia is the ancient name of our Earth, a place now endangered by growing human pollution. A family of polar bears is about to discover what are the effects of this situation, in a story told entirely with no words.

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Marie Curie. The Radium Fairy

Marie Curie is the only woman ever to have received two Nobel prizes: the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work with polonium and radium in 1911. She was also the first woman ever to teach at the Sorbonne. This inspired comic is set at the time she received her second Nobel Prize, when a vicious press campaign was launched against her, denouncing her affair with the physician Paul Langevin. Through her flash-backs, we’re invited to witness the key moments of this exceptional woman’s life and work.

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Gauguin – Off the Beaten Track

Fed up with his life in France, Paul Gauguin sets out for Tahiti, where he subsequently decides to settle. As he immerses himself in the culture of a tropical country that couldn’t be more different from his own, the painter not only gains a new lease on life, but begins producing some of his most inspired work.

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Mezek

1948. The creation of the Hebrew state is proving to be not exactly a peaceful affair, starting with the Egyptian bombs that are regularly falling on Tel-Aviv. All that Israel has to fight the lethal enemy ‘Spitfires’ are some old ‘Mezek’, flown by Jewish volunteers from all over the world, but also mercenaries from rather more sinister backgrounds. Bjorn is one of those mercenaries. He’s come to risk his life for several million dollars, a fact that galls his brothers-in-arms, who are fighting not for cash but for their ideals!

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Bearskin

“Bearskin” takes us on a trip to modern day Italy and then all the way to the United States of the late 1930s. Every day, Amadeo bikes up the hill from his small hometown on a beautiful island off the coast of Italy to read the daily horoscope to Don Palermo. Little does he know that this blind and powerless old man with a cane in his hand used to be a bear tamer, not to mention his later shenanigans as the right-hand man of a powerful mafia boss. A highly moving story of love, vengeance and cowardice.

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Bitcoin. The Hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto

Bitcoin is making giant strides throughout the world. Satoshi Nakamoto, its creator, continues as an enigmatic and cryptographic figure. Nonetheless, rumors surrounding his potential wealth have not gone unnoticed by the mafi a. He has also popped ups or the radar of the secret services. In fact, NSA agents have been searching for him for some time now. The opportunities that this crypto-currency has opened up within the fi nancial markets have turned Nakamoto into a hero admired in more and more places near and far. His fans would go to great lengths to protect and defend him. For many, simply managing monetary transactions and issuing bitcoins without the involvement of intermediaries as well as carrying out transactions collectively online are factors which promote values for a freer world: In hope for a better world.

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