Pipeline and Sundry: Free French Comics Everywhere!

Largo Lettering (and Pencils)

The next “Largo Winch” book isn’t due out until November 2021. That makes sense as the last one just came out in the fall of 2019. A two year cadence makes sense for the series, much as “Asterix” currently runs on.

But you can see some pages in their early pencil/lettering stage right now in French, German, and Dutch. Phillipe Francq is posting them to the Dupuis website to whet your appetite for next year and, theoretically, take your mind off your home confinement. (That’s the French word for the current situation: “Confinement.” )

The pencils are very tight, particularly in the backgrounds, which I have to think means they were light boxed off roughs to get to a level this clean and precise. I don’t see any perspective grids or erasure marks.

The other thing that interests me, not surprisingly, is the lettering. The three copies of each page have the lettering of a different language, and each uses its own lettering style. It looks like a computer font, but Francq did include the blue pencil guidelines for the lettering. Did he include that so the letterer could know just how big a font to use in the balloons? The Dutch version appears to use the guidelines, but the French and German versions are off on their own.

European publishers tend to create their comics with other languages in mind. We don’t in North America. We just are happy to use Illustrator and know that the foreign rights people can just take out that layer in Adobe and replace it with new text. That seems to be about as far as things go.

Free Comics

The French comics publishers are doing their part to keep those stuck in confinement busy. They’re offering live streams of artists at work (my favorites!), activities for the kids, and even free digital comics.

ActuaBD.com has a list of free comics, if you’re interested in polishing up your French. (I’m still learning.)

The live streams are the most fun for a process geek like me. I recently watched Marko painting a “Les Godillots” piece for Bamboo, and Yoann giving a tour of his studio before sitting down to draw a Supergroom image. A couple days later, Yoann was back and painting a Spirou/Fantasio/Marsupilami cover image.

All of these were done on Facebook, so I guess the lesson is to follow the French publishers there to find more. It’s pointless to try to link into Facebook, so try searching around when you’re in there.

Recovering from COVID-19?

Here’s some happy news for you: Creator of the fun “Bigby Bear” series, Phillipe Coudray believes he is recovering from COVID-19. He was never tested because he got sick before tests were available, but the list of symptoms is consistent.

On a completely different topic, Coudray was asked about how he thought the State of the Author could be improved. He had this idea, with a translation (however rough) from Google:

Similarly, I would be so that the resumptions of characters after the death of the author are the subject of a tax paid to living authors, because this is an unfair competition, consisting in using a celebrity already acquired with a new author.

In other words, tax Asterix to fund living creators. It’s an idea that would never fly here in the States, but the French government does take a more active role in the funding of the arts, so perhaps it’s not inconceivable. I don’t quite understand how you’d disburse those funds equitably, but that’s for someone else to figure out. We’re just talking high ideas here.

Not Free, But Lower Cost

Magnetic Press is having a big sale in their store.

If you’re holding off on trying European comics because they’re not in print, then this is the answer for you. Magnetic Press publishes a lot fo great translated Franco-Belgian comics in beautiful hardcover print editions. They even have three of Bengal’s books available for a pretty good price right now.

You can also pre-order the print edition of “Mister Invincible,” which you’ve seen and adored as it’s gone viral in various social media in recent months. I don’t know how the current pandemic thingamabobber will impact its publication schedule, but preorder it today and you can be pleasantly surprised by when it does show up!

I do have to add that I tried ordering something through the site this week. PayPal wouldn’t let me. But PayPal wouldn’t explain why. I talked to the folks at Magnetic Press. They assure me that they have had others ordering successfully with PayPal. I worked with them to try to find a way to get PayPal to work on their site. It never did.

It’s impossible to find help on PayPal’s website, so I haven’t been able to ask them what this is all about, but they are saying the issue is on their own end. Depending on which explanation you want to believe, it’s either a governmental regulation or a PayPal policy. I have no idea.

So, if you do order, you might want to play it safe and use a credit card.

Brainy Smurf

One sad note this time out: The voice of Brainy Smurf just died.

And because that’s the state of the world today, I have to mention that it doesn’t look like it was COVID-19 related. He had had a couple strokes earlier in the year.

That’s a voice that sticks with you. I can hear it in my head now from growing up hearing it every Saturday morning 30+ years ago.

Super Pocket Pilote

In case you missed it on the front page after this article, I published my review of “Super Pocket Pilote” magazine today. It was a short-lived quarterly magazine that had new stories featuring Lucky Luke, Valerian, Blueberry, and more, many of which have never been translated into English.

It’s an interesting experiment and I break down some of the highlights in that review. If nothing else, skip to the end to see the ads for early Asterix and Lucky Luke albums. That’s always fun.