European comics
Encyclopedia
European comics is a generalized terms for comics produced in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....

. Though technically European, British comics are for historical and cultural reasons considered separate from European comics due to the existence of a well-established domestic market and traditions which more closely resemble the development of American comics.

Though many purely European comic books exist, the comic album is a very common printed medium. The typical album is printed in large format, generally with high quality paper and colouring, roughly A4
ISO 216
ISO 216 specifies international standard paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. It defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available size...

-sized, approx. 21x30 centimetres (8.4x11.6 in), has around 40-60 pages, but examples with more than 100 pages are common. In Anglo-Saxon terminology these would be called graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

s, but this term is rarely used in Europe, and is not always applicable as albums often consist of separate short stories, placing them somewhere halfway between a comic book and a graphic novel. The European comic genres vary from the humorous adventure vein (such as Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...

 and Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...

), especially in its earliest forms, to more adult subjects.

History

The roots of European comics can be found as early as 18th century caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

s and later with precursors in the form of illustrated picture books like Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch was an influential German caricaturist, painter, and poet who is famed for his satirical picture stories with rhymed texts....

' Max and Moritz
Max and Moritz
Max and Moritz is a German language illustrated story in verse. This highly inventive, blackly humorous tale, told entirely in rhymed couplets, was written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch and published in 1865...

. The early 19th century Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 artist Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricature artist. He is also considered to be the first modern comic creator.- Biography :...

 is regarded by many as the "father of the modern comic" and his publication Histoire de M. Vieux Bois
Histoire de M. Vieux Bois
Histoire de M. Vieux Bois, published in English as The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, and also known as Les amours de Mr. Vieux Bois or simply Monsieur Vieuxbois, is a 19th-century publication written and illustrated by the Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer. Published first in Europe as Histoire...

is sometimes called the first "comic book". Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...

 are historically among the dominant scenes of European comics. It started in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 in the 1920s, followed quickly by France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

See also

  • Franco-Belgian comics
    Franco-Belgian comics
    Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...

  • Belgian comics
    Belgian comics
    Belgian comics are a distinct subgroup in the comics history, and played a major role in the development of European comics, alongside France with whom they share a long common history...

  • British comics
  • Czech comics
    Czech comics
    - History :The beginnings of the comics genre in the Czechoslovakia are connected with the popular magazine Mladý hlasatel , published in the 1930s. In 1938, the magazine began publishing a popular comic series Rychlé šípy, written by Jaroslav Foglar and drawn by Jan Fischer...

  • Dutch Comics
    Dutch comics
    Dutch comics are comics made in the Netherlands. In Dutch the most common designation for the whole art form is "strip", while the word "comic" is used for the soft cover American style comic book format, usually containing translated US superhero material...

  • German comics
    German comics
    German comics are comics written in the German language or by German speaking creators, for the comic markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland....

  • Hungarian comics
    Hungarian comics
    Hungarian comics are comics made in Hungary and by the Hungarian diaspora of the surrounding countries. When dealing with Hungarian comics, one cannot separate comics made by Hungarians from translated foreign matter, since in some eras most of the publications come from the latter group and...

  • Italian comics
    Italian comics
    Italian comics are comics made in Italy. They are locally known as fumetto – plural form fumetti – although this latter term is often used in English to describe a specific comic genre . The most popular Italian comics have been translated into many languages...

  • Polish comics
    Polish comics
    Polish comics are comics written and produced in Poland. Very few of these comics have been published in languages other than Polish.- History :...

  • Serbian comics
    Serbian comics
    Serbian comics are comics written and produced in Serbia. During the 1970s and 1980s many comics have been published, often in other Serbo-Croatian variants than Serbian proper.- Before 1941 :...

  • Spanish comics
    Spanish comics
    See also List of Spanish comicsSpanish comics are the comics of Spain and they are among the most important comics traditions in Europe. Comics in Spain are usually called tebeos, historietas or cómics.-Origin and definition:...


External links

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