Vive Francais

I was hoping to post this in the wake of a World Cup victory for France. Alas, no such luck. After a remarkable run for the Cup, Zidane and crew ran out of time, patience and solid shooting to lose it to the Italians. If I were working on Book IV (Kid Beowulf In Rome), I'd probably be happy for them. However, since I'm smack dab in the middle of Book II and have become something of a Francophile during the process, I'm sorry to see France lose.

Believe it or not, the French are good at many things besides soccer, and cartooning is one of them. I remember when I was first introduced to Asterix and Albert Uderzo's work. I was eight years old and totally blown away, hoping that one day I'd be able to draw as well as he could (I'm still hoping). There is something so wonderfully vibrant about their style of cartooning; the characters are fresh, the linework is confident and animated, the girls are sultry.

Perhaps just as important, people in France (and Europe as a whole), actually respect, enjoy, and foster the work done in comic books and their creators (unlike this country's history of fear and rejection). Recently I've come across some French cartoonists currently working who are blowing my mind. If you get a chance, check out their official websites, it'll be time well spent.

Pierre Alary (my favority so far) is working on an adventure story called Belladone. Set in 15th century France it follows the adventures a heroine and her escpades as a musketeer (at least, this is what I can infer from the artwork--unfortunately there isn't an English translation available yet). Alary updates his blog frequently with wonderful new pages. Apparently he's going to be at this year's Comicon signing books--you'll find me in line.

Antoine Antin is an animator whose most recent work includes Asterix & The Vikings. He has some great pencil tests from the film on his site. I wish somebody'd get smart and distribute the film stateside!

Finally, Rodolphe Guenoden is another animator/cartoonist. This guy draws beautiful women as well as some pretty cool superheroes.

I'm sure there are dozens more and I look forward to scoping out as many new artists as I can; I'll continue to look upon their work with envy and awe. My thanks to the artists for letting me post their work!