© This link for the illustrations.
© Per A.J. Andersson for the texts. Written January 2005, updated November 2011.
BD – Comic or Not
| Comics were once comic-only. Picture-telling through juxtaposed drawings, with people talking with or without balloons, have entertained news-paper readers and magazine buyers for ages. But there is also a world beyond simply being fun. |
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| People making a difference: |
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A HUNDRED years ago there were already comic strips
such as "Little Nemo in Slumberland" and "Krazy Kat".
They presented fantastic imagery and imaginative fantasies in an
era where films still lacked sound. The advents of super-heroes
and comic books then widened the medium to younger readers, but
the stories often fared less than well. The comics industry in the
United States eventually got simplistic and type-cast,
while only the advent of underground comics and sophisticated humour
strips such as "Peanuts" brought back some of the literary
qualities of the past. |
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ELSEWHERE
things had developed on their own. In Belgium
and France (where comics are called BD, short
for "bande dessinée") the legacies of "Tintin"
and "Spirou" fostered generations of artists making
children's literature inside the album format. And in the 1960s
"fine" artists, film and media got interested in the
comics medium (shortened to "BD" in French), which spelled
the start of a development of comics for older audiences, including
adults. |
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IN
THE MEANTIME, far in the east, the most impressive comics
culture of them all began to form. In Japan, comics
were introduced mainly through US influences. In the 1950s, improved
living standards boosted sales of the new comics magazines (as well
as the book collections of comics published as serials in those
magazines). The nation's complicated mix of reading standards meant
the Japanese could develop a comics tradition unhindered by further
imports from abroad. At the same time, this very same mix meant
that the picture-filled comics pages were perceived as a direct
way of communicating. The tie-in with the growing industry of Japanese
film animation (often the stories started out as comics, then went
to become TV animation) further added to its popularity. |
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 KURODA Iō (1971-, Japan) 2005 |
 Joann Sfar (1971-, France) 2006 |
| IN THE 80S AND 90S the Japanese comics industry continued to prosper on its own. Eventually its importance began to spread to abroad, where ailing comics markets needed new input to regain interest in the medium. Beginning with the US, Japanese comics were exported into English-speaking territories, with the big comics markets in continental Europe soon to follow. And at the turn of the century, manga (meaning comics in Japanese) were instrumental in changing the notion of what comics are far away from mainland Japan. // | ||
 ASHINANO Hitoshi (1963-, Japan) 2007 |
 Frank Le Gall (1959-, France) 2007 |
 Li Österberg (1978-, Sweden) 2007 |
 TANIGUCHI Jirō (1947-, Japan) 2007 |
1.jpg) ASANO Inio (1980-, Japan) 2008 |
 Alison Bechdel (1960-, USA) 2008 |
 Anne Baraou/Fanny Dalle-Rive (1965-/1976-, France) 2009 |
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