History Main / FrancoBelgianComics

First, the mainstream and intellectual perception of the medium is in stark contrast to that of the U.S.; in Europe, comics are called "le Neuvième Art", the Ninth Art (coined by French critic Claude Beylie and popularized by Creator/{{Morris}}). The influence of French-language comics in Europe has spread this concept to other national comics industries, such as those of Great Britain, Spain and Italy (and South America and Africa, to a lesser degree), to a noticeable extent. The lack of any truly constraining [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code]] or puritan {{Moral Guardian|s}}-enforced laws allowed creators and publishers to use more mature themes and concepts in their works, and to later move away from purely children's stories to more adult-oriented works in the TheSixties virtually seamlessly (the fact that it was a more permissive time than TheFifties probably helped). While youth-oriented comics are still a major part of the industry, many are perennial LongRunners and/or are rife with ParentalBonus, and there is little to no social stigma attached to being a fan or a collector. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a house in France or in Belgium that doesn't have a bunch of comics on a shelf somewhere.

First, the mainstream and intellectual perception of the medium is in stark contrast to that of the U.S.; in Europe, comics are called "le Neuvième Art", the Ninth Art (coined by Creator/{{Morris}}). The influence of French-language comics in Europe has spread this concept to other national comics industries, such as those of Great Britain, Spain and Italy (and South America and Africa, to a lesser degree), to a noticeable extent. The lack of any truly constraining [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode Comics Code]] or puritan {{Moral Guardian|s}}-enforced laws allowed creators and publishers to use more mature themes and concepts in their works, and to later move away from purely children's stories to more adult-oriented works in the TheSixties virtually seamlessly (the fact that it was a more permissive time than TheFifties probably helped). While youth-oriented comics are still a major part of the industry, many are perennial LongRunners and/or are rife with ParentalBonus, and there is little to no social stigma attached to being a fan or a collector. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a house in France or in Belgium that doesn't have a bunch of comics on a shelf somewhere.

* ''ComicBook/Koba'' (Belgian)

* Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky (Chilean)

* Hugo Pratt (Italian)

* Jean Van Hamme
* Christophe Arleston