During the 19th century, there were many artists in Europe drawing cartoons, occasionally even utilizing sequential multi-panel narration, albeit mostly with clarifying captions and dialogue placed under the panels rather than the
speech balloons commonly used today. These were humorous short works rarely longer than a single page. In the
Francophonie, artists such as
Gustave Doré,
Nadar,
Christophe and
Caran d'Ache began to be involved with the medium.
Early 1900s – 1929: Precursors In the early decades of the 20th century, comics were not stand-alone publications, but were published in
newspapers and weekly or monthly
magazines as episodes or gags. Aside from these magazines, the Catholic Church, in the form of its then powerful and influential , was creating and distributing "healthy and correct" magazines for children. In the early 1900s, the first popular French comics appeared. Two of the most prominent comics include
Bécassine and
Les Pieds Nickelés. In the 1920s, after the end of the first world war, the French artist
Alain Saint-Ogan started out as a professional cartoonist, creating the successful series
Zig et Puce in 1925. Saint-Ogan was one of the first French-speaking artists to fully utilize techniques popularized and formularized in the United States, such as
Speech balloons, even though the
text comic format would remain the predominant native format for the next two to three decades in France, propagated as such by France's educators. In 1920, the Abbot of
Averbode in Belgium started publishing
Zonneland, a magazine consisting largely of text with few illustrations, which started printing comics more often in the following years. Even though
Les Pieds Nickelés,
Bécassine and
Zig et Puce managed to survive the war for a little while longer, modernized in all three cases and all of them continued by artists (the most notable one being
Belgian Greg for the latter in the 1960s) other than the original creators, none of them succeeded to find a readership outside France itself and are consequently remembered in their native country only.
1929–1940: Birth of the modern Franco-Belgian comic One of the earliest proper Belgian comics was
Hergé's
The Adventures of Tintin, with the story
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, which was published in
Le Petit Vingtième in 1929. It was quite different from future versions of Tintin, the style being very naïve and simple, even childish, compared to the later stories. The early
Tintin stories often featured racist and political stereotypes, which caused
controversies after the war, and which Hergé later regretted. After
Tintin's early massive success, the magazine decided to release the stories in hardcover book format as well, directly after they had run their respective courses in the magazine — in the process introducing something new in the Belgian comic world: the
comic album. The 1930
Tintin au pays des Soviets title is generally considered the first of its kind – even though there are three similar
Zig et Puce titles from French publisher
Hachette, known to predate the
Tintin title by one to two years, but which failed to find an audience outside France. The magazine continued to do so for the subsequent three stories until 1934 when the magazine, as such not particularly well-suited as book publisher, turned album publication over to Belgian specialized book publisher
Casterman, who has been the
Tintin album publisher ever since. The criticisms regarding the early stories notwithstanding and even though the format still had a long way to go,
Tintin is widely considered the starting point and
archetype of the modern Franco-Belgian comic as currently understood, and as amply demonstrated in the vast majority of treatises and reference works written on the subject since the 1960s, and the first to find a readership outside its originating country. As such the
Tintin series went on to become one of the greatest post-war successes of the Franco-Belgian comic world, having seen translations in dozens of languages, including English, as well as becoming one of the relatively few European comics to have seen a major, successful, Hollywood
movie adaptation as late as 2011, nearly thirty years after the death of its creator. A further step towards modern comic books happened in 1934 when Hungarian
Paul Winkler, who had previously been distributing comics to the monthly magazines via his
Opera Mundi bureau, made a deal with
King Features Syndicate to create the
Journal de Mickey, a weekly 8-page early "comic-book". The success was immediate, and soon other publishers started publishing periodicals with American series, which enjoyed considerable popularity in both France and Belgium. This continued during the remainder of the decade, with hundreds of magazines publishing mostly imported material. The most important ones in France were
Robinson (with
Flash Gordon and
Mandrake),
Hurrah (with
Brick Bradford,
Ace Drummond and
King), and the (on behalf of the a.k.a. Cœurs Vaillants et Âmes Vaillantes de France) publications
Cœurs Vaillants ("Valiant Hearts", 1929, for adolescent boys), '
("Valiant Souls", 1937, for adolescent girls) and ' (1945, for pre-adolescents), while Belgian examples included
Wrill and
Bravo.
Coeurs Vaillants started to publish
The Adventures of Tintin in syndication from 1930 onward, constituting one of the earliest known French-Belgian comic world cross-fertilizations, only reinforced when Abbot Courtois, editor-in-chief of
Coeurs Vaillants, asked Hergé to create a series about real children with a real family as opposed to
Tintins ambiguous age and family (and thus more in line with the Catholic norms and values on which the magazine was founded), which resulted in the 1936 comic
The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko. Incidentally, as Hergé created his comics in the increasingly popular speech balloon format, it initially led to
a conflict with Cœurs Vaillants, which utilized the text comic format its editors considered more appropriate from an educational point-of-view. Hergé won the argument, and speech balloon comics were henceforth featured
alongside text comics in the magazine (and that of its spin-offs) until the mid-1960s, when speech balloon comics were all but abandoned by the magazine(s), the general trend notwithstanding. In 1938, the Belgian
Spirou magazine was launched. Conceived in response to the immense popularity of
Journal de Mickey and the success of
Tintin in
Le Petit Vingtième, the black and white/color hybrid magazine featured predominantly comics from an American origin (
Red Ryder,
Dick Tracy,
Superman) at the time of its launch until the war years, but there were also native comics included. These concerned
Spirou, created by the Frenchman
Rob-Vel (and thus another early cross-fertilization example) and who served as the mascot and namesake for the new magazine, and
Tif et Tondu created by Belgian artist
Fernand Dineur. Both series would survive the war and achieve considerable popularity after the war, albeit under the aegis of other artists (see below). Published in a bi-lingual country,
Spirou simultaneously appeared in a Dutch-language version as well under the name
Robbedoes for the
Flemish market. Export to the
Netherlands followed a few years later shortly after the war. The magazine was conceived and published by publisher
Éditions Dupuis S.A. (as of 1989, simply:
Dupuis), which was established by its founding namesake as a printing business in 1898, but changed to being a publishing house in 1922, publishing non-comic books and magazines. Since the launch of
Spirou however, Dupuis has increasingly focused on comic productions and is currently, as of 2017, a comics publisher exclusively and one of the two great Belgian Franco-Belgian comic publishing houses still in existence. As post-war exports to France (like in the Netherlands, the magazine was not available in France until 1945-46),
Spirou – featuring the (early) creations of Belgian greats like
Morris,
Franquin and
Jijé – became a significant inspiration for future French
bande dessinée greats such as
Jean "Mœbius" Giraud and
Jean-Claude Mézières, eventually setting them off on their comic careers, but who were schoolboys at the time they became acquainted with the magazine.
1940–1944: War and occupation When Germany invaded France and Belgium, it became close to impossible to import
American comics. The occupying
Nazis banned American animated movies and comics they deemed to be of a
questionable character. Both were, however, already very popular before the war and the hardships of the war period only seemed to increase the demand. This created an opportunity for many young artists to start working in the comics and animation business. At first, authors like Jijé in
Spirou and
Edgar P. Jacobs in
Bravo continued unfinished American stories of
Superman and
Flash Gordon. Thus, by imitating the style and flow of those comics, they improved their knowledge of how to make efficient comics. Soon even those homemade versions of American comics had to stop, and the authors had to create their own heroes and stories, giving the new talents a chance to be published. Many of the most famous artists of the Franco-Belgian comics started in this period, including the Belgians
André Franquin,
Peyo (who started together at the small Belgian animation studio Compagnie Belge d'Animation – CBA),
Willy Vandersteen, and the Frenchmen
Jacques Martin and
Albert Uderzo, who worked for
Bravo.
1944–1959: Post-war era Belgian supremacy A lot of the publishers and artists who had managed to continue working during the occupation were accused of being collaborators and were imprisoned after the liberation by the reinstated national authorities on the insistence of the former French resistance, although most were released soon afterwards without charges being pressed. For example, this happened to one of the famous magazines,
Coeurs Vaillants. It was founded by Abbot Courtois (under the alias Jacques Coeur) in 1929. As he had the backing of the church, he managed to publish the magazine throughout the war, and was charged with being a collaborator. After he was forced out, his successor
Pihan (as Jean Vaillant) took up the publishing, moving the magazine in a more humorous direction. Likewise, Hergé was another artist who also found himself on the receiving end of similar accusations of the former Belgian resistance. He managed to clear his name and went on to create
Studio Hergé in 1950, where he acted as a sort of mentor for the assistants that it attracted. Among the people who worked there were
Bob de Moor,
Jacques Martin and
Roger Leloup, all of whom exhibit the easily recognizable Belgian
ligne claire (clean line style), often opposed to the "
Marcinelle school" style (named for the seat of
Spirou publisher Dupuis), mostly proposed by authors from
Spirou magazine such as Franquin,
Peyo and Morris. In 1946, Hergé also founded the weekly
Tintin magazine, which quickly gained enormous popularity, like the weekly
Spirou appearing in a Dutch version under the name
Kuifje for the Flemish and Dutch markets. Notable Belgian comic artists who at a later point in time achieved fame while working for
Tintin magazine included among others
William Vance, the aforementioned Greg,
Tibet and
Hermann Huppen.
Tintin magazine publisher Les Éditions du Lombard (as of 1989 simply:
Le Lombard) was especially founded by
Raymond Leblanc for the magazine's launch in conjuncture with Hergé as the latter could not find a publisher due to the fact that he was at that time still under investigation for alleged collaboration. Remarkably, album publications of the creations from the early group of artists centered around Hergé was, then and now, outsourced to longstanding
Tintin book publisher Casterman, while Lombard itself only started album publications for those artist who joined the magazine at a later point in time. Nonetheless, with Lombard Francophone Europe had received its first specialized comics publisher actually conceived as such. Le Lombard went on to become one of the three great Belgian publishing houses to produce comics in French (and in Dutch as well for that matter due to the bi-lingual nature of the country), alongside Dupuis and Casterman, and like them as of 2017 still in existence. Many other magazines did not survive the war:
Le Petit Vingtième had disappeared,
Le Journal de Mickey only returned in 1952. In the second half of the 1940s many new magazines appeared, although in most cases they only survived for a few weeks or months. The situation stabilized around 1950 with
Spirou and the new
Tintin magazine (with the team focused around Hergé) as the most influential and successful magazines for the next decade. Yet, 1944 (both
France and
Belgium were liberated before war's end) had already seen the start of the industry career of the French-Belgian
Jean-Michel Charlier, in the process becoming one of its most towering figures. That year and a lawyer by trade, Charlier joined the newly formed comic syndication agency of
Georges Troisfontaines, Belgium's answer to King Features Syndicate. Originally hired as an editorial draughtsman, Troisfontaines recognized Charlier's talent for writing and persuaded him to switch from drawing to scripting comics, something Charlier did with great success for the remainder of his life, creating close to three dozen series, several of them becoming classics of the Franco-Belgian
bande dessinée.
Spirou magazine became the agency's first and foremost client, and the first post-war decade saw the infusion into the magazine with many new series from young, predominantly Belgian talents like
Eddy Paape,
Victor Hubinon,
Mitacq, , instituting an era in which Jijé's career truly took off with his best-known creation, the
Western comic series
Jerry Spring, that started its run in
Spirou in March 1954. Jijé incidentally, had magazine tenure, but closely cooperated with the World Press artists before embarking on his own creation. Successful series Charlier himself created in this period were the educational short series ''
Les Belles Histoires de l'oncle Paul (serving as proving ground in order to develop the talents and skills of young aspiring artists like Belgians Mitacq, , Hermann, Dino Attanasio and the Frenchman Jean Graton among others, several of whom switching over to industry competitor Lombard at a later point in their careers, most notably Hermann), Buck Danny (with Hubinon), La Patrouille des Castors (with Mitacq after his apprenticeship on L'oncle Paul
) and Jean Valhardi
(with Paape and Jijé). Aside from being a very prolific comic script writer, becoming his trademark henceforth, Charlier also became an editorial driving force and spokesperson for the agency, because of his background in law and his assertive personality. As such, he was responsible for introducing the two Frenchmen René Goscinny (who also starting out his
comics career at the agency) and former Bravo'' artist
Albert Uderzo to each other in 1951 at the in that year opened Paris, France, office of World Press, in the process creating one of Franco-Belgium's most successful
bande dessinée partnerships. One of the first comics both men created together in the employ of the agency was the in colonial French-Canada era set Western series
Oumpah-pah, which was already conceived as loose gags in 1951, but failed to find a magazine publisher. Reworked into complete stories, the comic became successful in
Tintin magazine in the period 1958–1962 (and thus, alongside Martin's
The Adventures of Alix, one of the first purely French comics to appear in the Belgian magazine), effectively becoming the "spiritual father" of their later
Asterix creation. But it were not just the artists contracted by World Press who infused
Spirou with its new elan, Dupuis itself had contracted a group of artists who were as much responsible for its success and then some as it was this group that defined the rejuvenated magazine in the post-war era. Upon war's end three artists from the defunct animation studio CBA were hired by Dupuis as staff artists for
Spirou, Eddy Paape (before he switched over to World Press), André Franquin and
Maurice "Morris" De Bevere, and it was Morris who created in 1946 the second one of the great Franco-Belgian comic classics,
Lucky Luke, which made it first appearance in the
Almanach appendix issue of 7 December 1946. Franquin was passed the comic
Spirou et Fantasio by his mentor Jijé, who himself had taken over the series from original creator Rob-Vel in the war years, and it was Franquin who provided the series with its popularity, before he embarked for the magazine on his most popular creation
Gaston in 1957. With the addition of artist
Willy "Will" Maltaite, who took over the series
Tif et Tondu from original creator Fernand Dineur, the group that became known as "
La bande des quatre" (Gang of 4), consisting of Jijé, Franquin, Morris and Will, was complete and constituted the foundation of what was dubbed the "Marcinelle school" style. However, such was the success of these artists, that the work of pre-war artists Rob-Vel and Dineur, was eclipsed by that of the younger generation, causing them to slide into oblivion. As a result, the American comics didn't come back in as great a volume as before in both Belgium and France after the war, but in the case of France not for want of popularity, quite the contrary actually.
The bande dessinée under siege in post-war France In France, a 1949 law about publications intended for the youth market was partly written by the
French Communist Party, a major political force in France directly after the war (because of their highly successful and effective
resistance in the war years), to actually exclude most of the American publications. several Belgian French-language comic creations of the era also fell victim to the scrutiny of the oversight committee charged with upholding the law for varying reasons, as stipulated in its rather sweeping article 2 (presently article 3), which allowed for almost at will prohibition of comics for reasons that suited the policies of any French government in power at any given time. A famous example concerned the two
Korean War volumes of the popular aviation comic series
Buck Danny, created by Belgians Charlier (who as spokesperson for World Press/
Spirou was actually summoned to appear in person for a board of inquiry at the French
Ministry of Information to account for himself) and Hubinon, which were prohibited in 1954 as article 2 expressly forbade any mentioning of an actual, current armed conflict in a children's publication – but also because communist members of the commission had issues with the strong anticommunist sentiment expressed in the comic according to writer Charlier. Both volumes remained prohibited in France until 1969, though French fans on holiday in Belgium, Switzerland or Luxembourg could pick up the albums unhindered over there. The law also came in handy to somewhat regulate – though not prohibiting – the availability in France of Belgian magazines like
Spirou (which actually came close to prohibition however, as the Korean War stories were serialized in the magazine, but which was narrowly averted at the eleventh hour by Charlier) and
Tintin in favor of the native Catholic magazines, after the conservatives had reasserted their political predominance in the country during the 1950s. Rigorously enforced by the government oversight committee (Committee in Charge of Surveillance and Control over Publications Aimed at Children and Adolescents), particularly in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, the law turned out to be a stifling influence on the post-war development of the French comic world until the advent of
Pilote magazine and more specifically the
May 1968 social upheaval. Legally, the Commission had no punitive powers, only advisory ones, but in practice Charlier begged to differ. The all powerful Commission, shielded by the Justice Ministry (which
was the punitive authority, but who took any and all Commission recommendations at face value, no questions asked), and were less beholden to what was then still the
Belgian bande dessinée tradition, other native contemporaries were – in essence ranking among the first native French artists to provide the "Franco" element in what later would become the "Franco-Belgian comics" expression, with comic artist
Marijac having been a trailblazer. Marijac actually started out for
Coeurs Vaillants in the 1930s, but distanced himself from the magazine directly after the liberation, when he started the secular comics magazine '''' (1944–1963), France's first recognizable modern
bande dessinée magazine. Marijac himself became a prolific figure of note in the French comic scene of the 1950s as co-editor and contributor for a series of native comic magazines other than his own
Coq Hardi, and conceived in the era under the shadow of the all-present Catholic publications to fill the void left by the banned American comics such as
Les Grandes Séries Internationales,
Cricri Journal,
Mireille,
Ouest-Magazine,
Nano et Nanette,
Héros du Far West,
Frimousse,
Cocorico and
Allez-France, all of which filled with work from French artists, now forgotten save Marijac himself (who was honored for his efforts at the 1979 Angoulême comics festival with its most prestigious award), along with the magazines they created their work for. It has been observed that, unlike the Belgian publications, these mostly secular native magazines were largely left alone by the Commission de Surveillance, save for one notable exception; Pierre Mouchot, creator and editor of American inspired comic magazines in the immediate post-war era, was on recommendation of the Commission persecuted for his likewise American (and Italian) inspired comic series
Big Bill le Casseur and
P’tit Gars, having to appear in court no less than eight times in the period 1950 - 1954, actually winning most of his cases in the lower courts. And even though he and his creations are both in equal measure forgotten, Mouchot became the only French comics artist ever to be legally persecuted,
and ultimately convicted by the highest court of appeal (though only receiving symbolic punishment) under article 2 of the 1949 law for real. However, the conviction
did serve as an effective deterrent for other native artists – and thus firmly establishing the Commission as a force to be reckoned with, even though they had a tough time becoming so as Mouchot kept winning his lower court cases – who continued to create their comics while erring on the side of caution for the next decade. Having already embarked on their divergent evolutionary path, Flemish comics escaped this kind of scrutiny, as they were at the time rarely, if at all, translated into French. This meant that in France, magazines like
Pilote and
Vaillant (relaunched as
Pif gadget in 1969), and
Spirou and
Tintin for French-speaking Belgium, gained almost the entire market and became the obvious goal for new artists from their respective countries, who took up the styles prevalent in those magazines to break into the business. With a number of publishers in place, including
Dargaud (
Pilote),
Le Lombard (
Tintin), and
Dupuis (
Spirou), three of the biggest influences for over 50 years, the market for domestic comics had reached (commercial) maturity. In the following decades, magazines like
Spirou,
Tintin,
Vaillant (relaunched as
Pif Gadget in 1969),
Pilote, and (the first to feature completed stories in each issue, as opposed to the episodic approach of other magazines) would dominate the market. At this time, the French creations had already gained fame throughout Europe, and many countries had started importing the comics in addition to—or as substitute for—their own productions.
1974–1990: France becomes preeminent The aftermath of the May 1968 social upheaval brought many mature – as in aimed at an adult readership – BD magazines, something that had not been seen previously and virtually all of them of purely French origin, which was also indicative of France rapidly becoming the preeminent force in the (continental) European BD world, eventually usurping the position the Belgians held until then. ''
L'Écho des Savanes (from new publisher , founded by Pilote'' defectors Nikita Mandryka,
Claire Bretécher and Marcel Gotlib), with Gotlib's
pornography watching deities and Bretécher's
Les Frustrés ("The Frustrated Ones"), and
Le Canard Sauvage ("The Wild Duck/ Mag"), an art-zine featuring music reviews and BDs, were among the earliest. Following suit was
Métal Hurlant (vol. 1: December 1974 – July 1987 from also new French publisher
Les Humanoïdes Associés, founded by likewise
Pilote defectors,
Druillet,
Jean-Pierre Dionnet and
Mœbius) with the far-reaching science fiction and fantasy of Mœbius, Druillet, and
Bilal. Its translated counterpart made an impact in America as
Heavy Metal. This trend continued during the seventies, until the original
Métal Hurlant folded in the early eighties, living on only in the American edition, which soon had an independent development from its French-language parent. Nonetheless, it were these publications and their artists which are generally credited with the revolutionizing and emancipation of the Franco-Belgian BD world. As indicated, most of these early adult magazines were established by former
Pilote BD artists, who had left the magazine to break out on their own, after they had staged a revolt in the editorial offices of Dargaud, the publisher of
Pilote, during the 1968 upheaval, demanding and ultimately receiving more creative freedom from then editor-in-chief René Goscinny (see also: "
Jean "Mœbius" Giraud on his part in the uprising at Pilote"). Essentially, these new magazines along with other contemporaries of their kind, were the French counterparts of the slightly earlier American
underground comix, also conceived and popularized as a result of the
counterculture of the 1960s, of which the French May 1968 events were only a part. But unlike their American counterparts, the French magazines were mainstream from the start when they eventually burst onto the scene in the early 1970s, as publications of this kind could not escape the scrutiny of the Commission de Surveillance prior to 1968, as editor
François Cavanna of the satirical magazine
Hara-Kiri (launched in 1960) had experienced several times to his detriment, having had to reinvent his magazine on several occasions. Aside from the creative aspects, the 1960s brought in effect another kind of freedom for French BD artists as well - commercial and financial freedom. Until the revolt in the offices of
Pilote, artists worked in a studio system, namely a tenured exclusive working relationship at the magazine or publisher, with artists having little to no control over both commercial and creative aspects of their creations – except for a few artists who also held editorial offices at publishing houses such as Goscinny, Charlier and Greg, the former of which incidentally, having also been a major element for the revolt at
Pilote. That changed as well after 1968, when more and more artists decided to ply their trade as
free-lancers, the ''L'Écho des Savanes'' founders having been early pioneers in that respect, and has as of 2017 become the predominant artist-publisher relationship. While contracts tend to be long-term for specific series at a particular publisher, they no longer prevent artists, like the below-mentioned
François Bourgeon and Hermann Huppen, to create other BDs for other publishers, sometimes even suspending a series for the one in favor of a series for the other. The advent of the new adult magazines had a profound effect on France's hitherto most influential BD magazine
Pilote. Editor-in-chief Goscinny had at first refused to implement the changes demanded by its artists during the 1968 revolt in the editorial offices, but he now found himself suddenly confronted with the magazine hemorrhaging its most promising BD talents and diminishing sales. The magazine was eventually turned into a monthly magazine, its artists who had not yet left given more creative freedoms and the Belgian influence terminated definitively with the departure of co-editor Charlier in 1972 and the last Belgian artists Hubinon and Jijé following suit a short time thereafter, transforming the magazine into a purely French one. However, while the magazine was now targeted at an older adolescent readership with stories featuring more mature themes, Goscinny stopped short of letting the magazine become a truly adult magazine. Yet, the magazine was unable to regain the dominant position it had held in the previous one-and-a-half decade, due to the flooding of the market with alternatives. Lagging behind the French for the first time in regard to the more mature BDs, the Belgians made good on their arrear when publisher Casterman launched the magazine
(À Suivre) (
Wordt Vervolgd for its Dutch-language counterpart, both of which translating into English as "To Be Continued") in October 1977. Until then the old venerable publisher (est. in 1780 as a printing and publishing company) had somewhat limited itself as the album publisher of Hergé's
Tintin since 1934, slightly expanded upon after the war with a couple of Hergé inspired creations by closely affiliated artists such as Jacques Martin,
François Craenhals and the Danish
C. & V. Hansen couple. It was with the specific intent to expand beyond the somewhat limited Hergé boundaries with other, more diverse high quality work, that the publisher launched
(À Suivre), which printed BD creations by
Ted Benoît,
Jacques Tardi,
Hugo Pratt,
François Schuiten,
Paul Teng and many others from French, Italian and/or Dutch origins, but relatively few from Belgian artist as there were not that many active in the adult field at that time, with Schuiten, Didier Comès – as already stated, one of the very few
BD artists of German-Belgian descent, alongside Hermann Huppen – and being three of the few exceptions. It was
(À Suivre) that popularized the concept of the graphic novel – in French abbreviated as "Roman BD", "roman" being the translation for "novel" – as a longer, more adult, more literate and artistic BD in Europe. Unlike its Dupuis counterpart, and while their BD catalog has expanded considerably since then, Casterman has never evolved into a purely BD publisher by completely abandoning its book publishing roots, as it is currently also a prolific publisher of children's books. Yet, it remained French publications and French artists who would continue to dominate the field from the late-1970s onward to this day, with such (sometimes short-lived) magazines as
Bananas,
Virus,
Mormoil, the feminist ''
, Casablanca
and Fluide Glacial''. It were in these such magazines that a younger, post-war generation of French BD artists like
Yves Chaland,
Édika and debuted, whereas veterans like Gotlib and Franquin found a home for their later, darker and more cynical work. A major player in the field became French publisher and newcomer
Glénat Éditions (founded in 1972, and who actually started out publishing graphic novels directly as albums before the launch of
Circus) with their two main magazine publications '
(1975–1989) and ' (1985–1994, with emphasis on mature stories of an accurate historical nature), featuring predominantly the work of French BD talents, but who did so with a twist; Glénat targeted their magazines at a readership positioned between the adolescent readership of
Pilote,
Tintin and
Spirou and the mature readership of such magazines as
(À Suivre),
Métal Hurlant and others. French BD artists of note who were nurtured into greatness in the Glénat publications were among others
Mayko and
Patrick Cothias, but most conspicuously François Bourgeon and
André Juillard. Exemplary of the different, older target audience Glénat was aiming at, became the two finite, historical series Bourgeon created;
Les Passagers du vent (1979–2009,
The Passengers of the Wind, seven volumes, set in 18th-century seafaring and
slave trading Europe, becoming one of the first BD series to deal realistically in considerable detail with the dark slavery chapter in human history) and
Les Compagnons du crépuscule (1983–1989,
Companions of the Dusk, three volumes, set in 13th-century Europe and published by Casterman incidentally). Both series made short work of any romantic notion about the two historic eras still lingering in anyone's subconscious because of imagery imbued upon them by 1940s–1960s Hollywood movie productions or Franco-Belgian
bandes dessinées as published in
Coeurs Vaillants,
Tintin or
Spirou in the same era for that matter. Renowned for his meticulous research into the subject matter of the BD series he was creating, not seldom taking as long as it took him to create the series in question, Bourgeon depicted an historical reality devoid of any so-called "heroes", only featuring common people who were as often victimized as they were heroic, living in a world which was brutally hard while living a live which was therefore all too often very short for the common man, being habitually subjugated to the will of the powerful without any recourse whatsoever to objective justice, especially the women. Bourgeon however, made his harsh message to his readership palatable by his relatively soft art style and his optimistic view regarding human resilience. No such respite was afforded the reader however with Hermann's 11th-century epos
Les Tours de Bois-Maury (1984–1994,
The Towers of Bois-Maury), whose original ten-volume series was serialized in
Vécu in the same era Bourgeon's
Passagers was in
Circus; Not only did Hermann's stark and uncompromising art style served to reinforce the grim atmosphere of his medieval settings, any and all redeeming optimistic commentary on human nature was also lacking in his narrative, quite the contrary actually, making his
Middle Ages truly the Dark Ages where the vast majority of humanity was living short, violent lives in abject squalor, with not a single so-called "hero" in sight anywhere in his series. To hammer home the point, both artists had their medieval
knights, around whom both narratives were centered, die violent deaths nowhere near the fulfillment of their respective quests, thereby reinforcing the futility of such endeavors. With such series driving home the point that real history is made by mere humans and not "super-humans", the Franco-Belgian historical BD had come a long way since their first romanticized and/or idealized appearances in the 1940s–1970s, particularly in
Tintin and
Pilote as portrayed by such artists as the (
Le Chevalier blanc,
Harald le Viking,
Lieutenant Burton), William Vance (
Howard Flynn,
Rodric,
Ramiro), François Craenhals (
Chevalier Ardent) or Victor Hubinon (
Barbe Rouge), to name but a few.
The bande dessinée becomes cultural heritage It was not just the BD scene these new publications and their artists changed, the perception of the medium in French society also changed radically in the 1970s–1980s, in stark contrast to the one it held in the 1940s–1950s. Recognizing that the medium-advanced France's cultural status in the world, the cultural authorities of the nation started to aid the advancement of the medium as a bonafide art form, especially under the patronage of
Minister of Culture Jack Lang, who had formulated his long-term
Quinze mesures nouvelles en faveur de la Bande dessinée (
15 new measures in favor of the BD) ministry policy plan in 1982, which was updated and reaffirmed by a latter-day successor of Lang in 1997. It was consequently in the 1980s–1990s era that the medium achieved its formal status in France's
Classification des arts (
Classifications of the arts) as "Le Neuvième Art" ("the 9th art"), aside from becoming accepted as a mature part of French culture by Francophone society at large (in France and French-speaking Belgium it is as common to encounter grownup people reading BDs in public places, such as cafe terraces or public transportation, as it is people reading books, newspapers or magazines). Since then more than one BD artist have received "
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" civilian knighthoods, and these were not restricted to French nationals alone, as Japanese artist
Jiro Taniguchi has also received one in 2011 for his efforts to merge the Franco-Belgian BD with the Japanese
manga format (see
below). But it is however
Jean "Mœbius" Giraud, called "the most influential
bandes dessinées artist after Hergé" by several
academic BD scholars, who is considered the premier French standard bearer of "Le Neuvième Art", as he has received
two different civilian knighthoods with a posthumous rank elevation of his Arts and Letters knighthood to boot, an unicum for a BD artist and something the
de facto inventor of the Franco-Belgian BD, Hergé, has never achieved even once, not even from his own native country Belgium (presumably because of the lingering impressions left by either the criticisms regarding his early
Tintin stories, the post-war collaboration allegations, or both and neither of which he had ever managed to fully free himself from in his lifetime). Exemplary of Mœbius' standing in French culture, was the high-status, high-profile «Mœbius transe forme» exposition the prestigious
Parisian
Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain art museum organized from 2 October 2010 – 13 March 2011. As of 2017, it stands out as one of the largest exhibitions ever dedicated to the work of an individual BD artist by an official, state-sanctioned art museum – art as in art with a capital "A" – alongside the 20 December 2006 - 19 February 2007
Hergé exposition in the even more prestigious
Centre Georges Pompidou modern art museum (likewise located in Paris and incidentally one of President Mitterrand's below-mentioned "Great Works") on the occasion of the centenary of that artist's birth. Giraud's funeral services in March 2012 was attended by a representative of the French nation in the person of Minister of Culture
Frédéric Mitterrand, who also
spoke on behalf of the nation at the services, and who was incidentally also the nephew of former
President of France François Mitterrand, who had personally awarded Giraud with his first civilian knighthood in 1985, thereby becoming one of the first BD artists to be bestowed the honor. Giraud's death was a considerable media event in France, but ample attention was also given to his demise in press releases all around the world in even as faraway places like Indonesia (
Jakarta Globe, 11 March 2012), a country not particularly known for a thriving comic culture. Yet, and despite the nation having embraced the
bande dessinée, it should also be noted that both the law of 1949 and its oversight committee are as of 2025 still in existence, their legitimacy remaining as intact as it was in 1949. And while their impact and influence have significantly diminished in the wake of the events of 1968, their continued legal existence in the fringes does constitute the proverbial "
Sword of Damocles" for the French BD world, despite artists, publishers, politicians and academics having questioned the relevance of both manifestations in a modern world in a public debate during a 1999 national conference organized on the subject by the (CNBDI), France's largest and most important BD organization. While the expression "the 9th art" has been popularized in other countries as well, Belgium and France remain as of 2025, the only two countries worldwide where the medium has been accorded the formal status (when discounting the manga, which has achieved a near-similar, yet not quite identical status in native Japan), with its resultant strong backing from cultural authorities. A visible manifestation of the latter has become the prestigious "
Centre belge de la Bande dessinée" (Dutch: "Belgisch Centrum voor het Beeldverhaal", English: "Belgian Comic Strip Center") established in 1989 in the Belgian capital
Brussels, and which, as one of the largest BD museum in Europe, draws in 200,000 visitors annually. The museum is housed in a state-owned 1905 building designed by architect
Victor Horta in the
Art Nouveau style, the same style French female artist
Annie Goetzinger has employed for her BDs. Belgium possesses two other, smaller, museums dedicated to individual BD artists, the
Marc Sleen Museum (est. 2009), located across the street of the Comic Center and dedicated to the work of the namesake Flemish BD creator, and, unsurprisingly, the especially built
Musée Hergé (est. 2009) located in
Louvain-la-Neuve, its interiors designed by Dutch BD artist
Joost Swarte, who had worked in the Hergé tradition. In France, Minister Jack Lang – who hit upon the idea after he had visited the permanent
bande dessinée exhibition in the town's art museum in 1982, incidentally inspiring his long-term fifteen points policy plan for the medium that year, which included the establishment of a national BD museum – announced in 1984 the advent of a major national
bande dessinée museum as part of President Mitterrand's grand scheme of providing the nation with major public works of a cultural nature (known in France as ''
Grandes Operations d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme''), to be housed in the historical town of
Angoulême, already the locus of France's biggest annual BD festival since 1974. A major project in the making, involving the renovation of several ancient buildings and the designing of a new one spread over the grounds of the town's former brewery by renowned architect
Roland Castro, the museum, , only opened its doors in June 2009 (though two smaller sub-museums, eventually incorporated in the larger final one, were already open to the public as early as 1991) in the process becoming the largest BD museum in Europe. The museum is administered by the CNBDI, established in 1985 for upcoming museum, but which has since then expanded its work on behalf of the
bande dessinée beyond the confines of the museum alone, as already indicated above. On 11 December 2012, one of the buildings on the museum grounds, the futuristic building finished at the end of the 1980s housing the museum and CNBDI administrations, cinema, conference rooms, library and the other facilities for
comics studies, was rechristened "Le Vaisseau Mœbius" (English: "The Vessel Mœbius"), in honor of the in that year deceased BD artist. When Lang had presented his plans, he was faced with opposition from some politicians who had rather seen such a museum in the capital of France, Paris. These politicians did have a point however, as Angoulême is somewhat located off the beaten tourist track, resulting in that the museum only draws in about roughly half the visitor numbers its smaller Belgian counterpart does annually, and most of them visiting the museum during the festival season, whereas the Belgian museum draws in a steady stream of visitors all year round.
1990–present A further revival and expansion came in the 1990s with several small independent publishers emerging, such as
L'Association (established in 1990),
Le Dernier Cri,
Amok,
Fréon (the latter two later merging into
Frémok), and
Ego comme X Known as "la nouvelle bande dessinée" (similar to the North American
alternative comics), including
La Cinquième Couche (founded 1993), which specialises in conceptual and experimental comics. ==Formats==