Friday, October 17, 2014

Are all the best Western comics French??

(This post originally written after Comic Con 2013.)

Hey, folks.

So, lotsa stuff since last year (had a baby, got EMT license, graduated fire academy, blah blah).  But I'm here to talk about WESTERN COMICS.

At Comic Con last week I noticed that there are still quite a few Western comics out there!  Naturally I wanted to take a look at every one.  In the past, I would have bought each one.  But there are so many and I am so picky that I didn't buy any.  Mostly because the art didn't really sell me.  The Sixth Gun is still intriguing me, and the art looks pretty good, but they have a hardcover collection coming out in the Fall, so I may pick that up rather than buying one of the trades.  There was also a comic called "Deadeye" and one called "Pariah, MO."  One of the things that bugs me on a lot of these comics, though, is the lack of thorough research.  Everyone claims they research, but I still see a lot of non-period hats, holsters, clothing, and vaguely rendered weapons.

Surprisingly, the only Western comics I came close to buying were French comics over at Stuart Ng's book booth.  There is the series "Blueberry," which I've looked through before due to the beautiful art by Moebius, and I found a new collection called "Junk" which has a wonderful simplified style that I'd like to emulate when I finally make my book.

I ordered "Junk: L'Integrale" and one volume of "Blueberry" from Amazon UK last week because it ended up being cheaper than buying at Stuart Ng.  While buying a French import of Open Range on Blu-Ray, I was also turned on to the series "Lincoln," which also has a simplified comic style applied to a Western.  I discovered several other French Western series as well, which is funny to me.  I guess the American West really does have a worldwide appeal!  It's also funny given the stereotype that the French hate Americans, and what is more American than a cowboy?

Below is some of the art I could find from these series.

Junk, art by Bruno.


Lincoln, art by Jerome Jouvray.