My friends, every once in a while there’s something that’s so absolutely special and illuminating (even if it comes from the ‘Evil Empire’), that I feel like it’s STILL worth sharing, in the clean spirit of what this community aims for, which in my mind reaches above such temporal, petty matters. Content over Style. Truth over Attitude.

[Franco-Belgian Comics] The rise and fall of Pilote, a mythical magazine. How a team of legends tore itself apart. And how Franco-Belgian comics evolved through the years, from stories for children to crass provocation.

I write because I feel a compulsion. Sometimes it is because a subject is fun and I want to share it. Other times it is because my imagination runs over and I have to get it out.

Fittingly, I write today to pay my respects to the man who may be responsible for my imagination going wild.

This is about a very specific era of French-Belgian comics. It’s about a magazine, who would see artists shape their legends through it. It’s about one person who, among legends in the field, achieved mythical status. It’s about another well-known person, if perhaps less so, who shaped my sense of humor more than anyone else.

It’s about a lot of things. But mostly, it’s about funny drawings.

A perfect world born of imagination:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DePr_3N7rpI

This is ABSOLUTELY one of the greatest fan-made contributions ever to BD:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1rpxhpl/francobelgian_comics_the_rise_and_fall_of_pilote/

Just read a little, and you’ll see. That must be over two-dozen visual examples, plus all that beloved info. Better yet, specifically examining the whole “Gotlib vs. Goscinny” thing!

      • troglodyte_mignon@tarte.nuage-libre.frEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        Oh yes, I saw your comment! I’m just not very reactive these days because I have exams coming up, ha ha.

        I realised after posting my comment that it was very badly written. I actually meant to ask if you knew about “chessboxing”, which keepthepace@tarte.nuage-libre.fr had just told me about. It was invented by Enki Bilal in a BD album in the early 1990s and later became a real life sport played by actual people.

        I’ve actually never read the Nikopol trilogy. Maybe I’ll get around to it when my exams are over.

        The rhyming game (Bouts-rimés) is way older than comic books… but it’s thought to date from the 17th century, which is when De capes et de crocs takes place, so that was a good guess.

        • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          It was invented by Enki Bilal in a BD album in the early 1990s and later became a real life sport played by actual people.

          Wow, I did not know that. oO
          On the other hand, as someone who used to compete in chess and who’s also followed MMA for quite a while, I’m roughly familiar with chess-boxing. TBH, I find it rather brilliant and horrifying at the same time!