Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Wednesday Comics: European Fantasy

I've done several posts on American fantasy comics, but haven't really touched on fantasy comics from across the Atlantic--with the exception of Thorgal. There's a good reason for this: Most of them are in French not English. There are some, though, that have gotten official English translations.  Here's a sampling:

Crusade
A somewhat gritty historical fantasy about a fictitious Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem that's manipulated by a demonic plot. The first 3 volumes (of 6) has been republished in English (even for Kindle) by Cinebook, but they are expurgated versions, removing some nudity.

Lanfeust of Troy
A longrunning series with several spinoffs and an rpg tie-in, the main series tells the story of Lanfeust and his companions on the planet Troy, a world of magic. Drawn in a bit of  a cartoony style, the Troy series has a fair amount of humor and a little bit of cheesecake.

Only the first two volumes of the first series are officially available in English from a South African publisher.

Millennium
In 1000 AD, a relic trafficker and his companions combat monsters and solve a mystery. Humanoids (the French and English publisher) says it's like Name of the Rose meets The X-Files, which I think is pretty reasonable. It's available in digital but a nice collected edition is coming from Humanoids in February.


Roxanna & the Quest for the Time Bird (La Quête de l'oiseau du temps)
From 80s (so out of print), a sword & sorcery-ish yarn about a young woman, Roxanna (Pelisse, in French) sent by a witch (her mother) to prevent to resurrection of an evil god. It's got great art by Régis Loisel. It was published by NBM in English in 3 volumes.

3 comments:

Chris C. said...

These look cool. You've just added to my ever-growing reading list! :)

Bachman said...

Also worth mentioning is Okko. Very cool Asian fantasy published in France first but it's been translated into english.

https://www.comixology.com/Okko-Vol-1-The-Cycle-of-Water/comics-series/6742?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC9zZXJpZXNTbGlkZXI

The Angry Lurker said...

I've read Roxanna in the past because of the artwork.