Western Comic Books

Jonah Hex, Blueberry are personal faves…

I plan to read Loveless soon, it looks interesting.

Oh! I wish I’d seen this thread before I posted mine… Yeah, I just found a new Western, Earp. The same publisher has another Western-style comic called Caliber, too.

Here:
http://www.radicalpublishing.com/titles/comics/earp?series_id=39&issue_id=153

The best I have read:

Comanche - Hermann / Greg (10 albums but especially 3 -7 and 9)

Fort Wheeling - Hugo Pratt

Leutnant Blueberry - Jean Giraud / Charlier ( but only the old ones up to album # 17)

Just found this and wanted to share it with you guys:

Guns of shadow valley[url]http://www.gunsofshadowvalley.com/[/url]

Don’t know if it’s spaghetti or not, but I’ll give it a try, I think.

@lex

Did any of you attempt the MAN WITH NO NAME comic? I bought the two trades, but didn’t care much for them. If there’s any curiosity in them, I might revisit both books.

In his essay “For a Few Comic Strips More: Reinterpreting the Spaghetti Western through the Comic Book” (in Spaghetti Westerns at the Crossroads), William Grady mainly discusses the influence of Italian Western films on Charlier and Giraud’s Blueberry. As further examples he mentions Jodorowsky and Boucq’s Bouncer, and Loveless, an American series written by Brian Azzarello. I was hoping for the inverse, an account of comic book influences on Italian Western directors.

Leone had most likely some influence on Giraud in case of atmosphere and clothes, but overall Blueberry remained an US style western. I’m sure that Spags had absolutely no influence on Charlier, who remained an old fashioned story teller until his death. Very old fashioned. And long winded.

Isn’t the influence of Italian Westerns – in particular of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo – on Blueberry quite obvious in the story Ballade pour un cercueil (Ballad for a Coffin), first published in Pilote (647–679) from March until November 1972?

Giraud acknowledged the impact of Leone’s and Peckinpah’s Westerns on his work in several interviews: « J’ai progressivement intégré le choc provoqué par les films de Sam Peckinpah, puis de Sergio Leone. » (DBD, 27 [2005], p. 92) Interestingly, Leone’s Westerns weren’t shown in France before 1966. When exactly Giraud saw his first Spaghetti Western is open to speculation, maybe as early as March 1966 (Pour une poignée de dollars), in all probability not as late as August 1969 (Il était une fois dans l’Ouest): in 1968 he and Goscinny collaborated on a four-page spoof of the “Western italien,” published in the second issue of Super Pocket Pilote.

[Our transalpine friends have been making Westerns for some time now. They do it with talent, and it is difficult to distinguish those films from the ones made in the USA. Certain details, however, sometimes betray the film’s Latin origins. On these pages we will present to you Western scenes, some shot in the USA, others in Italy. It’s for you to find out which of these scenes belong to the … Italian Western / Hey, Joe! It seems you’re looking for me?! / Dad! Dad is back!]

As I said, atmosphere and clothes (a duster here and there), but the storytelling shows not the slightest SW influence.

And I don’t remember anything from GBU in Ballad for a coffin. Apart form the confederate loot in the coffin. But the coffin thing is already differently handled, like in an US western, not like in Django or GBU.

I have read only handful of Blueberry albums but those leaned more on traditional american western. But I remember one album where I’m pretty sure the plot was influenced by Price of Power.

Yes, Angel Face, first published in the French edition of Tintin from September to November 1975, last story before the series went on hiatus until 1978 when it was revived for German magazine Zack.

Magic wind is highly enjoyable wild west comic although not it`s not traditional one. Has lot supernatural elements. From same company as great Tex Willer…

It had limited run here in Finland and I have no knowledge of italian but some volumes are published in english also:grin:

March 10, 2017 – in memoriam of Jean Giraud (Mœbius), who died five years ago today.

Blueberry was definitely influenced by spaghetti Westerns the search for gold constantly double crossing partners

Jean Giraud would have turned eighty today. Metal howling, Möbius stripping, Chihuahua pearling, « Je te laisse à tes espaces libres, puisque tu les aimes tant ! »

Welcome back, Companero! It’s been a while. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Today’s the eighth anniversary of Jean Giraud’s passing. He would now be eighty-one years old. Time flies ∞ or stands still.

Actor Martin Kove, cast as Blueberry in a film adaptation that was never made, talks about Giraud and Charlier’s comic-book series and Jan Kounen’s movie from 2004:

Who would we cast as Blueberry if a movie true to the books were currently being made?

He started in the first books as Jean Paul Belmondo lookalike and evolved to Bronson in later books.
I think Matt Damon would be a right actor these days.

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