I have only read West Coast Blues from Tardi, fine little noir (and very noir). I’ll try to get my hands on this, I’ve read good stuff about it. Notre mere la guerre (Out mother the war) from Kris & Mael should be another WW1 comic, that is even better than Tardi (so I was told).
Nobody is better than Tardi 
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@Cat_Stevens, continued from the R.I.P. thread:
I am ashamed to say that, despite owning at least 25 Asterix books, I was not aware of Uderzo’s other work that seems influenced by the early American adventure comic artists:
Here’s him working on a western advertising character, Jim Flokers.
He was very versatile. From 1959, the year seminal French comics magazine Pilote was launched, until 1966, Uderzo worked simultaneously on two stylistically very distinct series: Astérix, of course, and Michel Tanguy; the first one drawn in what would later evolve into his famous “funny” style, the other in a more “realistic” style, following the tradition of American comics masters such as Milton Caniff, Hal Foster and Alex Raymond. (His friend and Astérix co-creator Goscinny shared a studio with Harvey Kurtzman and other future Mad luminaries in New York during the late 1940s, by the way.) When the double workload became too heavy for Uderzo, he decided to quit Michel Tanguy (Jijé took over) and to concentrate all his efforts on Astérix. Unfortunately but understandably, most of Michel Tanguy was never translated into English: the series tells – in a sometimes quite jingoistic fashion – of the exploits of two heroic French air-force pilots.
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That’s a shame. The Sickles/Caniff school is one of my favorite styles of art. I wish I’d taken French so that I could import more of these wonderful books. The older I get, the more the superheroes that dominate US comics bore me, and equally so the navel-gazing auto-bio work of indie comics. I’m increasingly reading kids comics more and more.
When I went to PlaneteBD in Montreal, I was overwhelmed by the range of art, genres, and storytelling styles on display (and left with a set of Esteban books by Matthieu Bonhomme that I couldn’t really read!).
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I wish this thread had more activity. There is some good info on some things I’ve never heard of. I’ve been a collector of Jonah Hex and Sgt Rock since I was 9. I’m not big into superheroes. Invulnerability and superpowers never interested me much. Westerns, World War 2, Conan, Horror anthologies, and novels made into graphics are mainly what I like. I just recently reread all my Hex comics and have been craving more westerns. The Jonah Hex all star western (first run) omnibus is available for pre order in hardback. Out in May
I’m on top of most of these…they did a good job with Corto Maltese. I also get a bunch of the Cinebook stuff, like Blake & Mortimer, and various Fantagraphics releases, including all the Tardi I can get my hands on! I’m trying to singlehandedly open up the market here. There’s also more available digitally, both in official and illicit forms. I suspect that, much like the spaghetti westerns, the latter creates a demand for the former.
Might I suggest Rio, by Doug Wildey, the creator of Jonny Quest? It’s my favorite American western comic.
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That’s for the recommendation. Ill probably get it soon. I’m a fan of Johnny quest. My son and I watch the original series on blu ray (which is excellent) often. The clarity of the blu ray is so good my wife thought it was a new cartoon.
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Actually it was the meanwhile developing success of Asterix which caused him to give up Tanguy.
The top pencillers then made 2 pages a week, so that up to 1966 only about 1 Asterix album was drawn in a year. By giving up Tanguy Goscinny and Uderzo were able to release 2 albums, which means without Tanguy we could have had about 6 more Asterix albums from the great Goscinny.
Jije on the other hand was a more than adequate replacement, I prefer his Tanguy comics to the ones by Uderzo
Just found this thread. Wow, more comic book lovers over here.
For a comic spaghetti wester, a direct Italian counterpart of the famous Lucky Luke, Coccobill is a very nice character. See also the web site:
http://rzz.mbnet.fi/CoccoBill/index.htm
The hero drinks Camille tea and is the fastest gun in the (Italian) west.
Lots of Jacovitti trademarks in the pages. Very funny and well-made.
Unfortunately they have stopped translation into Dutch.
Cocco Bill is hilarious!
Same here in Finland. 9 years ago there was a release of beautiful looking collection. I think they were planning to release more collections but there was some problems with the publishing licenses or something…
Astérix was becoming more and more successful, true, but Tanguy was also a very popular series that sold well (and even got its own TV adaptation in 1967, one year after Uderzo’s departure). In the end, I guess Uderzo just got fed up with drawing those darn planes over and over again.
I think Uderzo and Jijé were both very skilled artists, but ultimately I prefer Uderzo’s work on Tanguy.
It’s a pity Kim Thompson passed away so early. He was an intercontinental link between European and American comics.
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I’m happy that those Tardi reprints have continued, even without his personal translation work, though. I thought they would end with his death for certain.
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Anybody read this comic? Is it worth buying this follow-up of the movie ?
It is a seven issue crossover comic book mini series by Mart Wagner and Quentin Tarantino. Django unchained meest Zorro.
There are even discussions about a movie of the story.
A new Diabolik film, directed by the Manetti Bros. (Marco and Antonio), is scheduled to premiere at the end of this year. It stars Luca Marinelli in the title role and Miriam Leone as Eva Kant. Won’t be easy to top Mario Bava’s adaptation from 1968.
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Jason Aaron’s Scalped & Southern Bastards series are great hardboiled neo-western stuff, highly recommended.
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Neal Adams Best Batman Artist Bar None