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In Strip Search, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.

I’m such a jet setter this summer! Within a week of coming back from Egypt I was back on the plane to Paris, France- ooh la la.

Now, most of what I was doing in Paris was pure vacation fun time but I did some Egyptological research there as well, and of course… comic hunting. Many Americans don’t realize this but the French are quite fond of comics, or “BDs” (short for bande dessinee) as they call them. Go to the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees and you’ll see an entire floor dedicated to them. Fnac, the French equivalent of a Barnes and Nobles, also carries a tremendous supply of comic book albums, and if you take a stroll through the Latin Quarter, you’ll find numerous shops dedicated to comics and cartoon paraphernalia. While I was in Paris, there was an arts magazine that dedicated its cover to R. Crumb and his latest comic Genesis and another one that came out with its annual “BD issue,” which was all about French comic artists.

The French are often seen as cultural snobs so it may surprise many readers to hear that even adults embrace comics as a genuine and legitimate form of art/literature making, but I think if we look at what Francophone countries have in their comics history, it becomes more understandable. Most famously, Belgium, churned out comic greats like Herge (Tintin) and Peyo (Les Schtroumpfs AKA The Smurfs). More recently Americans have come to know the work of the Iranian-French author Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).

At the same time, however, Americans obviously have a dominant presence in independent and mainstream comics, so I’m still struggling to figure out why the U.S. has not embraced comics as fully as France has. People often ponder about this in terms of Japan vs. the US but I think the difference between America and France is more interesting due to our more similar cultural backgrounds.

Granted, I don’t know that much about the history of comics in France but it’s my impression at least, that the French don’t see comics quite as disposable as we do. Let me explain what I mean:

In France, comic books are commonly sold in hard cover albums (with the exception of manga, translated English works, and some indie comics) that all have a standardized size. When you walk into a comic shop the comics are set up in bins and people flip through them in much the same way as people flip through records at a music shop. As my French boyfriend tells me, this is the way comics have been produced in France for quite some time.

In America, comic books are pretty flimsy and disposable looking in comparison (though yes, I’m obviously aware that people collect them) and can get destroyed and worn pretty easily.

What I think is more telling, however, is that America has a much stronger tradition of newspaper comics, which were originally targeted at children by the way, than France. While there are some newspapers there that print the kind of strips that you would see in the Los Angeles Times, it is not as common. For the most part, the French seem to pay much closer attention to their more permanent, large paged, colored, BD albums, which obviously don’t have to be edited to be kid friendly.

This is my general impression at least. American adults are starting to appreciate comics more at least- I think this is evidenced pretty well in the large mainstream bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Borders, who are starting to expand their comic book sections, though it is clear that the mainstream, adult demand for them isn’t as strong as in France.

We do have one strong similarity with France, however: hardly any women to be seen in the comic book section.

Jennifer M. Babcock holds her MA in art history and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Egyptology from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, where she is also known as a comics scholar. A creator herself, she is the artist and writer behind C’est La Vie, which is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate and available at http://www.gocomics.com/cestlavie.

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