Saturday June 22nd, 1996
Church and Gimenez: any relation?







In France there is a strong heritage of comic books.
The bande dessinee (BD), French for comic books,
are an important part of the French culture
just like comics in the US or manga in Japan.

The first French BD I can think of was created during WWII.
They were story books that explained what war was to the children.

In the late 60's and 70's Spirou, Tintin (Belgium), Asterix,
Lucky Luke and many others were born.
They were cartoonlike characters.

Then came a new wave in French BD.
Bilal, Druillet, Moebius and many others
created the French answer to American comics and science fiction.

Characters such as Lone Sloane and John Difool (l'Incal)
became very popular.
They had humanlike features and were living
extraordinary adventures far in the future and in the past.

The character of the Meta-Baron was created by
Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius.
There are only three volumes in the series so far:
Othon le Trisaieul;
Honorata la Trisaieule;
Aghnar le Bisaieul;
all by Jodorowsky (text) and Gimenez (images).

This kind of BD made me realize how close BD can be to some paintings.
Indeed reading "Othon le Trisaieul" is like travelling
through a painting of one of the members of the Hudson River School.

Gimenez is a hypertextual Church.


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