International influences
International influences |
|
Page 10 of 17  The Woman Trap Another kind of historical drama, though much more within the confines of genre fiction, were westerns. One example in particular was very popular, the Lieutenant Blueberry albums, written by Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud, and illustrated by Giraud. Starring a stubble-, chinned Yankee officer, these stories portrayed the West as a cynical, sinister place, where white men were ruled by greed, and American Indians were victimized and exploited as a matter of course. Critics have made much of the similarities between the series and the films of Sergio Leone, which featured a similarly 'European' vision of US history. The Blueberry tales were in fact more successful in Europe than Giraud's science fiction work, and though they were never as popular in Britain and America, they still picked up a healthy fan following. The humour genre too had its album translations, though these were definitely hit and miss because jokes did not always travel. Examples included, from Belgium, Benoit Sokal's Shaggy Dog Story, starring Inspector Canardo, a down-at-heel duck detective, which dealt in a sometimes abstruse form of low sarcasm. From Spain came Peter Pank, by Max, a semi-pornographic reworking of the JM Barrie fairy tale, complete with a cast of punks. From Italy, there was Squeak the Mouse, by Mattioli, a brightly-coloured gore-toon where the x-rated antics of mouse and torn cat took the Tom and Jerry theme into 'video nasty' territory. But none of these really made much of an impact on their anglophone audience, and as a result the modern masters of European comedy (such as the great Andre Franquin) remain untranslated beyond one or two strips in obscure anthologies.  Lone Sloane: Delirius (Heavy Metal, 1979). Art/script: Philippe Druillet. Psychedelic SF from one of the underrated auteurs of the French scene. |