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“BD” refers to Franco-Belgian comics, but let's open things up to include ALL Euro comics and GN's. Euro-style work from around the world is also welcome!

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"The lobster tank," from Grandville - Force Majeur, by Bryan Talbot (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As I see it, Bryan Talbot is one of the three biggest, living British talents in comics, along with Pat Mills and Alan Moore... oof, with Neil Gaiman pretty-much nuking his reputation, recently. :S

Talbot's The Tale of One Bad Rat moved me a lot, winning multiple awards as it were, and I'd say his five, hard-hitting Grandville books are just about the pinnacle of conventional anthropomorphic adventure-dramas in BD's, alongside the sensational Cité 14 / "District 14" series.

Now, I've had this panel queued up -forever- to post, but have been equally torn since forever whether I wanted to actually post it. For example, as someone fascinated by sea life, such as mollusks & crustaceans, the fact that we keep lobsters in tanks like this, with their pincers tied, only to meet a boiling end when they get 'lucky,' doesn't sit very well with me.

Bah. OTOH, in art there is truth, and one thing Talbot does a lot of in Grandville is demonstrate the vagaries of human cruelty.

In any case, it's a great BD art piece IMO.

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/talbot_bryan.htm

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I met Talbot at a comic festival in Lancaster some time back. Spent an awfully long time chatting to him. Fascinating and kind human.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Wow, that's awesome.
And truly, I could not imagine him otherwise given his "Rat" story.

Really, I kind of dropped the ball here not covering his Grandville stuff sooner. For example, I've no problem with people loving Blacksad, much of that I presume due to the excellent art and enjoyable noir genre, but Grandville is just levels above IMO.

The number of hilarious (and even sadly nuanced) guest appearances doesn't hurt either, such as the fading Snowy's cameo (from Tintin).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Shit, I'm sorry for kinda talking over you as I did at the time.
My bad, mate. :S

Oof, but I'm curious... anything you wanted to add about how it went with Talbot at the convention? Any opinions on what work of his we might best-share here, such as what you best admire about his work..?

(apologies on this laaaate reply, and apologies for my rudeness)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

First thing, no apologies needed friend... You really didn't speak over me, and replies take as long as they take.

Second thing... I wish I had read more of his work when I met him. Instead we just chatted about the world. He has such a broad intelligence and he was very kind with it.

If you were ever setting up a pub quiz team, I'd highly recommend. * *

He's a fellow northerner, and there's something about his work that really speaks of that. There's such a strange creative history up here that gets attention, but also seems to get subsumed. We chatted about that.

And for me, Alice in Sunderland is the one I give to other people, but Luther Arkwright is the one I'll happily return to.

[–] Semjaza 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bryan Talbot is great.

I have one Luther Arkright collection. It's the middle of great, psychedelic anti-fascist tale. Just wish I could get my hands on more of it all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, that one!

So it's been a while, but I once found some Luther at my local library, and then they had some more via digital lending that I read on tablet. In one of the sidebar links I've put a little more info on all that, if it helps...

[–] Semjaza 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's very kind of you.
I'm sure it'll help someone, alas I'm a bit of an old fool when it comes to books and like to have the physical codex in my hands. Reading stuff off of screens, especially graphic novels never seems to jive with me, even when it's one I know I like.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeap, understood.

Indeed, I kinda like how they sometimes touch on that in Star Trek, even as it's set two centuries ahead or so. There is just nothing like a satisfying book in one's hands...