EGN+ has moved to: !eurographicnovels@piefed.social

Of course, it's just my pure flight of fancy that artist Dongni Hau was specifically imagining Joan here, but the ages (and maybe armor style?) seem to roughly fit, in which Joan would have been between 17-19yo, around 1429-1431AD.

One of the most fascinating things I've seen across the arts is the way in which vastly-different cultures examine each other (and produce imitative work) across such vast, geographical & social gulfs. As in-- no matter how culturally-conservative and predictable such a process might go, there is STILL almost always something fascinating in the interpretation and recapitulation, I personally find.

Now me, I don't really know what to make of the heavily religious-political overtones during Joan's (or almost any other) era, but in terms of pure narrative (based on historical fact, mind you), I find Joan's sadly brief life & times rather fascinating, tragic, and certainly moving.

The artist's site is below.
She's from Fuxin, Liaoning, China, and now lives and paints in Paris:
https://dongnihou.com/

I've always enjoyed the visceral, impactful red-black or red, black & white color theme. Unfortunately, it's not something I explored very much during my 'watercolors & acrylics' peak of creativity. Hence, why I admire (and envy, dammit) other artists who had success with that theme, as seen above. Still... regardless of the particular color-theme, I find the backdrop art quite superb on its own.

Also kind of amusing in a sense, since the original Italian poetry here seems heavily butchered in translation, not exactly helping one's enjoyment of the pure artistry.

I mean, lol... it's either "haha" or bah," at such point? 😵

Eh, in any case, I'm thinking these panels depict the opening to a play, in which a narrator both describes a backstory, as well as foretells things to come, like 'Willy Shaketown'-style?

Very sadly, Rome's Tenuta passed away at only 54yo, in 2023.
He sounded like a perfectly swell bloke:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/tenuta_saverio.htm
https://downthetubes.net/in-memoriam-comic-artist-saverio-tenuta/

If you feel like playing today's game, then take a moment to come up with your best answers, and then compare them to the answers below:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

HINTS: (please don't look if you don't need them)
If you need a hint upon #3, then I'll offer two, but you must deduct 2pts from your overall score for reading each one. I'll go ahead and write the hints upside-down just below for those who don't want it.

˙ɹǝᴉsɐǝ ɥɔnɯ sᴉ Ɛ# uǝɥʇ 'ᄅ# ʇno ǝɹnƃᴉɟ uɐɔ noʎ ɟI (Ɩ

¿uoᴉƃǝɹ-puɐlsᴉ ʇɐɥʇ ɟo ʎʇᴉɔ uᴉɐɯ ǝɥʇ sᴉ ʇɐɥM (ᄅ

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

ANSWERS:

1. It's professor Pacôme de Champignac, Fantasio, Spirou, and Panoramix ("Getafix" in English translations) EDIT: Oh! I deserve a rap on the knuckles for omitting Spip the squirrel, and Idéfix ("Dogmatix"), The scoring has been adjusted.

2. Astérix en Corse ("Asterix in Corsica"), the 20th Asterix album

"Corsica" is the best-selling title in the history of the series, owing to its sales in the French-speaking market, but is one of the least-selling titles in the English language. --WP

3. The poster is from the annual comics festival in Ajaaccio, Corsica, an event I just learned about myself! Specifically, this is evidently a piece made by Fabrice Tarrin for the event, which... looks like it was maybe from the 19th show, from 2022?

SCORING:

1. Give yourself 1pt for each character you correctly identified.
2. Give yourself 3pts for identifying the correct tome.
3. Give yourself another 4pts for identifying the -specific- city of the event. (let's give back a near-miss Corsican city 1pt in return, though)

HINTS:
As stated above, deduct two points for each hint taken earlier.

Max score is ~~11pts~~ 13pts. How did you do?

Btw, this here festival looks PRETTY GREAT!
And look, mateys-- it's coming up again in November...
https://festivalbdajaccio.corsica/

BACKSTORY: I recently had the privilege of reading US publisher Dark Horse's ~250pp collected translation of the 'Rocco' adventures. Previously, I'd only seen some of Torres' art panels, which I shared here about a year+ ago. Naturally, Imgur bumbled them all away, so don't bother searching. :-/

Right, then-- the first thing that hit my eyes about this series was the delicious, traditional LC art, fairly similar to Henk Kuijpers tremendously clean, detailed work on the wonderful Franka series. But in this case, when it came to the individual figures and faces, they could almost be described as circus-like, or even zoo-like, perhaps a bit of a mashup betwixt Otto Soglow's The Little King and a soupçon ("soups on, boys!") of Serge Clerc's interesting line-work, grotesquely-amusing as it could sometimes be.

Now, Daniel Torres evidently created these stories mainly during the 80's, I think? In this series, he seems to be imagining a parallel reality in which many of the planets and moons of our Solar system have long-been settled by that time, and by that point, they're perfectly abundant with their own politics, tensions, intrigue, and infighting. Yeap, same as it ever were.

More specifically though, we follow the title character, who at this point is utterly burned out from his earlier 'fast-lane life,' and really just wants to settle down and run his pleasant country club, of sorts. Naturally, a parade of both total strangers and people from his past keep intruding on his retirement-life, forcing him to get involved again and again, a traditionally fruitful premise IMO.

FINAL THOUGHTS?
I can easily recommend this one from a style-perspective alone. Frequently, it's simply fascinating to look at, no matter how the story is going. That said, there's a certain busyness and chaos to the stories that I feel like Yves Chaland's artistry captures better, via his Freddy Lombard stories. Then again, the Rocco stories have a totally 'pulpy-noir' feel, if you can overcome the 'noir' aspect being oversaturated by certain googie/jet-set/retro-futuristic stylings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Ducreux

So, he was a multi-talented artist who worked under the 'fat boy'* and somehow managed to survive the bloody French Revolution, alongside his colleague David.

* one of Louis XVI's most notorious nicknames

My understanding is that he was meticulously-trained as an artist, and generally-speaking, did thoroughly professional work... until he had his personal time, in which he decided to 'boogie on down with his bad self,' as we once used to say in the States. I think. XD

But wait, there's more! I understand that some of his pics recently turned in to a sort of cottage-industry of memes. Behold:

EDIT: Alright, alright, here's a couple of those decoded. Most are rap-themed, I think?

#2 They see me rollin', they hatin' (Ridin song reference)
#7 STOP, it's hammer-time (MC Hammer song ref)

I first saw this question posted at a Tintin community a couple weeks ago, so here's my take on the matter. To be clear, these represent my best 'hangover-cures' for Tintin readers craving more, roughly-ranked from most immediately-relevant, all the way down...

NOTE: in terms of the obvious title-drops, please just google them. More specific stuff I'll link you to directly. Also note: Georges Remi and "Hergé" are the same person. Right so-- here we go!

• Alph-Art, the final, half-finished album, if you haven't already.
• Lake of Sharks if you absolutely must, but it's not by Hergé.
• Ampton's heavenly review series of the albums, breaking them down and providing loads of context and insights.
• The various fan-made Tintin pastiches, if you don't mind that they can get pretty wild and ridiculous (some are French-only). EDIT: link updated.

.
Many (or most?) of them even got collected in to two
books, by NZ art historian John Stringer, seen above.

• Then there are the earlier versions of the stories from the original publishers, Le Petit Vingtieme, Le Soir, and finally Le Journal de Tintin, i.e. "Tintin Magazine." So to be clear-- after the full stories ran their course in such works, they were later collected in to album format by book-publishers, and still later, republished with significantly improved art and some editing, here and there. What's especially cool about the early stuff is that one can plainly see the artistry and storytelling of Tintin improving bit-by-bit, not to mention see some scenes which *didn't* make it in to the albums. [N.B. you can find many of these magazines and earlier-format albums at places like Archive.Org, or the same kinds of sites where one can D/L college texts]

Le Petit Vingtieme, a newspaper extra
in which Tintin ran from 1929–1940.

Le Soir, published in the eye of the hurricane, i.e. during the occupation, 1940-1944. (eh, I'm just going to go with a pleasant "Sophia" look for this later edition, as this period wound up taking years off Hergé's life and well-being)

Tintin magazine, in which the character appeared from 1946-1976, with the journal finally ceasing production in 1993, ten years after Hergé's death. (finally, G-Remi had complete control over his own character's publication, and in terms of these covers, there's plenty of silly stuff like the above, plus many other series depicted that appeared in the mag)

• Of course, check out ANY of the many fine books digging in to the backstory and making of the series, as well as the Georges Remi biographies. For example, one can get a fascinating sense of how hard Hergé worked behind the scenes to consistently publish a comic with high credibility and integrity, eventually and directly leading to a nervous breakdown or two, along the way. 😔
• Hergé's Totor, an early template, and direct predecessor to the Tintin character.
• Jo, Zette & Jocko, a Tintin-like, 5-tome series, designed explicitly for children, altho personally I liked it a lot, speaking as a 'supposed-adult.'
• Quick and Flupke, Hergé's fascinating attempt to compete with popular newspaper/magazine strips of the day, altho I'm not sure it stands up to the test of time, very well.
• Garen Ewing's wonderful, superb Rainbow Orchid series.
• Les McClaine's superb Jonny Crossbones (FREE TO READ online).
• Yves Chaland's Freddy Lombard adventures are interesting, since they're in a similar visual format and feature a Tintin-like character, but the style is a lot more arty and mysterious, not to mention "Freddy" and friends are frequently 'punk-ass-bitches,' to express it less than artfully.
• Moving into other media, there's a program of BBC radio adaptations, two TV series, a number of movies & documentaries, seven video games, and more. [LINK]
• Oh, and of course the fake Tintin covers are huge fun! Here's an archive of 1000+ of them.

Oof, I was trying to go to Youtube to pull out one of my favorite phrases of all time such as to wrap things up, i.e. "Well, there it is!" (from Emperor Joseph in Amadeus, 1984)

Somehow, in search of that, I bumbled upon a different, beloved scene, and... oh dear, haha, I'm just gonna leave it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKPDfB40t48

UPDATE:
In the interest of fact-checking, I decided to consult with u/jm-9, upon my various reccos, someone who I (and quite-likely many others) consider a particularly fine Remi and Tintin scholar. Very graciously on JM's part, they provided some fascinating, thoughtful feedback that stacked upon what I'd written, but also specifically corrected certain of my errors, plus a certain naiveté upon my Tintin history.

Hummm... and yet, after some reflection upon how to best integrate our notes & opinions in to a combined, rigorously-fact-checked whole, I'm settling upon it simply being wiser to simply add-on jm-9's notes after mine:

Great post! It's accurate for the most part. I know that Tintin appeared in Tintin magazine until the 80s through reprints and a colourisation of The Blue Lotus (similar to the recent publication). Of course, this is only a minor detail as the last new story to be published was indeed Tintin and the Picaros in 1976. The only other thing, though also a really small detail, is that Le Soir Jeunesse isn't mentioned. The majority of The Crab with the Golden Claws was published in this children's supplement of Le Soir before it ended due to wartime paper shortages.

As to additions, here are a few that I thought of:

You could mention Tintin and the Golden Fleece and Tintin and the Blue Oranges. These are movies but book versions were published by Methuen in the 60s. Of course, they haven't been reprinted since, and aren't in comic format either, so if this is targeted at English speakers it mightn't be that relevant given the difficulty of acquiring them.

When discussing the older versions, it would be a good idea to mention that they often have extra content. Feel free to reference this post of mine if you wish, though the formatting seems to have disappeared with the new Reddit site:

**https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAdventuresofTintin/comments/clz69e/deleted_scenes_from_colour_tintin_albums/ **

If you're targeting French speakers, Hergé: Le Feuilleton Intégral is a really good resource for the serialised versions including cover art of Le Petit Vingtième, Le Soir Jeunesse and Tintin magazine. It is unfortunately incomplete though.

For Quick and Flupke, you could mention the four books that are somewhat available in English. They are Fasten Your Seatbelts, Under Full Sail, Double Trouble and Two of a Kind. The others are unfortunately quite rare in English.

For Tintin and Alph-art, you could mention that the original 1990 album has full size drawings instead of much smaller ones, and is much easier to see details in. That version is much more expensive in English though, as the curent edition has rediscovered pages that the 1990 version lacks.

Thanks so much for creating this post by the way! It's a really good resource for Tintin fans.

I thought this was a neat, sepia-like piece, what with it's effective pen-like line shading, and a quasi-fairytale interaction of light and shadow. Could be a wimmelbilder, I reckon.

It comes from a book I've just started, Ye, in which Brasilian talent Petreca seems to handle almost every aspect of the book's creation.

---> a high-detail version of the art is here, as long as Imgur can manage to hang on to it <---

About the book, I can't give any sort of review yet, but here's what BDT had to say:

One of his generation's most talented comic book writers, Guilherme Petreca offers us "Ye", a cauldron of references to the inner-workings of his own mind. It tells the story of a young mute who goes in search of healing.

This fantastic, poetical work shows us Ye's learning journey, set during his transition from adolescence to adulthood. We encounter pirates and monsters, a retiring accordionist, and even a drunken clown*, all in a world full of nightmarish dangers and misadventures. But all this will eventually lead him to Miranda, an old healing witch with 'a thousand eyes.'

* (N.B.-- not a JohnnyEnzyme reference in this case)

[more pics]

EDIT: To be clear-- I think there's a good chance this is from the superb Angel Wings series, by Yann and Hugault. I'd say: RUN, DON'T WALK, if there's a chance of you getting hold of that series!

Details on the plane itself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_J2F_Duck

I was seemingly out of the loop in Druillet's heyday, not really being aware of Heavy Metal magazine until the early 90's, I guess it was. Unfortunately, by that time I don't think 'HM' was publishing much of Druillet's stuff, anymore.

NOTE: just in case it's not known, Mssr Philippe was one of the four founders of Les Humanoïdes Associés, which were a huge advancement in getting BD / Euro-comics published across the world, including the States.

Anyway... for me, this amazing magazine cover is a typically wild, hilarious, and even somewhat nightmarish work that this living-legend produced. (yes, he's 80yo now)

I understand that it comes from a retrospective by "Mel" publishers, back in 2017. Anybody read that edition..?

Here's a Franco-Italian collaboration about an English pilot leading an historical Dutch expedition across the mighty Pacific, towards the Southeast Asian 'lands of silk,' circa 1600. (this was an historical thing, no joke)

Bah, and as happens far too commonly with me, my initial thought was to simply share some nice art, namely the two halves of page 11:

To me, the above is nice, satisfying and competent art in the draftsmanship sense, but what really sent me was the overall sunset gradient, saturation and mood. It's just nawt something I'd seen before in comics, and thus wanted to share.

(like it? don't like it? just meh?)

Anyway, (*oh boy, and here we go again*) then I just had to share a couple more panels in order to help improve the narrative sense, which IS....

Yes... in fact, it's about the real-life historical figure of sailor William Adams, whose preliminary life & times in Japan were captured by a great book by James Clavell (and further, creatively elaborated upon), and later, two great series and a stage play, all united by the title Shōgun. [link]

Oh, and it also has heavy overtones directly upon the great Catholic vs. Protestant rift in Christianity, in which we observe that the mutual antipathy was nawt confined to merely Europe. That these allegedly 'brothers in a Christian God' were perfectly willing to shred each other to bits based on the old yadda-yadda of 'mine is the one true faith,' etc.

In any case, this was a two-book series which mainly focused on a sort of running, philosophical / ideological battle between Adams and his daimyo captor / frenemy Tokugawa Ieyasu (i.e. Lord Toranaga in the books).

Now I wouldn't call it nearly as spellbinding (and incredibly long & epic) as Shōgun itself, but it did capture an interesting, more historically-accurate picture of the situation, in a mere two books of standard BD-length. (about 56pp each)

Oof, and I'd not previously heard of this creative team before, so let me just quote:

Scénario : Mariolle, Mathieu
Dessin : Genzianella, Nicola
Couleurs : Alquier, Fabien
Lettrage : Dewrée, Amaury

https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-55149-BD-William-Adams-Samourai.html

Nice work there, mateys! 😃

THEME MUSIC: While I was working on this post, I enjoyed listening to Azymuth - Cuica Laranja Azeda, which sorta-kinda represents the Portuguese members of the drama.

So, not to 'beat myself hoarse,'* but ah man... there's just nothing like René Goscinny, i.e. the classic writer upon this series. <3

* hahaha (a little Belle & Hockridge tribute right there)

And yet, and yet... let's give the new crew a chance, i.e. the new writers & artists assigned to carry on the series.

It certainly can't be easy.

*phew* It's been a pretty overwhelming last month for me, what with vital paperwork I needed to fill out exactingly on a deadline in order to retain my Medicare, plus doctor followups, plus snap inspections upon my apartment, necessary to qualify for another rent-contract.

Just, lordy... as a middle-aged dude with ME, I must say it's been rather overwhelming at times.

Ah, but still-- things seem to be successfully winding down at this point, and I hope to get back to this sublemmy in more normal terms, what with my usual *Jenny-says-quack* gusto, sometime next week. Altho truth to be told, my hope is still that a mix of others will one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) be able to do the majority of posting here, thankfully & graciously taking over for this tired, irritable old man.

* "je ne sais quoi," haha

Along those lines then, big thanks to Nacky and "Wolfie" @wolfinthewoods@lemmy.ml for vitally pitching in recently with some fascinating topics and art. 💖

The honorary Vitalstatistix award is yours, mateys! ^^
speech, speech!

Right, in terms of sub-business, the last thing I have to say is that I apologise for sharing such a shoddy, half-finished post about the cool FreakAngels series, some days back.

I went back today and fleshed it out with helpful reviews and info, then added my notes. Please give it another look, kind readers? (it's a really fine series IMO, free to read)

FreakAngels:
https://lemm.ee/post/59557234

Aha, and as for the lead image, that's a bit of an inspiration. It begins with the fact that I used to have this game as a kid: D&D Computer Labyrinth game.

I'd say it was a pretty solid little game for the time, with nice atmosphere via the various 'authentic dungeon' sounds. Probably more aesthetically enjoyable than Dark Tower, if only because DT had some of the most plodding elements and annoying sounds ever (altho I still liked it). Meanwhile, other games like "Stop, Thief!" were just so simple, genius, and well-executed! (i.e., plainly superior electronic games of that class)

Hmm, why am I babbling about all that, though?

Oh, it's just that I ADORE the artist's work to death in the lead, multi-colored dragon image, above. Sadly, even on the typically know-it-all BGG page there's just nothing dang listed. Every once in a few years I try to put on my serious-hat so as to figure out the dang-ol-artist, yet still have never been able to!

Bah.. bah-ram-ewe.

Thanks to the folks at the Tumblr BD stream! [source]

Now, I'd already read the first tome, but didn't notice this funny capture, maybe because the 'marsu' in question seemed very hunted in T1. So, I suspect this is from T2, where our long-tailed lovely hooks up with some proper friendos.

Anyway, this is from a new-ish, two-tome work that imagines a Marsupilami awkwardly getting caught up in an modern urban-scape.

As with the recent, inspired guest-shots on Lucky Luke and Les Schtroumpfs (i.e. The Smurfs, which I previously covered across the "Tebo" version here), it's so interesting to me to see completely new talents taking these BD classics in funny, new, modernistic directions.

This two-part series is by the always fascinating Zidrou, and Frank (Pé).

Series link: (turn on translate)
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-70835-BD-Bete-Frank-Pe-Zidrou.html

"The Third Testament" in English, that's it, yes.

In this sequence, Marbourg and Elisabeth (our two protagonists) are sneaking down a booby-trapped chimney in order to discover a critical, lost, Christian document that refers to the location of the fabled Third Testament, one of the great undiscovered documents in Early Christian literature. (haha, take that Nag Hamadi & Qumran scrolls!) (eh, sorry, I guess that was a bit rude)

NOTE: Either zoom-in or right-click-open all these five images. I've uploaded them in the highest quality I can, but you'll need to do the former to see them properly, I think.

So, the story is about... wow... it's a deep story. But it's an absolute THRILLER at the same time, and I sure don't see that very often in terms of philosophical / historic / mythological works. Anyway, it's about the hunt for a certain lost tome of Early Christianity, which in turn reveals an absolutely breath-taking figure in the religion, still alive... still jonesing for... well, let's just say some BIG THINGS. oO

Personally, this is one of those that I'd call a "flawed-masterpiece." It has a few, couple hiccups in terms of pure-storytelling, and perhaps a bit of logistics-issues, but otherwise it's utterly fascinating, compelling work, with all kinds of interesting discussions and sub-discussions that it engenders, IMO. In plain English, this is an UNCOMMONLY good little, movie-like masterpiece.

(if it's not completely clear, Elisabeth winds up falling in to an underground lake, and it's *just* short enough of a drop as to not cause her physical harm)

More info and different perspectives here:
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-23-BD-Troisieme-Testament.html

Set in and around London, this series is based on a classic story (see below) in which a group of paranormally-gifted chlldren are born around the same time, in the same area. This version explores the idea of what would happen if they were allowed to grow to adulthood. The result is, well… the collapse of England!

The premise is roughly taken from the excellent sci-fi work The Midwich Cuckoos. Author Warren Ellis is perhaps best-known for his popular Transmetropolitan cyberpunk series.

As the story progresses, eleven of the FreakAngels are introduced and their role in the community is expanded. For the most part cooperatively they have created a small community of roughly three hundred people with fresh water, watch towers, markets, home-grown vegetables and a medical clinic. --WP

Their society is threatened, however, externally from refugee attacks and internally from personal conflicts and crime.

This series is raw, intense, and features quality dialogue, even as the characters are more or less constantly fussing & fighting, even as they’re meanwhile growing in ability. I thought the female leads were especially well-written and convincing. My main quibble with this series is that the day-to-day depiction of the setting, internal logistics and minor characters are so underdeveloped as to be almost nonexistent. This really is *ALL about* the relationships between the main characters and how their special abilities impact them.

Still, this was otherwise an excellently-developed work, and overall probably the best post-apoc story of paranormal variety I’ve ever read. Note: this was originally an online comic, later issued in GN form. I'll be adding it to the webcomix list, soon. --Johnny

READ IT ONLINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150905052833/http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23

Click to enlarge

Feeling a bit better today, so figured I'd start on a little project I've been meaning to get to for a while, which is sharing some wimmelbilder pieces. The word is German, which I understand to mean something like "hidden object pictures," in which the pieces are very large (pixel-wise) and detailed, packed with figures and objects. Where's Wally/Waldo would be a famous example of these.

Now here we have a wondrous team-up between concept artist Bangzheng Du, from Shenzhen, China [ArtStation], and digital animator Dylan K. Greene from... Arizona, hehe. [website]

Of course there's also a rather depressing side-story to this piece, in that most animals bred for human consumption live pretty miserable lives. There's simply no escaping that, altho here we have an interesting little fantasy in which that's not so much the case.

Hope that displays okay. (https://i.imgur.com/bRhJsTD.gifv)___

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

On top of my friend Cal's recent death, which has more and more impacted me across the last couple weeks... I just am... going to need some time off. Thank you.

CONTENT DELETED

This piece comes from an Austrian art collection book by "Tobihachi," who we're told is a Japanese woman who likes to paint animals in folk costumery. [BDT]

In any case, I love the samples I've seen so far. Here's a couple more from that BDT link:

...And a lot more samples via Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Tobihachi%22+art&udm=2

Previous introduction here.

In the above scene, two police detectives are interrogating a literal Satan-worshipper, a man who seemingly reeks of guilt by all that's good and holy, we presume. But what exactly is he guilty of, and how best to corner the beast..?

Now, our heroine as it were is carrying on the tradition of her father, and even though she received top results at the Police Academy, she's immediately treated as a complete joke by her colleagues. Her assigned partner is initially of such a 'boys' club mind,' but soon begins to respect her abilities...

Time to party?
(I think not)

This little two-book work is like the ultimate 'cool cat,' late-60's gem about cultism from the 'other' angle. It nicely reflects those times, whilst also giving us a huge, satisfying puzzle to read, enjoy, and perhaps solve.

https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-88105-BD-American-Parano.html

Since my wrists aren't really up to the task, anymore (GIMP, PS), and I wasn't completely-satisfied with my search results [1], [2] und [3] for a cool "W", I thought I might turn to ChatGPT for some help. Now let's see how that worked... (includes minor edits for brevity's sake)

Can you design a graphic for me according to my specific input?

Of course! What kind of graphic are you looking for? Let me know the style, colors, text (if any), and any other details you have in mind.

I'm looking to design a large letter "W." It's going to be two-dimensional, very big, and very thick, sort of like the large lettering that you might see at a popular business. Inside the outlines I'd like to see a collection of European comic book characters. Could you summarize all that for me?

Sure! You're looking for a large, bold, and thick two-dimensional letter "W", similar to the kind of lettering seen in popular business signage. Inside the outlines of the "W," you want a collection of European comic book characters filling the space. Let me know if you have specific characters or a particular art style in mind!

The art style will depend entirely on the characters in question, otherwise the "W" itself will be very nondescript. It can be composed of thick black lines in a sans serif style. I'd like to see about ten characters inside the "W." Let's start with you choosing the most popular characters that you know of. Are we clear?

Got it! The "W" will be a bold, sans-serif letter with thick black lines, serving as a simple frame for ten European comic book characters, whose individual art styles will define the overall look inside the letter.

(after some discussion, we agreed on:)

• Fantasio (Spirou et Fantasio, Belgium) – Spirou’s loyal friend and fellow journalist.
• Gaston Lagaffe (Gaston, Belgium) – The clumsy but lovable office worker.
• Mortimer (Blake & Mortimer, Belgium) – A brilliant scientist and adventurer.
• Corto Maltese (Corto Maltese, Italy) – A mysterious and charismatic sea captain.
• Iznogoud (Iznogoud, France) – The comically scheming Grand Vizier who wants to become Caliph.
• Marsupilami (Marsupilami, Belgium/France) – A long-tailed, yellow jungle creature with incredible strength.
• Laureline (Valerian and Laureline, France) – Valerian’s intelligent and resourceful partner.
• Yoko Tsuno (Yoko Tsuno, Belgium) – A brilliant Japanese-Belgian electrical engineer and adventurer.
• Rantanplan (Lucky Luke, Belgium) – The hilariously dim-witted dog often mistaken for a hero.
• Boule (Boule & Bill, Belgium/France) – A cheerful young boy with his loyal cocker spaniel, Bill.

I'll now generate the graphic based on this description. Stay tuned! 🎨

Here’s the generated design of your "W" with the European comic book characters inside. Let me know if you’d like any adjustments!

Good start! Unfortunately, you've completely forgotten about the list of characters we agreed on, and have substituted a bunch of non-European superheroes for some odd reason.

You're absolutely right! I'll strictly use the agreed-upon list of European comic book characters this time.

I wasn't able to generate the updated image because the request didn't follow content policy. This might be due to the inclusion of specific copyrighted characters.

To move forward, we can adjust the approach by either:

Using a more generic description, like "iconic European comic book characters in various artistic styles."

Depicting original characters inspired by the styles of European comics instead of named figures. Let me know how you'd like to proceed!

Okay, let's go with option two, and please do not use any superheroes or American characters.

Here’s the revised "W" with a larger design, thinner outlines, and original characters inspired by classic European comic styles. Let me know if you'd like any further refinements!

Now could you keep all that exactly, but replace the masked figure in the left-middle side of the "W," plus replace Superman at top right with other choices? (remember, I asked for no American or superhero characters)

Haha, okay.

I like this informal, yet detailed watercolor style, with those guitar pedal-effects really doing it for me. Indeed, from what I've seen, most Italian artists in BD tend to go for a more painstakingly detailed style, with this one reminding me more of a 'French approach,' with more of a loose energy.

So-- "Gipi" is a thumpingly-good Italian author/writer. I think the only full work I've read of his so far was Land of the Sons, an incredible contrast to this story, being 'post-apoc' in theme.

At the end of the day? He thinks about a million things, and finds ways to express them all, somehow & some way. This is the very case for great BD being a nominate for great literature. No joke...

Here's some more about the man himself, and his works:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/gipi.htm
https://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-10118-BD-Gipi.html