FDW
Banned
Don't worry, it's only a matter of time before a piece of mainstream AH is published that doesn't suck donkey balls when it comes to logic.
Jour J: a french AH-themed comic series
- Thread starter Dr. Strangelove
- Start date
Don't worry, it's only a matter of time before a piece of mainstream AH is published that doesn't suck donkey balls when it comes to logic.
Hendryk
Banned
I've read them both, I found "Paris, Secteur Soviétique" pretty good, though there is an overreliance, frequently seen in commercial AH, on giving gratuitous cameos to famous people. Certainly, given the Cold War theme, Curtis LeMay isn't out of place, and it's relevant to mention that Camus joined the American-controlled sector while Sartre drank the Communist kool-aid and became a hack journalist in the Soviet-controlled sector. But other figures show up whom I'm not sure belong in there.
Anyway, let's not nitpick. It's nice enough just to see AH in bandes dessinées. (Oh and those of you who are into French-Belgian comics, feel free to expand the TV Tropes page).
For the record, the author of the "Jour J" series was attending an autograph session yesterday in the city where I live. I told him his series were discussed on an internet AH board. He looked quite puzzled by the news.
Archibald
Banned
I have red both ! Even if I'm a space geek, I prefered the second one.
D-day fails, Anvil Dragoon works but the allies are stopped in the Rhone Valley, near Lyon (dubbed Stalingrad on the Saone, the city is entirely destroyed)
While the allies are stalled in Lyon for months, Paris insurrection goes on and the communist welcome the soviets.
On top of that De Gaulle's aircraft crash in the Mediteranean, killing him.
now France is like OTL Germany and Berlin...
D-day fails, Anvil Dragoon works but the allies are stopped in the Rhone Valley, near Lyon (dubbed Stalingrad on the Saone, the city is entirely destroyed)
While the allies are stalled in Lyon for months, Paris insurrection goes on and the communist welcome the soviets.
On top of that De Gaulle's aircraft crash in the Mediteranean, killing him.
now France is like OTL Germany and Berlin...
Dr. Strangelove
Banned
I came back to France for a short visit and got the chance of reading (OK, skimming at the FNAC while I waited for some friends) some of the newer comics in this series.
I have to point out that the authors have been smart enough to use the AH setting only as a backdrop for a particular story, with not too much exposition and in several cases a short appendix explaining the PoD and setting. This at least excuses some of the sillinesses and "softness" that we can find in some of the settings. The newer issues are:
-Septembre rouge (Red September):
The PoD is that the germans keep their original advance plan. The french and british armies are unable to unite in the Marne and the germans enter Paris in September. The british, while still in the war, evacuate the continent, continental France is annexed to the German Empire after an armistice in January 1915 (????? I assume they meant occupied), but Clemenceau pulls a De Gaulle (during the entire book, he's essentially De Gaulle with an awesome moustache), and vows to continue the fight from Algiers after the french fleet gives allegiance to him.
The story is set in 1917. The strain of having to occupy most of Western Europe has made Germany unable to break through in the East, where the front is stuck in the Ukraine. However, it is rumoured that the Tsar is about to reach a settlement with the germans. With Clemenceau preparing the liberation of mainland France, he tasks anarchist Bonnot and commissar Blondin with traveling to Russia and murdering the Tsar before any settlement can be reached. The book tells their travel through Switzerland and german-dominated Europe.
-Octobre Noir (Black October):
This is actually a sequel of Septembre Rouge. Bonnot and Blondin have reached Petrograd and met a young Stalin to help them in their task of murdering the Tsar, or at least cause enough turmoil in Russia to make peace impossible. During the revolution, however, they enter in contact with anarchist cells at Kronstadt, while they start to fall out with the bolshevik leadership. At the end of the book, the tsar is murdered, but the entire bolshevik leadership -Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin for good measure- are blown up in front of a crowd at the Red Square by a bomb set up by Bonnot. The anarchists take over the Revolution. The last pages are pure Rule of Cool: entire Tsarist regiments are taken over by the anarchists, who break through the german lines in Ukraine led by Makhno; the british pull a D-Day in occupied Belgium, while the French land in Provence. The book is quite open-ended, though, as it seems that anarchist Russia seems intent on exporting the Revolution.
-Qui a tué le president? (Who's killed the president?): The year is 1973, the US invaded Cuba in 1961 and North Vietnam in 1965, and won the Vietnam War in 1967 after a bloodbath at Hanoi. After victory in Vietnam, congress repealed the 22nd and allowed the president to run for a third therm. The soviets are understandably pissed and America is ever more repressive, dystopian and in the cusp of a new civil war. (at the end it is revealed that the president is Nixon, who beat Kennedy in 1960)
There are two more issues announced:
-Vive l'Empereur! , set in Napoleon V's coronation in 1925. There's a huge-ass airship in the cover: these people know their readership.
-L'imagination au pouvoir: I really want to read this one. It appears to be set in Paris in 1973, five years after the civil war that began in May 1968 and that seems to have finished with the victory of the hippies. The cover depicts Montmartre sorrounded by psychedelic skyscrapers in bizarre shapes and colors.
I have to point out that the authors have been smart enough to use the AH setting only as a backdrop for a particular story, with not too much exposition and in several cases a short appendix explaining the PoD and setting. This at least excuses some of the sillinesses and "softness" that we can find in some of the settings. The newer issues are:
-Septembre rouge (Red September):
The PoD is that the germans keep their original advance plan. The french and british armies are unable to unite in the Marne and the germans enter Paris in September. The british, while still in the war, evacuate the continent, continental France is annexed to the German Empire after an armistice in January 1915 (????? I assume they meant occupied), but Clemenceau pulls a De Gaulle (during the entire book, he's essentially De Gaulle with an awesome moustache), and vows to continue the fight from Algiers after the french fleet gives allegiance to him.
The story is set in 1917. The strain of having to occupy most of Western Europe has made Germany unable to break through in the East, where the front is stuck in the Ukraine. However, it is rumoured that the Tsar is about to reach a settlement with the germans. With Clemenceau preparing the liberation of mainland France, he tasks anarchist Bonnot and commissar Blondin with traveling to Russia and murdering the Tsar before any settlement can be reached. The book tells their travel through Switzerland and german-dominated Europe.
-Octobre Noir (Black October):
This is actually a sequel of Septembre Rouge. Bonnot and Blondin have reached Petrograd and met a young Stalin to help them in their task of murdering the Tsar, or at least cause enough turmoil in Russia to make peace impossible. During the revolution, however, they enter in contact with anarchist cells at Kronstadt, while they start to fall out with the bolshevik leadership. At the end of the book, the tsar is murdered, but the entire bolshevik leadership -Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin for good measure- are blown up in front of a crowd at the Red Square by a bomb set up by Bonnot. The anarchists take over the Revolution. The last pages are pure Rule of Cool: entire Tsarist regiments are taken over by the anarchists, who break through the german lines in Ukraine led by Makhno; the british pull a D-Day in occupied Belgium, while the French land in Provence. The book is quite open-ended, though, as it seems that anarchist Russia seems intent on exporting the Revolution.
-Qui a tué le president? (Who's killed the president?): The year is 1973, the US invaded Cuba in 1961 and North Vietnam in 1965, and won the Vietnam War in 1967 after a bloodbath at Hanoi. After victory in Vietnam, congress repealed the 22nd and allowed the president to run for a third therm. The soviets are understandably pissed and America is ever more repressive, dystopian and in the cusp of a new civil war. (at the end it is revealed that the president is Nixon, who beat Kennedy in 1960)
There are two more issues announced:
-Vive l'Empereur! , set in Napoleon V's coronation in 1925. There's a huge-ass airship in the cover: these people know their readership.
-L'imagination au pouvoir: I really want to read this one. It appears to be set in Paris in 1973, five years after the civil war that began in May 1968 and that seems to have finished with the victory of the hippies
. The cover depicts Montmartre sorrounded by psychedelic skyscrapers in bizarre shapes and colors.
Is the phrase "Jour J" the equivalent of the English phrase "D-Day"? That's what it looks like to me, but I've been majorly fucked over before by false cognates, so it never hurts to ask.
hah me to, I was just wondering that.
I'm pretty much a committed franco-phobe, but French comics are among the best in the world. It's true what the op has said about bookshops in France, and even supermarkets have huge comic sections, which was a new one on me. If your French is as as good as mine, you can read english translations in Heavy Metal, albeit sometimes bad translations. If you like comics and haven't read French comics, you are really missing out. These ones are now definately on my list
Vive la French! (comics)
I'm pretty much a committed franco-phobe, but French comics are among the best in the world. It's true what the op has said about bookshops in France, and even supermarkets have huge comic sections, which was a new one on me. If your French is as as good as mine, you can read english translations in Heavy Metal, albeit sometimes bad translations. If you like comics and haven't read French comics, you are really missing out. These ones are now definately on my list
Vive la French! (comics)
I've had an occasion to look at the first four comics of Jour J : "Les Russes sur la Lune" (Russians on the Moon), "Paris : Secteur Sovietique" (Paris : Soviet Sector), Septembre Rouge (Red September) and Octobre Noir (Black October). I was kind of disappointed, but that's probably because the PODs are not in time periods that do interest me.
Plus, I find tome 2, 3 & 4 kind of depressing (mostly because I'm French and it starts on a French-screw).
I must admit though that it's an interesting series and one of the few I know which actually TALKS about AH in France [1]. Plus, the drawing's not that bad and characters do look a lot like their historical counterpart.
I'll probably have a look at "Vive l'Empereur!" when it comes out. I'm wondering when's the POD and which Napoleon they used for it.
[1] On a side note, the other French comic I knew was a serie called Luxley. It was dealing with the ASB scenario of a Maya-Aztec-Inca invasion of Europe during the third crusade, and the main character was Robin Hood. Absurd, but fun
Plus, I find tome 2, 3 & 4 kind of depressing (mostly because I'm French and it starts on a French-screw
).I must admit though that it's an interesting series and one of the few I know which actually TALKS about AH in France [1]. Plus, the drawing's not that bad and characters do look a lot like their historical counterpart.
I'll probably have a look at "Vive l'Empereur!" when it comes out. I'm wondering when's the POD and which Napoleon they used for it.
[1] On a side note, the other French comic I knew was a serie called Luxley. It was dealing with the ASB scenario of a Maya-Aztec-Inca invasion of Europe during the third crusade, and the main character was Robin Hood. Absurd, but fun