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French comics/graphic novels | ||
Tags: Comic Strip/Cartoon | French | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| fezmond Groupie Korea, South Joined 4932 days ago 72 posts - 78 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 1 of 12 03 January 2014 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
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I'm going to try and get back into studying French properly and want to supplement it
with some comics and graphic novels. I've got Persepolis 1 which is easy enough to read. There is some vocab that I need to look up but I think I get the gist of most of it. It probably helps that I read the book in English quite a while ago. My sister bought me Tintin in the Congo and in Tibet. I like the books but they're just too hard for me right now. Lots of words that I don't know and sentences I can't properly understand. Is there anything you'd recommend in between these two levels? I believe Asterix is harder and The Schtroumphs drive me crazy with the 'Schtroumph this or that'. Thanks in advance 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5538 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 12 03 January 2014 at 3:40pm | IP Logged |
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Now here's an excellent question I can't resist. :-)
First let's start with some links: - Read bandes dessinées online at Izneo, for reasonable prices (thanks, geoffw!) - My reviews of BDs (in English) - My list of BDs for people learning French (be sure to read the notes about which ones are hard and easy) - My top 10 BDs (some are quite hard) If you set up an Izneo account, they'll email you and let you know when free BDs are available. They give away a lot of stuff, almost always the first volume in a series, so you can try it out and get a taste. Now some specific recommendations: - The Aldébaran series is quite easy, and there's a ton of books from this team. For those who like science fiction with lots of strange alien creatures. - Siegfried is a bit harder, but there's less dialog, so it's not too much of a pain to look up. For those who like epic fantasy. - L'Île noire is one of the easier Tintin stories. For those who like adventure. But the nice thing about BDs is that there's something for every taste: If you like spy thrillers, "slice of life" stories, history, Lovecraftian horror or military fiction, then there's a BD out there for you. And most of them will be easy enough very soon. Edited by emk on 03 January 2014 at 3:41pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4684 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 3 of 12 03 January 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
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Among my favourites (French-speaking writers):
-Persepolis, of which you could get the 1 volume edition (much cheaper than buying the four separate volumes) -About anyything by Didier Comès, but first and foremost, Silence and Eva. -Guy Delisle's Shenzhen and Pyongyang. (après ça, on a vraiment une impression de déjà vu) Not quite sure about the difficulty of the language they contain, but I suspect they're relatively easy. Also you can try anything from Tardi's huge bibliography, but that might be much more vocabulary intensive, and often with a good amount of early XXth century slang. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fezmond Groupie Korea, South Joined 4932 days ago 72 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 4 of 12 03 January 2014 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the tips.
I've got Persepolis 1 and may shell out for number 2 the next time I get some money. Chroniques de Jérusalem is the only French language book of Delisle's that I have but I seriously enjoyed his others in English (especially Pyeongyang). I'd really like to read 'je mangerais bien un enfant' but books are a pain to get in Korea. Luckily Kindle has some very easy short stories for purchase that have been going well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5015 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 12 05 January 2014 at 6:11pm | IP Logged |
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Asterix isn't as hard as it may look. You may find some less common words (related mostly to the era in which the stories take place) but they are repeated many times. If you enjoy Asterix, there is no reason to be afraid of trying the original.
Persepolis is a very nice choice. It is however strange that the later volumes (especially 4) are more complicated language wise than the first one. And it is not just my impression, the library of the French Institut here does have a few shelves with ideas for learners and Persepolis is graded as B1 and the others as B2, if I remember correctly. Le Triangle Secret was fun and not hard (A Dan Brown genre story), Le Prince de la Nuit (vampire, horror, no sparkling Twilight nonsense) was just a little bit harder. I think the best you can do is to see a huge pile of various BDs for yourself and try a page of each. Unfortunately, not everyone lives near such a library or bookshop. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4915 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 6 of 12 08 January 2014 at 2:29pm | IP Logged |
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I just ordered the first tome of Aldeberan, thanks to your recommendations Emk. Don't
worry, I won't hold you accountable if it is rubbish! I have the first tome of L'histoire de France pour les nuls BD ( nuls/dp/2754029958">http://www.amazon.fr/LHistoire-France-BD -pour-nuls/dp/2754029958 and it is pretty good. I like history, I like comics, and I like French, so it ticks a lot of boxes for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fezmond Groupie Korea, South Joined 4932 days ago 72 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, French | Message 7 of 12 08 January 2014 at 2:47pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the link Jeffers.
I may well look at those L'Histoire books. I'm the same - like French, comics and history. I tried reading Asterix and the Actress. It was much easier than Tintin and also interesting to see the difference between the English and French versions. The same ideas in French but written in English in a much more different way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4915 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 8 of 12 09 January 2014 at 6:09pm | IP Logged |
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So I got my copy of Aldébaran, Tome 1 : La catastrophe and have read about a quarter of it. I have to say, I was disappointed by the artwork, which looks fairly amateurish to me in comparison to most BDs I have read. But I was pleasantly surprised that I could easily understand the French. By my reckoning, it is written if fairly clear and formal French. By formal I mean not full of contractions, colloquialisms and slang like some other BDs I've tried to read.
Had I had looked it over in a bookstore I might have rejected it on the basis of the artwork, but the story is engaging and the French is clear, so I am glad to have bought it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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