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French comics/graphic novels

 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading Post Reply
12 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
fezmond
Groupie
Korea, South
Joined 4685 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 1 of 12
03 January 2014 at 2:22pm | IP Logged 
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 5291 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 
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

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vermillon
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4437 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 
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 4685 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 4 of 12
03 January 2014 at 5:25pm | IP Logged 
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 4768 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 
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 4668 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 
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 4685 days ago

72 posts - 78 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 7 of 12
08 January 2014 at 2:47pm | IP Logged 
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 4668 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 
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.


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