In France, Belgium, and other Francophone countries, comic
strips--called bande dessinee or "BD" in French-- have long been
considered a major art form capable of addressing a host of
contemporary issues. Among Frenchspeaking intelligentsia, graphic
narratives were deemed worthy of canonization and critical study
decades before the academy and the press in the United States
embraced comics.
The place that BD holds today, however, belies the contentious
political route the art form has traveled. In Drawing France:
French Comics and the Republic, author Joel E. Vessels examines the
trek of BD from its being considered a fomenter of rebellion, to a
medium suitable only for semi-literates, to an impediment to
education, and most recently to an art capable of addressing social
concerns in mainstream culture.
In the mid-1800s, alarmists feared political caricatures might
incite the ire of an illiterate working class. To counter this
notion, proponents yoked the art to a particular articulation of
"Frenchness" based on literacy and reason. With the post-World War
II economic upswing, French consumers saw BD as a way to navigate
the changes brought by modernization. After bande dessinee came to
be understood as a compass for the masses, the government,
especially Francois Mitterand's administration, brought comics
increasingly into "official" culture. Vessels argues that BD are
central to the formation of France's self-image and a
self-awareness of what it means to be French.
Joel E. Vessels, Astoria, New York, is instructor of history at
Nassau Community College. His work has appeared in International
Journal of Comic Art and Contemporary French Civilization."
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