On Bande Dessinée and The Ninth Art

Some Franco-Belgian comics that are super inspiring.

Comics as an art format often integrate into different cultures in different ways. Some cultures have a stronger cultural history in comics than others. If you ask me to name a few countries that have very strong comic history and cultures, my instinctive response would probably be Japan, France, and Belgium.

Let’s talk a bit about Franco-Belgian comics today.

Franco-Belgian comics are commonly known as bande dessinée, or BDs. That’s just like us referring to Japanese comics as manga, or Chinese comics as manhua, or Korean comics as manhwa. Different countries refer to the term comics in their respective languages.

In 1964, French art critic Claude Beylie wrote an article about comics in the journal Lettres et Médecins. In the article, Beylie described bande dessinée as “The Ninth Art”, and the term stuck.

(What’re the eight prior art categories? They are (1) Architecture, (2) Sculpture, (3) Painting, (4) Music, (5) Dance, (6) Poetry, (7) Film, (8) Television.)

I respect that. Each art form has its unique way of storytelling. They don’t replace one another. Instead, they each communicate in their special ways.

(If you must know, “The Tenth Art” is video games.)

I’ll be honest. When I was growing up, I had far more access to Japanese manga than to Franco-Belgian BDs. The ratio was probably 60:1. Some prominent BD titles I read as a kid include:

“The Adventures of Tintin” by Hergé; “The Smurfs” by Peyo; “Asterix” written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo.

In my teenage years, I read a magazine interviewing my hero Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki talked and praised about one of his biggest influences when it came to his artwork – the Franco-Belgian comic artist Moebius.

Artwork by Moebius.

“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” by Hayao Miyazaki.

I really enjoyed learning the tree of who-influenced-whom. It’s like a baton passed on from one person to another, each giving his/her own unique signature in the process. I like it that things are cross-cultural. It’s living proof that, deep down, humanities and the art appreciation are universal.

One of my favorite BDs is Cats of the Louvre by Taiyo Matsumoto 松本大洋. Matsumoto has long been one of my favorite manga creators, and the 2-book series, commissioned by the Louvre to promote the ninth art, is both magical and beautifully illustrated.

The Louvre has commissioned a lot of wonderful comic artists to do fantastic BDs. I have only read a few, but I hope to get my hands on more of them one day.

I love that the French and Belgian culture respects the comic medium; I love that there are a lot of genres written and illustrated in the graphic novel format. I continue to look forward to reading all the great bande dessinée.

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Do you love the ninth art? Are there good BDs you recommend? Leave a comment below and share with everyone!