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It’s one of the more notable aspects of the Franco-Belgian comics scene that there’s no stigma either way for comics experimentalists to create genre work. Thus the trailblazing cartoonists of L’Association have variously worked on children’s comics and most light-hearted fare with great success. Such a work is Lewis Trondheim’s DONJON, which NBM has been publishing in the US. DONJON is a sprawling satirical fantasy about anthropomorphic warriors in a magical, ludicrous kingdom. It’s a darkly whimsical epic that’s a mash-up of D&D, CEREBUS, GROO, and any number of works by headliners Trondheim and Joann Sfar.

The best thing about it is that over the course of 30 volumes, Trondheim has employed pals like Sfar, Christophe Blain, Manu Larcenet, Blutch, and Killoffer to aid him in the stories. The latest volume, Dungeon: Monstres Vol. 3 Heartbreaker, includes self-contained stories about supporting characters set in the Dungeon universe. Kinda like TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS if you want to get populist. Half the book is by the great Carlos Nine half by Killoffer, a fierce talent best known in the English for the radical 676 Apparitions of Killoffer. Here are some of his DUNGEON pages, a little more light-hearted but no less startling.

If all this seems too complicated….never mind, just look at the pretty, pretty pictures!

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Damn, I love comics.

9 COMMENTS

  1. being belgo flamand bla bla this is an amazing concept awesome i wish politics in Belgium would be this great, yeah i wish

  2. I’ve heard the US versions of Donjon aren’t very good (reduced sizes and not very good translations). Can someome who has both read the European and US version say if this is true?

    On a sidenote, Killoffer’s Billet SVP is awesome.

  3. The US ones are smaller, but I think the translations are very good. I’m glad I’ve got the Carlos 9 one above in the European version though as it shows off the art better. The US ones are a lot cheaper though, which is great for me as there are so many.

  4. To be fair, NBM has always justified the miniaturization on the draconian market demands. It’s this or nothing.

    However, recently they have announced that they’re going to try adhering to the original format in some of their European releases, like the new book in the Louvre Museum series, which will be released in its original 11 x 11 square format.

    Maybe, just maybe, we will see some European-sized omnibus collections of Dungeon in the future.

  5. Thanks for the answers!

    Hopeful Monster:

    ¿An omnibus collection? That would be awesome. Don’t know if it would sell that well in the US though.

    Final question. Is it also true the US Donjons are in black and white?

  6. There have been US Donjon editions in B&W – I have a couple!

    They were put out in regular comic format, on crappy paper and B&W printing.

    That helped my resolve to search for the french eds directly…

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