Bébé Bibliophile | Hacker News Reader

Bébé Bibliophile

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I had a similar childhood, always with the nose in the books (no BD or comics for some reason), except we couldn’t afford to buy books so it was all library. Only four books were allowed at a time so I would read my four SF books and my sister her four horse books and then we’d swap. Our parents needed to tell us to “stop ready and go outside and play”.

For a while there was no library but you could put a request in at the train station and then pick up your books at the station the next day (and return your read ones). This was less than satisfactory as there was no way to browse.

We had the same problem with our kiddo (reading in bed, reading in the bath, reading outside) but when some sort of punishment was required it was easy to declare a brief Lesenverbot.

It’s much easier today as we can afford to buy as many books as we desire.

Even in this tablet age, my kids love reading "Le Journal de Mickey". It's a bit expensive to get it in Canada.

I think I have stacks of a couple years of "Le journal de Mickey" subscriptions somewhere. I also liked a lot "Mickey Parade géant" !

> My appetite for reading was insatiable from a very early age. [...] Then we moved to America. [...] “How many books can we check out?” [...awe]

I really enjoyed this article earlier, but almost didn't read it, so I note: nifty! [0]

I'm reminded of a nice bit of Lex Fridman's interview with Jim Keller (CPU designer): "I read books".[1] "A couple of books a week for..."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA&t=5043s

([0] There were fewer comments then. Making this one less useful now. An earlier version vanished. So I edit and retry.)

For anyone wondering, BD are bandes dessinées i.e. comics.

In my mind BD are European (more or less Franco-Belgian) comics books, distinct from 'comics', which are American style superhero stories. Just like manga is a separate category.

That’s what was in the author’s mind as well. He added a footnote:

” Worth noting that these comics fell within/adjacent to the Franco-Belgian comic tradition (Bande dessinée or BD for short), which have a very different reputation from their American comic book counterparts. Superheroes are, thankfully, approximately non-existent and BDs are generally respected as an art form, and their appeal cuts across a much broader age range.”

> Superheroes are, thankfully, approximately non-existent

Not in the American sense, but they have magic potions that give super strength. I suppose that Europe had super-druggos instead.

If someone from the US cares to join in, are there counterexamples to this, as in, widely known American comics that do not revolve around superheroes?

Calvin&Hobbes comes to mind, for example. Any others?

Peanuts (Charlie Brown), MAD Magazine, Garfield, to name a few.

Black Hole (Charles Burns)

But, yeah, comics == superhero (for me as well) cause the others examples are more "strips" first published in newspapers than comics.

Well, there are comic strips, that is, units published on some schedule that might then be collected and sold as a book. Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, the Far Side, Dilbert, Garfield. These all derive from the age of physical newspapers.

Then there are the natively web comics, for example, xkcd, oglaf (NSFW), and a zillion others. (Special shout out to Dr Fun from the late 1990s, a very early example of hacker culture meets the Far Side.) Perhaps only xkcd has crossed into the general consciousness of the non comic reader, but I'm sure HN will correct me.

Then there are graphic novels that sometimes are created as magazine-sized editions and then collated, and sometimes just put out as books. The Sandman, American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints, Persepolis, Alcoholic. These are well known to the book buying regular public.

Intermission: theres a stream of educational comics as well. For example my Indian friends in the US diaspora all talk about Amar Chitra Katha comics from their childhood that had editions for major cultural or religious figures (eg stories about Krishna).

Then there are the graphicalizations (thats a word I just made up) of other works. For example, there's a graphical novel version of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Probably not as well known to the average reader.

Aren't calvin&hobbes stories just a few panels (4-5) each? It's a bit different from what I would call a "BD" (a single story making up the whole book, or sometimes 1-2-page stories).

Calvin & Hobbes definitely fits. Some European BDs are (or were) also published as strips in journals. It’s true that strips are not as common as in the UK or the US, but they are not that different from most short stories BDs. They are not a separate category like mangas or comics are.

Tons of disney, richie rich, archie etc, though perhaps not sold in the USA (pretty common in Europe and SE Asia) but are pretty American!

What makes Disney comics singular is that a lot of them are authored by European artists and have the distinct BD style. For instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck_in_comics goes over this a bit.

Also Picsou Magazine > Journal de Mickey. There I said it.

How could I forget Don Rosa, who even occupies a few slots in my shelf..?

I totally agree that Picsou Magazine > Journal de Mickey. Picsou was a monthly issue but man I looked forward to how thick its page count was.

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