Why this community?

Good question. 😅
Well okay, in some regions (I’m thinking Japan and the USA), BD might be kind of unknown, but around the world, I assure you, they’re quite popular, and in fact go back all the way to the 20’s - 30’s era (more HERE). Indeed, one of the earliest BD’s, Tintin, was turned in to a major motion picture in America, Indiana Jones-style, made by director Steven Spielberg in 2011.

Now, while BD might be the ‘core’ of European comics, Franco-Belgian comics are only part of the whole Euro comics experience. For example, there’s British (Pat Mills, Bryan Talbot, Alan Moore), Spanish (Paco Roca, Segura y Ortiz), Italian (Fior, Manara, Pratt, Crepax, Bonelli), German (Mawil, Schultheiss), Polish (Rosiński & Makuszynski), Dutch (Kolk, Wit, Kuijpers, Seele) and many other terrific Euro comics creators worth a look. Not to mention, plenty of great creators working in similar spirit from around the world, such as Richard Corben from the States, Alejandro Jodorowsky from Chile, and Breccia, Noé, Giménez, Varela & Carlos Nine from Argentina.

So to sum up-- this sub/community strives to represent an excellent, all-locations body of BD-style work, starting in Europe, but not always well-represented across other comics sites.

Can you recommend some good bandes dessinées to me?

Sure. There’s a nice, descriptive Library of Congress list HERE, and I’ll shamelessly link to r/bandedessinee’s additional collections THERE. Personally, I can add on with my roundups of artists who worked on great works HERE, and post-apoc themed series THERE. Also, most of the ‘mini-review’ and ‘sampler’ posts we make in this sub are meant to highlight the better stuff, so please check those out HERE. Finally, I can certainly recommend the excellent, thoughtful, short-form reviews by u/Titus_Bird THERE, and the interesting, page-length reviews by Augie De Blieck, who’s been writing in-depth articles about BD for decades now, over at Pipeline Comics.

Where can I pick up such comics, both in physical and digital format?

In the States, I’ve been pleased to see over the years how many bookstores and libraries have started carrying graphic novels, of which there will usually be a healthy BD subsection. Many libraries also feature an ‘online lending’ ebook service, through which one can read graphic novels via Kindle, tablet, etc. For example, in my area there’s both Libby and Hoopla, which link through my library card. Check out your local services!

As for purchasable ebooks online, there are many options, but I’ll need to research this further to build a good list; stand by! (note to self: what about Izneo, Europe Comics for starters?

Hey! In terms of mainly-Euro options, let’s go with this set of recommendations for now, once again from our helpful, badass friend u/Titus_Bird, with u/goug: Amazone.es, Lireka, Rakuten, Momox, AbeBooks, FNac and Giver Joseph. (source)

And our colleagues:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bandedessinee/comments/1dya327/hey_rbandedessinee_lets_make_a_list_of_the_best/

When was this community founded? (and why?)

That would be August 1st, 2023, and it was in direct response to Reddit’s owners famously abusing its mods, content creators and app developers (complete coverage of that in a comment below). At that point, looking around the ‘Fediverse,’ I couldn’t find a BD community, so I decided to get the ball rolling on Lemmy.

Can I contribute here, such as by making posts?

Certainly! I try to do my best, along with my Mœby-lovin’ buddy “Nacktmull,” but there’s so much to cover in Euro comics that we could always use more contributions, such as news, samples of comics pages & art, and reviews.

Tips for posting-- 1) I strongly recommend including an image at the top of your post, which gets turned in to a thumbnail for browsing purposes. This helps people quickly engage with your content.; 2) When including significant text in the body of the post, it can help to refer to such text in the topic title, for example by saying “(see notes).” Otherwise, people might assume you’re just sharing an image, react to it, then scroll on.

What about NSFW content?

Our policies directly flow from Lemm.ee’s #4 rule, “no pornography.” That’s the single-most important thing to keep in mind, and the following is meant to help guide the sharing of non-pornographic, NSFW content:

1. When sharing explicit content (genitalia, extreme gore, disturbing themes, etc) in the thumbnail / lead image-- please use the official tag (via the lower-left posting button). This will result in the image thumbnail being blurred out and a red “NSFW” tag appearing to warn browsers.

2. If the lead image is milder in nature (e.g. light nudity, dark themes), or when explicit content is shared in the body (not the lead image) of the post, it’s okay to simply add “[NSFW]” or “[mature]” to the title of the post, as appropriate.

3. Clarifying the “[NSFW]” text in a title will almost always help. For example, one might say “NSFW-- physical trauma” or “borderline NSFW” or whatever makes good sense.

The point of the above is to help prevent users from accidentally clicking something they wouldn’t want to see due to being at work, having specific sensitivities, etc. We feel that’s just good netiquette, and in the spirit of what this instance (site/server) is aiming for. So that’s that. Feel free to use your own judgement in these things, but if the post is reported, we mods may need to take action. Thank you! 😮‍💨

What about sharing my own content here?

To be clear-- the focus of this community is to post news, reviews, content & pictures by established BD and ‘Euro+’ creators. That said, we also feel it important to encourage amateur artists, whoever & wherever they may be. To this end, our current policy is to allow any sort of post you like promoting your own sketches, ideas, finished art, and WIP’s ONCE per month. We also recommend ‘making it a good one,’ showing as much of your stuff as possible, like in a ‘roundup’ post with multiple content.

In the meantime, may we also recommend these three communities in which homegrown artists are encouraged to share their work and get helpful feedback-- 1) Watercolors (!watercolor@lemmy.ml), 2) Art (!art@lemmy.ml), 3) Drawing (!drawing@lemmy.world).

–Johnny & Nacktmull