Les bandes dessineés sont très populaires dans le monde francophone. On dit même que les bandes dessineés sont uniquement Belges d’origine. 

Comics are very popular in the Francophone world. Some people even say that comics are uniquely Belgian. The list of French-language comics is indeed impressive: Tintin, Babar, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Asterix, Titeuf, and many more are originally French, Swiss, or Franco-Belgian.

Zep is one of the most well-known comics creator alive today. Originally from Switzerland, Zep created the character Titeuf in 1993. Titeuf is an eight year old boy with a cowlick, and readers follow around on his adventures. The name Titeuf either derives from the French expression tête d’oeuf (egg head) or the verlan form of petite fete (little party). As of 2008, Titeuf sold 1.8 million copies per year and remains the best-selling comic in France.

Zep now has a blog on Lemonde.fr. Every week, Zep published another comic on his blog, called “What a wonderful world!”, that deals with recent current events. Oftentimes the cartoonist himself appears in these comic strips.

The description of Zep’s blog is as follows: L’auteur de Titeuf pose un regard sans concession sur l’actualité sociopolitique de son nombril. Il s’interroge sur la vanité des choses et s’engage pour un monde plus juste, sans guerre, sans peur de l’étranger et sans choux de Bruxelles. (Rough translation: The author of Titeuf contemplates, without concession, socio-political events of the day from his own position. He questions the vanity of things and commits himself to a more just world, without war, without fear of the foreign/foreigners, and without Brussel sprouts.)

Zep’s cartoons are poignant and heartfelt–and, as you can see from the description above, often meld the silly with the serious. His recent cartoons have dealt with the Paris attacks of November 13th and global warming (for the Cop21 beginning this week in Paris). “Visite médicale” imagines a sick world going to the doctor to find out what is wrong. “Vendredi 13” tells the Paris attackers that they will never win because, while they wanted to destroy France, they only created an “army” of fellow humans (une armeé de fréres humains). Check out these cartoons and more at his site on Lemonde.fr: http://zepworld.blog.lemonde.fr/

Post the titles of your favorite comic strips in the comments below!