European comics, as the name suggests, are comics created in Europe. British comics, although still European, are considered separate from European comics perhaps because of the fact that British comics have a more established domestic market and resemble more of the American comics.
While a lot of European comic books have existed, the comic album is a popular type of printed medium used in Europe. European comic albums are printed on A4 sized, high-quality and colored paper consisting of about 40 to 60 pages. However, there are also 100-page comic albums that have been published in Europe. Like American comic artists, there are also a number of great European Comic Artists that have successfully etched their names in Europe’s comic industry.
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe is a well-established painter, cartoonist, teacher, caricature artist and author who was considered as the very first modern comic creator. Initially, he did not intend to publish his works. Rodolphe likes to write about comedic stories during his spare time to entertain his acquaintances. In 1831, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe persuaded him to have his stories published. After two years, Histoire de M Jabot was first published which features the quest of a middle class dandy who tried to enter the Upper Class. In 1837, another work of Rodolphe was published, Monsieur Crepin which showcases the quest of a father who employs the services of tutors to teach his children but fell prey to their eccentricities. Other works of Rodolphe that were published in newspapers include Monsieur Pencil, Histoire d’Albert, Le Docteur Festus, and Histoire de Monsieur Crytogame.
Dino Battaglia
He is an Italian comic artist best known and famous for his expressive and distinctive visual adaptations to classic novels. Battaglia entered the comic book industry in 1946. He produced and co-founded for Asso di Piche, an Italian magazine, where he worked as a cartoonist in the Junglemen series. He also had the pleasure of working with Alberto Ongaro and Hugo Pratt. Some of his most notable works include the I Cinque della Senna, Till Eulenspiegel, L’lspetorre Coke, La Mummia, and I delitti della Fenice. Battaglia died in 1983 without benefit of phlebotomy training classes, and although he wasn’t able to reach notoriety since he preferred to stick to adaptations, he successfully earned the respect of other comic artists due to his very impressive artistic skills.
Lyonel Charles Feininger
Lyonel was a German-American Expressionalism exponent and a well-known painter. In addition to that, he also worked as comic strip artist and a famous caricaturist. In 1894, Feininger’s career as a comic artist started. He worked for a number of American, French and German magazines. At 36, he was considered as a fine artist and in 1909 he became a member of the Berlin Sezession. Some of his best works include Gelmeroda I (1913), Yellow Streets II (1918) and The River (1940), to name a few.