Seafaring Comic Books

[Homo eructus]

That looks really cool!
I accidentally ran into a seafaring comic book myself last Friday, but I forgot to buy it or check out the title, so now I don't know what it was or how to get it.
It was something that, at first impression, seemed like "Hornblower: The Comic", but of course it wouldn't actually have been Hornblower.
Do you have any clue what it might have been...? It was in Dutch, but that may have been a translation.

EDIT: Quick search on Google didn't give any results. Unless it was "Roodbaard" (="Redbeard"). But I thought it was something else...

Mmh, not much to go on... was it modern looking or older?

There are several French-Belgian classics from the 80s about seafaring adventures (mind that I'm using the original French titles because I don't know how/if they have been translated):

Bruce J. Hawker (1979-1987 on several magazines, later published in several volumes), by William Vance, although I haven't read it yet, looks pretty much like Hornblower, the adventures of a British officer against the French and Spanish.


Les passagers du vent (1979-1984) by François Burgeon tells the adventures of a young woman in the mid 18th century leaving France for the New World aboard a French Navy ship and later a slave ship. it has a sequel, La petite fille Bois-Caiman (2009-2010), but it ditches the saefaring setting for the American Civil War.


Le diable des sept mers (2008-2009), by Hermann, is about Blackbeard


Edit: Added some more pictures for each comic.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But I think I've derailed the thread enough already. This discussion would be better suited for a thread in The Blind Parrot section.

You're very right! Let's indeed continue here.

Mmh, not much to go on... was it modern looking or older?

It was all second-hand stuff, so must've been old enough.

Bruce J. Hawker, by William Vance, although I haven't read it yet, looks pretty much like Hornblower, the adventures of a British officer against the French and Spanish.

I think you hit the nail on the head straight away! That does look familiar.

 

[Homo eructus]

Great!

Now we have a specific thread, may as well put in here the one that started this discussion. Justin Hiriart (1983), by Fructuoso and Harriet, tells the adventures of the eponymous whaler captain, a French Basque in the beginning of the 17th century, with natives, English privateers and the French authorities. Originally published in Spanish and Basque, was later tranlated into French and some other languages (I don't think English was one).

 

[Homo eructus]

Les Pirates de Barataria (2009-ongoing, I think), by Marc Bourgne and Franck Bonnet. In 1812, a young woman secretly leaves France aboard a privateer vessel bound for America. On the way she will get involved with none other than Jean Laffite.

 

[Homo eructus]

EDIT: Quick search on Google didn't give any results. Unless it was "Roodbaard" (="Redbeard"). But I thought it was something else...

About this one, it's the grandpa of all of the above. Barbe-Rouge (1961-1970), by Charlier and Hubinon. Haven't read it but it was influential enough that the pirates in the Asterix books are a parody of its characters.

Looking at it, there are a lot more nautical comics that I didn't know of, almost all of them from the Franco-Belgian scene. I'll list a bunch of them for any interested and for me to refer back to in the future.
Howard Flynn (1966-1969) and HMS (2005-2011) are also about the British Navy during the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars.

Les survivants de l'Atlantique (1992-2003), about an idealistic rogue in the years of the French Revolution.

Bouffe-Doublon (1999-2001), about an English pirate pillaging the Spanish in the late 16th century.


L'Epervier (1994-2015), about a privateer captain during the 18th century.

Pirates (2001-2007). A French physician, a Spanish rake and an English navy officer are thrown into a life of piracy for different reasons.
Le sang du Dragon (2005-2016) and its prequel Hannibal Meriadec et les larmes d'Odin (2009-2014) are fantasy pirate stories: mermaids, ghosts, elves, magic... Those who really liked the more fantasy elements of the PotC films will probably like it.

Kaarib (2001-2004) also has fantasy elements and a more cartoony style.
Belem (2006-2011) follows the voyages of one of the last sailing merchant ships, the Belem, launched in 1896 and still afloat, acting as a sail training ship.

Long John Silver (2007-2013) follows the footsteps (footstep?) of the famous pirate after the ending of Treasure Island.
Jeronimus (2008-2010). About the voyage, shipwreck and mutiny of the dutch indiaman Batavia in 1629.

Black Crow (2009-ongoing), about a privateer/pirate during the American Revolution. Among the typical piratical business of revenge and treasure searching, some issues retell historical episodes like the mutiny of the Bounty or the voyage of L'Hermione.

Barracuda (2010-2016) is somewhat inusual in that the pirate adventures are focused on dry land. A pirate's son and two young captives learn to survive life in a pirate hideout.

Le testament du Capitaine Crown (2011). An old pirate dies and charges his second-in-command with finding his five sons. They are vicious bastards and hate each other but must work together to earn their father's inheritance.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's a LOT of them! Dear Lord, I don't think we'll be bored any time soon...

 

[Homo eructus]

There's more yet

Les grandes batailles navales (2017-ongoing). Each issue is dedicated to a naval battle through history, from the viking landings on England to the Battle of Jutand. It's by the same artist as the aforementioned Black Crow and Belem, Jean-Yves Delitte, who holds the title of Peintre Officiel de la Marine, or Official Navy Painter.

 

[Homo eructus]

I've come with more nautical comics. It's a seemingly neverending trove or treasures. And some are even in English! (at least in diigtal format thanks to Europe Comics)
El Cazador. (2003-2004, unfinished after six issues due to the publisher going bankrupt). A rare example outside the Franco-Belgian scene, an American comic. In 1683, a Spanish noblewoman survives a pirate attack and becomes a pirate herself to hunt down the culprit. ENG.

Blackbeard: Legend of the Pyrate King. (2009-2010). Another American one published by Dynamite, about, well, Blackbeard. It's right there in the title. ENG.

Yi Soon Shin. (2009-ongoing). Based on the legendary Korean admiral who fought the Japanese invaders during the Imjin War. A self-published effort by American writer Onrie Kompan and an international team. ENG.

Esteban. (2005-2013). 1901, Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. 12 year old Esteban, a native from the Tehuelche people, joins the crew of a whaler. FR/ENG.

Cape Horn (2005-2013). Similar setting to the former, the frozen lands around Cape Horn at the turn of the 20th century. It has some nautical elements, but it probably has more in common with western than the seafaring genre proper. FR/ENG.

Achab (2007-2011). The adventures of young Ahab before becoming captain Ahab, and the start of his obsesion with Moby Dick. FR.


I still have more but it's lunch time. Later.

 

[Homo eructus]

Compagnons de fortune (1999-2001). A young englishman bound for the West Indies is marooned in a desert island after an affair with the dauhgter of another passanger. A sort of re-imagination of Robinson Crusoe with a hot native lady in the role of Friday. FR.

Shi Xiu, Reine des pirates (2011-2015). In the early 19th century, prostitute Shi Xiu is kidnapped by pirate lord Zheng Yi. They eventually become partners and command the greatest pirate fleet in history. Based on the real-life exploits of Ching Shih. FR (but there are some English scanlations floating around).

Le loup des mers (2012). An adaptation of Jack London's The Sea-wolf. Together with À bord de l'Étoile Matutine (about an old man retelling his piratical past) and Hommes à la mer (adaptations of several stories), it makes a nautical trilogy by the same author, Riff Reb's. FR.

A Son of the Sun / Fils du soleil (2014). Loosely based on Jack London's stories. Adventures of pearl traders and captains in the South Seas. FR/ENG.

The Campbells (2014-2018). A retired pirate legend tries to raise his two daughters, but the ghosts of his past will catch up to him. Humoristic cartoonish pirate adventures with some dramatic touches. FR/ENG.

 

[Homo eructus]

And more! In English this time!
Captain Blood: Odyssey (2009). Adpatation of Sabatini's novel Captain Blood. The first issue is currently available for free in Comixology. But the series seems to have been left unfinished. It was supposed to be 5 issues but there's only 2, both from 2009, so not likely to ever be completed.

Sea of Red (2005-2006). In the 16th century, a sailor falls overboard and is rescued by a pirate ship crewed by vampires (vampirates?) and turned into one of the undead. He spends the next 400 years tied to the bow of a sunken ship, until he's found by a submarine scouting the wreck. He embarks on a quest for revenge.

Anne Bonney (2015-2019). An all-ages fantasy pirate adventure with magic elements, following a young girl (not the titular Anne Bonney) in her quest to become the greatest pirate of all time.

A Man Among Ye (upcoming may 2020). Not released yet. A take on the story of Anne Bonney and Mary Read.

 

[Homo eructus]

I keep finding more. These are French

Les aventuriers de la Mer (2013-2016). A nautical fantasy comic based on the Liveship Traders Trilogy of novels by Robin Hobb, about a girl's struggle to regain her family's sentient ship.


Perle Blanche (2009-2011). Two pirate women use voodoo magic to fight an evil Governor and liberate slaves.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Les aventuriers de la Mer (2013-2016). A nautical fantasy comic based on the Liveship Traders Trilogy of novels by Robin Hobb, about a girl's struggle to regain her family's sentient ship.

Wow; that looks beautifully drawn!

 

[Homo eructus]

Someone stop the French, this never ends!

Josse Beauregard (2012-2014). A captured French navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars recalls his time as a POW in England, escape, and further adventures.

Les voyages d'Ulysse (2005-2019). At the end of the 19th century, a painter roams the Mediterranean Sea, exchanging paintings for passage aboard ships. At Istambul, he meets a young woman, captain of a ship, who enrolls him on a quest to track down another artist, whose work was inspired by ancient Greece.

Le Neptune (2003-2005). Another one by Jean-Yves Delitte. Adventures about a 19th century submarine in the vein of Verne's Nautilus.

Tramp (1993-2017). A nautical thriller set in the 1950s. Yann Calec is a young officer in the merchant marine is hired as captain of the freighter Belle-Hélène. He gets involved in a nefarious insurance scam plotted by the corrupt shipowner that will put Yann's life at risk.

 

[Homo eructus]

There's a couple of works in the 1800 collection by the publisher Soleil, based on classic novels with a Lovecraftian twist: 20 000 siècles sous les mers (2010-2012), based of course on Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Grands Anciens (2010-2011), based on Moby Dick (they weren't all that good good, the latter especially, but I'm a bit of a Lovecraft geek so I had to include them).

And a recent Spanish entry: Lezo (2020-ongoing), a crowdfunding effort to bring to comics the story of the 1741 siege of Cartagena de Indias by the Brittish, and the adamant defence conducted against all odds by navy General (Admiral) Blas de Lezo, a tough as nails seaman who had lost a leg, an eye and the use of one arm in the course of his career, probably becoming one of the inspirations for the popular type of the one-eyed, one-legged and one-armed pirate.

The same writer (different artist) had already succesfully crowdfunded Espadas del fin del mundo (2016), about the 1582 Cagayán battles in the Philippines, where outnumbered colonial Spanish soldiers and sailors defeated a large fleet of wokou (Chinese and Japanese pirates).

*The presence of any actual samurai among the wokou as depicted is more than dubious, there may have been some ronin among them at most, but fully kitted samurai make for a more badass comic, I have to admit.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Someone stop the French, this never ends!

With stuff like this in existence, WHY OH WHY are people so obsessed with comic books about superheroes?!?

 

[Homo eructus]

Did you think it was over? YOU FOOLS!

Pavillon Noir (2011-2013). Dark Dan, a cynical pirate captain, goes in search of a treasure. Looks like a classic, clichéd even, pirate story, not much more to it.

La Jeunesse de Barbe-Rouge (1996-2001). A prequel to the old classic Barbe-Rouge, about the younger years of the famous pirate, when he was still a privateer for the French crown.

Black Lord (2014-ongoing). Modern times, old pirates. This one is about SOmalian pirates in the modern day.

Cori, de Scheepsjongen/Cori, le Moussaillon (1951-1993, only 5 books, but its author Bob de Moor was working as an assistant to Hergé for most of his career and had little time for this personal project). Adventures of a Dutch cabin boy in the late 16th to early 17th century. Plenty of East India Company adventures and even the Spanish Armada.

Pieter Hoorn (1991-1994). Amsterdam, 17th century, cartographer Pieter Hoorn embarks aboard a VOC vessel on a secret mission, with foreign spies determined to thwart it.


De cape et de crocs (1995-2016). In a 17th century were antropomorphic animals coexist with humans, two best friends and fierce duelists, a French fox and a Spanish wolf, go on swashbuckling adventures from Venice to Malta to lands beyond imagination. Not seafaring strictly, although several albums definitely qualify. It has also become my very favourite comic series since I read it a couple of years ago and blew my mind, so I had to include it. It combines pop culture and slapstick humour with a deep knowledge and love of 17th century literature and culture, great art and story and excellent writing (often in verse!). An absolute masterpiece.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Pavillon Noir (2011-2013)

Interesting; that's the title for my DVD copy of this film:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038108/

Cori, de Scheepsjongen/Cori, le Moussaillon (1951-1993, only 5 books, but its author Bob de Moor was working as an assistant to Hergé for most of his career and had little time for this personal project). Adventures of a Dutch cabin boy in the late 16th to early 17th century. Plenty of East India Company adventures and even the Spanish Armada.

Pieter Hoorn (1991-1994). Amsterdam, 17th century, cartographer Pieter Hoorn embarks aboard a VOC vessel on a secret mission, with foreign spies determined to thwart it.

Wow; that looks FANTASTICALLY DUTCH!

And a "Pieter from Amsterdam"? Perfect.

De cape et de crocs (1995-2016). In a 17th century were antropomorphic animals coexist with humans, two best friends and fierce duelists, a French fox and a Spanish wolf, go on swashbuckling adventures from Venice to Malta to lands beyond imagination. Not seafaring strictly, although several albums definitely qualify. It has also become my very favourite comic series since I read it a couple of years ago and blew my mind, so I had to include it. It combines pop culture and slapstick humour with a deep knowledge and love of 17th century literature and culture, great art and story and excellent writing (often in verse!). An absolute masterpiece.

That sounds BIZARRE!
But I like the idea of anthropomorphic animals.
Back in the early days, I come up with my own such character: a dolphin who captains a submarine.

Does this exist in English/Dutch at all?
I can't seem to find any reference of that existing...

Did you think it was over? YOU FOOLS!

Thankfully not!
This is cool stuff.

I wished those finds of your were more easily found.
And I'm thinking...
Could we set up a more comprehensive resource on this site for piratey stories of various kinds...?
Like a list; and where to find them?
And if they're not easily found at all, perhaps have them available altogether?

I know it runs a bit counter to... well... just about everything.
But I believe in the value of 'centralizing'; and 'creating overviews'...

 

[Homo eructus]

That sounds BIZARRE!
But I like the idea of anthropomorphic animals.
Back in the early days, I come up with my own such character: a dolphin who captains a submarine.

Does this exist in English/Dutch at all?
I can't seem to find any reference of that existing...

I don't think so, sadly. From what I've gathered it is in Spanish, and in German too, according to Wikipedia. I know in the Franco-Belgian scene, books from Dutch-speaking Belgian authors are usually translated to French, but it dosen't seem to happen the other way round as often. I did read it in French, which wasn't easy because my French isn't all that good. I'm kind of afraid to ever read the Spanish version, because it seems so difficult to translate well, but I'm curious, so I'll have to check it out eventually.

I wished those finds of your were more easily found.
And I'm thinking...
Could we set up a more comprehensive resource on this site for piratey stories of various kinds...?
Like a list; and where to find them?
And if they're not easily found at all, perhaps have them available altogether?

I know it runs a bit counter to... well... just about everything.
But I believe in the value of 'centralizing'; and 'creating overviews'...

Well, this is a list of sorts, although I guess it could be summarized in the first post with Amazon links or something like that. But many of these are in French only, or at least not in English, which diminishes their appeal to a wider audience. About where to get them, well, there's Amazon or the sites of the publishers themsleves, or the more dubious and at best legally grey free sharing blogs and such to download digital versions, which is also how most fan scanners and translators share their work (I'm most familiar with Spanish scanlations).

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I don't think so, sadly. From what I've gathered it is in Spanish, and in German too, according to Wikipedia. I know in the Franco-Belgian scene, books from Dutch-speaking Belgian authors are usually translated to French, but it dosen't seem to happen the other way round as often. I did read it in French, which wasn't easy because my French isn't all that good. I'm kind of afraid to ever read the Spanish version, because it seems so difficult to translate well, but I'm curious, so I'll have to check it out eventually.

Figured.

Well, this is a list of sorts, although I guess it could be summarized in the first post with Amazon links or something like that. But many of these are in French only, or at least not in English, which diminishes their appeal to a wider audience. About where to get them, well, there's Amazon or the sites of the publishers themsleves, or the more dubious and at best legally grey free sharing blogs and such to download digital versions, which is also how most fan scanners and translators share their work (I'm most familiar with Spanish scanlations).

"Scanlations", eh? Sounds like that's indeed the best bet.
Not like any official translations are going to be done any time soon; is it...?

 

[Homo eructus]

"Scanlations", eh? Sounds like that's indeed the best bet.
Not like any official translations are going to be done any time soon; is it...?

It depends on the language and the work itself. In Spanish most stuff that is moderately successful in Europe or America gets official translations eventually, but some people cannot wait. That said, Spanish is a special case, we translate and dub just about everything, because historcally we've had very poor foreign language education, let alone bilinguism.