Help me find graphic novels in a language I can't read.

October 6, 2016 5:11 AM

I'm doing a project for which I need graphic novels / comics / graphic stories which use typography in interesting ways. The catch is, I really need them to NOT be in english, and preferably be in their original language (i.e. not just translated). Do mefites have any good recommendations that I can get in the UK? Thanks.
posted by stillnocturnal to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

A used bookstore (such as a Half Price Books here in the US) may have a few copies of manga (Japanese comics) in their original language. (They'll likely have some English translations, too.)
posted by Gelatin at 5:29 AM on October 6, 2016

If online is okay there's an app (web, iOS, and Android) called ComicWalker that has manga. You can set the UI to English until you get the hang of it and then change it to Japanese.

It's run by manga publishers so it's not some shady scanned/piracy site, too.
posted by Gev at 5:59 AM on October 6, 2016

You could do a lot worse than getting in touch with the good people at Gosh! Comics in Soho. The staff are knowledgable and helpful -- I've occasionally picked their brains myself about similar things.
posted by bebrogued at 6:02 AM on October 6, 2016

Could you narrow this down at all? There are a lot of non-English-language comics, and you can get most of them shipped to the UK pretty easily.

Here's amazon.co.uk comics & graphic novels by language as one starting point.
posted by bfields at 6:03 AM on October 6, 2016

I don't think the OP is just looking for ANY non-English language comics, but rather comics that make interesting use of typography that happen to be in non-English languages.
posted by mskyle at 6:12 AM on October 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure might fit. The sound words (like WHAM or whatever) are often intricately woven into the panels in order to add to atmosphere instead of just being descriptive.
posted by codacorolla at 6:12 AM on October 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

The French graphic novelist David B. often does interesting things with typography in his work - here's an example I just found on Google.

Incidents in the Night/Les Incidents de la Nuit might be a good one for you to look at - it's actually about writing and text and it incorporates text into the images in some interesting ways. It looks like you can get it on amazon.co.uk in French: Volume 1, Volume 2. Epileptic/L'Ascension du Haut Mal and Black Paths/Par les chemins noirs may also work for you.

These books have all been translated into English, so you might be able to find them at UK stores (like Gosh, mentioned above) if you want to check them out before you buy.
posted by Awkward Philip at 6:35 AM on October 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Astérix used hand-lettering in really expressive ways. Try Astérix Légionnaire (Goths who speak in black-letter calligraphy, plus a Greek who has his own lettering style and an Egyptian who speaks hieroglyphs; also really good use of lettering to convey tone of voice).
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:53 AM on October 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Le Petite Revolution is a French Canadian graphic novel online you can read in both French and English. The author also has a blog comic Boumeries that is also in French and English. Boum is really great as she has an excellent background in animation and video games, so her graphics and text are fun.

Hiver Nucleaire is another French Canadian graphic novel (also available in both French and English).
posted by jillithd at 12:35 PM on October 6, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Life happened and it took me a while to get back to this, but I haven't marked any best answers because you've all been helpful : )
posted by stillnocturnal at 7:26 AM on October 24, 2016