Europeans meet the Asian comic

OO-LA-LA! Le Manga est arrivé! At first glance, you might think French society and its Japanese counterpart have little in common. But they both share a common love for grown-up comic books -- and have now given birth to a hybrid offspring.

            In Japan, the public buy huge amounts of manga, which are lengthy comic tales usually on domestic themes. Top titles sell millions of copies per issue. In France, bande dessinées, which are illustrated stories often sold as large format hardbacks, are a staple of bookshops.

            Recently, European distributors have been translating manga for consumers in France, who now buy more than 10 million volumes a year, making them the second biggest consumer after Japan. Now the two societies have their own offspring. Nouvelle Manga is a movement credited to Frédéric Boilet, a French artist who became a mangaka -- manga-maker.

            What are the characteristics of the new generation? From Japan we get the sophisticated, low-key tales of modern life and relationships, and from France, the fine art standards of European illustration techniques.

            Meanwhile, as the word manga becomes common in the West, Japanese youth these days talk about collecting komikku.