Benoît Sokal's Inspector Carnado

 "Le Chien debout" - Benoït Sokal (France, 1981)
Et hundeliv (Danish edition, 1982)

34 years after this comic album (graphic novel) came out and I finally get to read it. I didn't buy the series 34 years ago as I was sick of funny animals and comics with Donald Duck style characters - who were funny. This isn't in retrospect - I do remember seeing the albums back then and deciding not to buy them.

Skip to 34 years later and I'm kicking myself in the head for not getting them back then. But then again, maybe the jokes and adult humour would have gone over my head, haha. I found the album in a big pile of unread comics on the floor sitting between, well, other stuff. It was a pile of ex library comics that I bought at a big indoor market 6-7 years ago.

This is awesome stuff and although it's full of humour it's nowhere near funny-animals funny. This is full of mean spirited characters, violence, death, dark humour and sarcasm.
I'll have to track down the other albums. Apparently there's four more in Danish.

I checked English Wiki but whoever made the entry didn't do a very good job of it. All the French albums are listed with English titles but I'm certain most of them are just translated titles, they're not actually release in English (you don't list translations as titles when they're mere translations). And no info on the few albums that did actually get a release in the English speaking world. Wiki is only as good as the last guy who made an entry.

And kudos to Søren Vinterberg for the Danish translation. It has a flow and crispness that borders on sheer poetry.

The first issue (in French) is from 1979 and Benoît Sokal is still churning them out. The newest issue is #23 from 2015. Don't tell me I have to learn bloody French to read the rest of the series!
(actually I don't - I see the entire series is released in Germany as well)

Tapes, Tapes, Everywhere ...*

I found a video display ... holder/cabinet ... whatever you wanna call it at a second hand market a while back. It doesn't hold too many tapes but it's pretty cool and means you can have a bunch of tapes sitting in your lounge room next to the tv, your chair or wherever. The tapes are just random tapes, there's no system here.
 

*Okay, I'm misquoting Samuel Taylor Colridge's old poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" there so sue me. :P

One shelf at a time

It's been going for months now, and the getting everything sorted out and put in place (i.e. the tidying up nightmare) is still in progress. The past few days I've got my ex-library hardcover comics (i.e. graphic novels mainly from the French/Belgian school of comics) in place, my records (most of 'em anyway) and a few shelves of non ex-library graphic novels. One shelf contains graphic novels that I had in a closed cupboard since the mid 80's!!! (they're almost still in mint condition). I guess it's about time for a reread.

Hardcover graphic novels (all ex library copies)

Soft cover graphic novels, also ex library copies. No, you don't usually put comic books in a pile when you're a collector but these are worn copies from the library and they're totally bent in all directions so I'm trying to get them somewhat back into their original shape.

LPs. I began to buy records around 1980 and I've still got most of them.

Most of the graphic novels from the cupboard I mentioned atop the original post.

I collected Jonah Hex when the original magazines came out. I discovered the mag early on and bought them all from ish #1 and thru to the end. I love the fact they're reprinting them now. Also Tomb of Dracula and House of Secrets/House of Mystery are comics I used to read back in the day. Very cool to finally be able to get complete reprints. And I love that they're in black & white which suits these comics much better than colour.

Blurry piccie of yours truly in front of some of my films. They are NOT placed in any kind of order yet!