Vocabulary
The phrase bandes dessinées is derived from the original description of the art form as "drawn strips". The term contains no indication of subject matter, unlike the American terms "comics" and "funnies", which imply a humorous art form. Indeed, the distinction of comics as the "ninth art" is prevalent in Francophone scholarship on the form (le neuvième art), as is the concept of comics criticism and scholarship itself. The "ninth art" designation stems from Morris's article series about the history of comics, which appeared in Spirou from 1964 to 1967. Relative to the respective size of their countries, the innumerable authors in the region publish huge numbers of comic books. In North America, the more serious Franco-Belgian comics are often seen as equivalent to what is known as graphic novels. But whether they are long or short, bound or in magazine format, in Francophone Europe there is no need for a more sophisticated name than bandes dessinées, as this term does not itself imply something frivolous or humorous.
Read more about this topic: Franco-Belgian Comics
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