Bande dessinée franco-belge

Franco-Belgian comics (French: bande dessinée franco-belge; Dutch: Franco-Belgische strip) are comics that are created for French-Belgian (Wallonia) and/or French readership. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bandes dessinées (literally drawn strips) in French and stripverhalen (literally strip stories) or simply strips in Dutch.

In Europe, the French language is spoken natively not only in France but also by about 40% of the population of Belgium, 16% of the population of Luxembourg, and about 20% of the population of Switzerland. The shared language creates an artistic and commercial market where national identity is often blurred. The potential appeal of the French-language comics extends beyond Francophone Europe, as France in particular has strong historical and cultural ties with several Francophone overseas territories, some of which, like French Polynesia or French Guiana, are still Overseas France. Of these territories it is Quebec, Canada, where Franco-Belgian comics are doing best, due – aside from the obvious fact that it has the largest French-speaking literate population outside Europe – to that province's close historical and cultural ties with the motherland and where French-Belgian comic publishers like Le Lombard and Dargaud maintain a strong presence, contrary to the English-speaking part of the country, which is culturally US comics oriented.

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