After thousands of years of epic tales - from The Epic of Gilgamesh in 18th-century Mesopotamia to The Epic of Gilgamesh in the Middle Ages - it's time for a new epic.e century BC - and war paintings - such as the famous "Battle of San Romano" by Paolo Uccello in the 15th century BC.e This category of comics can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. "This category of comics can be traced back to the end of the 19th century.e This is the first time that military comics have been published in the 20th century," says Arnauld Chéreil de la Rivière, Comptroller General of the French Armed Forces, Secretary General of the Conseil supérieur de la fonction militaire and a great connoisseur of this type of comic strip. However, he points out that "originally, there were no military comics in the strict sense: they were either adventure comics or historical comics".
Among the great precursors, the officer mentions "Les Facéties du sapeur Camember" in the 1890s, "a caricature of the working class that was very informative about life in barracks at a time when military service was becoming widespread". At the time, the genre included hagiographic, parodic and anti-militarist albums.
At the same time, the enthusiast also cites Caran d'Ache's "Letter from Napoleon to Murat" (1898), "almost a cartoon": in 40 small wordless drawings, the famous artist retraces the perilous saga of a messenger charged with delivering the missive.
"BUCK DANNY" DIDN'T SHINE FOR ITS REALISM
Then, according to Arnauld Chéreil de la Rivière, the explosion of the military comics genre in Europe came after the Second World War with the spread of American comics. The Old Continent followed suit, first with "Les Aventures de Buck Danny", a Belgian series launched in 1947 in the weekly Spirou, recounting the adventures of a trio of American Air Force pilots.
Still ongoing, with 60 albums to date, this series, like the others started after the war, including "Tanguy et Laverdure" (two French Air Force pilots), is not particularly realistic: "With the number of planes he lost, Buck Danny would have been kicked out of the army a long time ago!
Arnauld Chéreil de la Rivière, who has a collection of 2,750 albums, a large third of which are of the military type, notes that "public expectations have changed: the big strings of Buck Danny or Tanguy et Laverdure just don't cut it any more". Contemporary military comics are therefore more diverse. The enlightened fan sees several categories:
"Many series continue to follow a traditional vein, praising traditional values such as courage and hardiness. Some are hagiographic and aimed at a teenage readership, like the recent album devoted to the General de Monsabert published by Triomphe. The same publisher also publishes comics recounting the lives of army units.
Some series, such as "Champ d'Honneur" (Delcourt), are devoted to more or less famous historic battles; others are very realistic, factual series, highlighting the reality of contemporary military engagements ("Médecins de guerre", for example, published by Dargaud). Others are content to set their plots in a "military" context, without making armies their main subject ("La Bataille" published by Dupuis, "Notre Mère, la Guerre" published by Futuropolis).
THE "GALONS DE LA BD", A PRIZE TO REWARD THIS GENRE
The Ministry of the Armed Forces has fully grasped the extent of this idyll between comics and the military, and in 2021 will be launching "Les Galons de la BDEach year, three books are awarded a grand prize, a history prize and a children's prize. The first two are awarded by a panel of professionals, and the third by pupils from 18 different classes.
Awarded to Stéphane Marchetti and Rafael Ortiz for "Sur le front de Corée" (published by Dupuis), the 2025 Grand Prize takes a step away from the army, by portraying the experience of journalist Henri de Turenne reporting on the conflict in the Far East (1950-1953).
The History prize went to Dominique Bertail, Jean-David Morvan and Madeleine Rigaud, authors of "Madeleine résistante tome 3 - Les nouilles à la tomate" (published by Dupuis), the third in a series about the French Resistance fighter Madeleine Riffaud, who died a centenarian in 2024.
The Youth Prize was awarded to Laurent Bidot, Arnaud Delalande and Agathe Hébras for "Le dernier témoin d'Oradour-sur-Glane" (Harper Collins), which tells the story of the third author's grandfather, Robert Hébras, one of the six survivors of the massacre perpetrated in this Limousin village by soldiers of the SS "Das Reich" division on 10 June 1944.
