There are three great comics traditions in the world - US, Japan, France(/Belgium). But for some reason, French comics (septieme arte) seem to have absolutely no traction, even on a nerd-board like this one. Asterix and Tintin were huge in their heyday, but the cinematic versions were either okay (Asterix) or bizarre (Tintin). I've read both at least five times, and they never get old.
I've read a literal ton of French comics, and I really loved some of them. But I would struggle to give a recommendation, because they tend to be smaller runs without any particular hype behind them.
On the other hand: the art in French stuff is often magnificent. A friend of mine writes 'Pico Bogue', which sells in the 100K - 1M range, and he's a bonafide artist, capable of recreating the likes of Velazquez (as a copyist -- meaning he has talent, but not necessarily genius). Pico Bogue itself (created by his mom, in order to stop him from just being a useless faggot) has artwork of amazing insouciance. The artwork puts Calvin and Hobbes to shame. (Just the artwork)
French comics are a bit like British TV shows. The Avengers (UK), for instance, is wonderful, and if you get into it, you really get into it. But you're not really going to sell John Steed dolls.
Anyway, I'm just wondering why a collection of nerds on the internet haven't tapped into this tradition.
French fluency is at a low point among Americans. I don't know if I would call it a nadir, since it's possible Americans will never have enough good reasons to learn it. At points in the past, you'd almost be illiterate if you couldn't read it. But the language's common utility has gone down.
Part of the reasoning for that was the Government mandating English as the official language in some of the most heavy areas, meaning most public facilities didn't need a French speaker on hand so learn English or get fucked.
That's one of the major reasons why Cajun French is basically a novelty instead of a real language anymore. Suddenly you had to know English by law, while French required time/effort most families didn't have to teach.
If you want a real novelty, try Texas German! It's like they're speaking German with absolutely no effort on the accent. The same thing happened with certain pockets of Canadian French, like in Nova Scotia or Sudbury. They know all of the words/grammar, but the pronunciation is 100% English. It's... odd.
'Allo 'Allo