   franco-belgian comics (; ) are comics that are created for a belgian and french audience. these countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as bds, an abbreviation of bandes dessinÃ©es (literally drawn strips) in french and stripverhalen (literally strip stories) in dutch. flemish belgian comic books (originally written in dutch) are influenced by francophone comics, yet have a distinctly different style. in europe, the french language is spoken natively not only in france but also by about 40% of the population of belgium and about 20% of the population of switzerland. the shared language creates an artistic and commercial market where national identity is often blurred. flemish publications are often translated to french and brought on the french-language market. despite the shared language, flemish comic books are not common in the netherlands (with some exceptions). among the most popular franco-belgian comics that have achieved international fame are the adventures of tintin, asterix, lucky luke and the smurfs. ==vocabulary== the phrase bandes dessinÃ©es 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 neuviÃ¨me 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 magazine from 1964 to 1967. relative to the respective size of their countries, the innumerable authors in the region publish huge numbers of comics. 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 dessinÃ©es, as this term does not itself imply something frivolous or humorous. ==history== during the 19th century there were many artists in europe drawing cartoons, o
Belgian_comics Belgian_literature French_comics French_literature