Franco-Belgian comics

Bandes dessinées (sg. bande dessinée, abbr. BDs; lit. 'drawn strips'), also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (BD franco-belge), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition in comics, separate from that of English-language comics. Belgium is a mostly bilingual country, and comics originally in Dutch (stripverhalen, lit. 'strip stories', or simply "strips") are culturally a part of the world of bandes dessinées, even if the translation from French to Dutch far outweighs the other direction.

Among the most popular bandes dessinées are The Adventures of Tintin (by Hergé), Spirou and Fantasio (Franquin et al.), Gaston (Franquin), Asterix (Goscinny & Uderzo), Lucky Luke (Morris & Goscinny), The Smurfs (Peyo) and Spike and Suzy (Willy Vandersteen). Some highly regarded realistically drawn and plotted bandes dessinées include Blueberry (Charlier & Giraud, a.k.a. "Mœbius"), Thorgal (Van Hamme & Rosiński), XIII (Van Hamme & Vance), and the creations of Hermann Huppen.