European comics are comics produced in Europe. The comic album is a very common printed medium. The typical album is printed in large format, generally with high quality paper and colouring, commonly 24x32 cm (9.4x12.6 in), has around 48–60 pages, but examples with more than 100 pages are common. While sometimes referred to as graphic novels, this term is rarely used in Europe, and is not always applicable as albums often consist of separate short stories, placing them somewhere halfway between a comic book and a graphic novel. The European comic genres vary from the humorous adventure vein, such as The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix, to more adult subjects like Tex Willer, Diabolik, and Thorgal. History The roots of European on-paper comics date back to 18th century caricatures (mocking others styles or behaviors) and illustrated picture books such as Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz. The early 19th century Swiss artist Rodolphe Töpffer is regarded by many as the "father of the modern comic" and his publication Histoire de M. Vieux Bois is sometimes called the first "comic book". Franco-Belgian comics, Spanish comics, and Italian comics are historically amongst the dominant scenes of European comics. Earlier, paintings, depicting stories in subsequent frames, using descriptive text resembling bubbles-text, were used in murals, one such example written in Greek, dating to the 2nd century, found in Capitolias, today in Jordan. Festivals A number of festivals celebrating comic art are held around Europe. These include: Amadora BD, Portugal Angoulême International Comics Festival, France Fumetto International Comics Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland Helsinki Comics Festival, Finland International Comics Festival "Salon stripa", Serbia International Festival of Comics and Games, Poland The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Kendal, United Kingdom Lille Comics Festival, France Lucca Comics & Games, Italy Heroes Comic Con, Spain Salón Internacional del Comic, Spain See also Franco-Belgian comics British comics Czech comics Dutch Comics German comics Hungarian comics Italian comics Polish comics Portuguese comics Serbian comics Spanish comics References External links The European Comics Collection Introductory Exhibit, Michigan State University Libraries The Comic Art Collection Home Page, Michigan State University Libraries European Comics and Graphic Novels in English www.europeancomics.net Translated European Comics ratings www.European-comics.com European culture