Popular comics in Europe, ca 1972-1982
Searched: lambiek.net, bdoubliees.com, a bunch of other BD sites; I've got some numbers on what I need, but I'd really like to hear about personal experience; I'm not very comfortable with building characters from statistics.
(When I say 'Europe' I'm most interested in urban France of the 70s and early 80s, but anything from continental (especially central) Europe would be useful information.)
If you were a teenager in the mid-seventies, went to University circa 1980, where would your primary exposure to comics have come from? I looked into the history of magazines such as Métal hurlant or Pilote, but their fluctuating circulation and frequency make their impact in these years difficult to gauge. Also, of these I get the impression that the former was targeted to young adults & adults whereas the latter was oriented towards a younger audience, but that doesn't tell me which generation(s) were actually reading them.
Finally, on the subject of comics journals, Wiki and other dedicated websites point out a decline in the medium during this period, so if the comics moved to newspapers or individual volumes ('trade hard/paperbacks' as it were), would that have affected their accessibility/pervasiveness in popular culture?
What I am trying to determine under all this is whether the popular comics could have gone under the radar of a 'serious', very bookish and absorbed student, and if not, which ones were absolutely impossible to miss?
Secondly, American comics: how available and popular were they, and - if the likes of Métal hurlant were indicative of what was hot, did this mean that American 'underground' comics were better liked than the DC/Marvel output? I'm absolutely in love with the whole alternative/student culture of the late 70s and early 80s, but if Superman or Spiderman were order of the day, I'll adapt.
Thank you!
(When I say 'Europe' I'm most interested in urban France of the 70s and early 80s, but anything from continental (especially central) Europe would be useful information.)
If you were a teenager in the mid-seventies, went to University circa 1980, where would your primary exposure to comics have come from? I looked into the history of magazines such as Métal hurlant or Pilote, but their fluctuating circulation and frequency make their impact in these years difficult to gauge. Also, of these I get the impression that the former was targeted to young adults & adults whereas the latter was oriented towards a younger audience, but that doesn't tell me which generation(s) were actually reading them.
Finally, on the subject of comics journals, Wiki and other dedicated websites point out a decline in the medium during this period, so if the comics moved to newspapers or individual volumes ('trade hard/paperbacks' as it were), would that have affected their accessibility/pervasiveness in popular culture?
What I am trying to determine under all this is whether the popular comics could have gone under the radar of a 'serious', very bookish and absorbed student, and if not, which ones were absolutely impossible to miss?
Secondly, American comics: how available and popular were they, and - if the likes of Métal hurlant were indicative of what was hot, did this mean that American 'underground' comics were better liked than the DC/Marvel output? I'm absolutely in love with the whole alternative/student culture of the late 70s and early 80s, but if Superman or Spiderman were order of the day, I'll adapt.
Thank you!