Francois Boucq

I was about 16 when I discovered Boucq's Pioneers of the Human Experience (or Les Pionniers De L'Adventure Humaine) on the Graphic Novel rack at Barnes and Noble's. At the time you didn't see many European imports, particularly one so bizarre. Though I was a fan of Moebius and there were some similarities in style,  I found the book both really compelling and really off-putting, and though I couldn't help revisiting the book every time I went to the store, I never bought it. The images in that book have continued to stick with me all these years, and I very much regretted not picking it up at the time. Unfortunately I couldn't remember the name of the book or its author, and was unable to track it down until now.

By accident I came across the familiar cover on Amazon, the original English language translation from Catalan, and my wife got it for me as an early birthday present.

It was every bit as amazing as I remember.

I realize a few of these images are a little grotesque, and aren't for everybody.  The definition of grotesque I like the best is:

Fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms, as decorative work combining incongruous human and animal elements .
So for people who aren't into this sort of thing, try to see it in this light, as whimsy, as beautiful in its own way.

Here are a few pages from the book:

And from some other books by Boucq done around the same time (I think most of these are from The Magician's Wife):

And black and white image from his collaboration with western, Bouncer, a collaboration with the famous surrealist film maker Alexandro Jodorowsky:

You can also check out his Wikipedia entry, here, and his Lambiek entry, here.