188 EUROPEAN COMICS
protests were raised against this medium. Consequently, some governments began to
regulate comics: for example, in France the law of July the 16 1949, and in Great Britain,
Th e Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act in 1955. In other coun-
tries, such as Italy and West Germany, authors and publishers started self-censoring to
prevent governmental involvement. Th ough these regulations constricted (sometimes
severely, as in France) authors and publishers, they could not really hinder the spec-
tacular development of comics in Europe. At that time children could not yet choose
between an enormous variety of entertainments and were still eager to wait every week
for the next installment of their favorite comics magazine. Up until the 1960s, clearly
most European comics were destined for a juvenile public, but some series, such as
Tintin or Astérix, off ered several layers, which made them interesting both to children
and adults. Moreover, as the kids grew up, they wanted more material adapted to their
age and taste, and so from the 1960s on European comics once more became interested
in the older segments of the market. At fi rst a lot of these adult comics would feature
elements that were “forbidden” in children’s comics, such as explicit violence and sex. In
Italy, Diabolik (by the Giussani sisters, 1962) was published in an unusual pocket-sized
format, and in contrast to the children’s comics the protagonist was a “bad guy.” Guido
Buzzelli’s fantastic La rivolta dei racchi (1967) with its sarcastic metaphor about class
struggle typifi ed also a heightened political awareness. Th e days of the one-dimensional
classical hero seemed over: the new protagonists (Blueberry, Corto Maltese) looked and
acted quite diff erently. New gag comics no longer featured central characters that kept
reappearing, but ordinary people (e.g., Reiser, Bretécher). Also, the feminist movement
had repercussions in the comics: from the 1960s on, more and more young attractive
women became protagonists (Barbarella, Modesty Blaise, Tiff any Jones, Va l e n t i n a). As
in the United States, underground magazines started in various European countries
off ering an alternative to mainstream comics (for example, Britain’s “comic comics” line,
the Dutch Tante Leny Presenteert), but they were mostly short-lived. More infl uential
were such new magazines for teens and adults as Linus in Italy; the re-vamped Pilote,
Charlie Mensuel, L’Écho des Savanes, Métal Hurlant, Fluide Glacial, and (A SUIVRE) in
France; Frigidaire in Italy; 2000 AD in Britain; El Vibora in Spain; De Vrije Balloen in
the Netherlands; and Relax in Poland.
As the 20th century continued, more and more titles were published, and the market
expanded on a quantitative and qualitative scale. Th anks to comics with more artistic
ambitions, the perception of comics in society was changing as well, with new trends
continuing from the 1960s on: associations of comics specialists and fans (Club des bandes
dessinées, Het Stripschap), festivals (Lucca in Italy, Angoulême in France), fanzines about
comics (Stripschrift, Linus, Phénix), academic studies by scholars (a.o. Fresnault-Deruelle,
Barbieri, Groensteen, Morgan, Barker) and academic journals (Deutsche Comicforschung,
European Comic Art, SIGNs, Studies in Comics), specialized training schools (Saint-Luc in
Brussels, 1968, Scuola del fumetto in Milan, 1979, École européenne supérieure de l’image
in Angoulême, 1995), and specialized comics shops (Lambiek in Amsterdam, 1968,
Forbidden Planet in London, 1978). Th ese trends continued to evolve in the following
