Each year, we talk to you about the BD Club, dear to our hearts! An experience based on the love of Comic Books (now called Graphic Novels) and on exchange and sharing. This is what the BD ADDA reading club offers, now returning for its ninth season!
Thanks to the growing number of members, the Club has managed to keep its prices stable despite inflation and the increase in shipping costs this year! The number of members is increasing year by year, and the Club is now present throughout the Bay Area: there’s probably a chapter near you!
But first, what is a graphic novel?
It’s a comic book, but let’s say more “written” than an Asterix or a Gaston Lagaffe. A graphic novel is not necessarily synonymous with fiction: it can be a chronicle, an autobiography, or a documentary.
It is commonly dated back to the late 1970s with the release in the United States of A Contract with God And Other Tenement Stories. Will Eisner, its author, is generally considered the father of the term “graphic novel.”
In France, the first successes of the genre include La balade de la mer salée by Hugo Pratt, or Voyage au bout de la nuit by Céline, illustrated by Tardi, published in 1988. In terms of format, it can generally be recognized by its smaller size compared to the Franco-Belgian comics we are used to in Europe. The graphic novel generally appeals to an audience that had not necessarily considered comic books as literature in their own right. Let’s say it’s a comic book by authors rather than for entertainment.
This category has seen a real explosion with Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi in the 2000s and more recently l’Arabe du Futur by Riad Sattouf. Now, more than 300 graphic novels are published annually in the French-speaking world.
The BD ADDA Club offers an annual selection that allows its members to receive 12 graphic novels in French each year and participate in three discussion meetings with other members. Since spring 2020, the meetings are held on Zoom, and in-person meetings sometimes take place depending on the groups.
Why be part of a graphic novel reading club?
- To share the costs of purchasing the books. The annual subscription is set at $90
- To benefit from the organization of the book rotation circuit with a previous subscriber and a following one
- To maintain a reading rhythm (you have a limited time to read, but it encourages you to do so)
- And to discover titles you might not know, then be able to discuss them during regular meetings if you wish.
Sign up here
This initiative is thanks to two Francophones from Silicon Valley, Anne Dumontier, a French teacher and writer, and Danièle Archambault, a Québécois author and comic book artist.
If you want to know more, the BD Club now has a website: feel free to check it out: website. Registrations are open until June 15, 2025. A great way to try another form of literature and meet new people!
Thank you, Anne & Danièle
