Bandes Dessinees (BDs) is the French term for comics and is mainly used for those comics produced in
France,
Belgium and the rest of Europe. BDs are typically published in hardback books and cover a much wider variety of subjects than are generally available in comics in the US/UK.
A typical French bookstore will have a large section devoted to BD.
The main BD strips that have crossed over successfully to the UK and US have been the humorous
Asterix and
TinTin although a larger number have been translated.
These include albums by
Enki Bilal,
Philippe Druillet,
Moebius AKA
Jean Giraud,
Tardi,
Milo Manara,
Joost Swarte and
Hugo Pratt.
The number translated is a very small percentage of those published however.
Famous BDs (in France) that have not been translated (as far as I know) include
Gaston Lagaffe by
Franquin,
Spirou and
Blake et Mortimer.
There is an annual festival for
bandes dessinees in
Angoulême in the south west of France each year which typically attracts hundreds of thousands of people.