WOW JUST WOW
Guess what, a game company is a good place to get some comic recommendations.

I let it be known that I was going to look for a comic shop tomorrow and that I was interested in picking up some "classic" French/Belgian SF lists. Next thing I know, word has spread like wildfire throughout the company and I get about a dozen title recommendations thrown my way.

European nerds
Recommendations copy-pasted as follows:Recommendations Part OneL’incal (Jodorowsky and Moebius)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Incalhttp://www.premonition.fr/premod.php3?actuid=211041&ta=9That’s a huge classic. I’d recommend the original series first. They did several pre- or sequels, not all of them are good. Moebius might be credited as jean Giraud.
Universal war one (Denis Bajram)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_War_Onehttp://www.bajram.com/uw1/uw1_default/frame_default.htmLa Quête de l’oiseau du temps (Le Tendre and Loisel)
(That’s fantasy, not SF)
http://bd-livres.psychovision.net/bds/quete-de-l-oiseau-du-temps-141.phphttp://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Qu%C3%AAte_de_l%27oiseau_du_tempsZero absolu (Marazano and Bec)
http://www.soleilprod.com/series.php?sId=346http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%A9ro_absolu_%28bande_dessin%C3%A9e%29You can check out anything by Enki Bilal. He’s a very good artist and a nice writer. I’d recommend “la trilogie Nikopol” :
_La Foire aux immortels
_La Femme piège
_Froid équateur
Caution : this guy’s writing is… strange. It’s “very artistic”

I’d say people either love it or hate it. But that trilogy is quite nice, it’s a classic. And his style is very personal, that’s nice.
La Caste des méta barons (Jodorowsky and Gimenez)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Caste_des_M%C3%A9ta-Baronshttp://www.sden.org/jdr/metabaron/It’s sometimes criticized, because it’s got a huge scale, so it gets… a bit cheesy. Space-opera style. Ah well, I like it quite much, especially the beginning.
Les mondes d'Aldébaran (Léo) (Brasilian author, not French, but it’s nice)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mondes_d%27Ald%C3%A9baranhttp://www.mondes-aldebaran.com/Le cycle de cyann (Lacroix and Bourgeon)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_de_Cyannhttp://www.bdselection.com/php/avis_album_bd-11_Le_Cycle_de_Cyann.html Blake et mortimer (Edgar P . Jaccobs and Jean Van Hamme)
That’s a Belgian classic. It’s old-fashioned thrillers and SF (quite old-fashioned :p ).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_and_Mortimer Blacksad (Canales and Guarnido) is a quite good thriller. But the author is not French.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacksad Code McCallum and Travis
It’s kind of B-movie comics. B-comics. But it’s quite pleasant (they’re both in the same universe).
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Mc_CallumSoda (Tome and Gazzotti/Warnant)
Same as above.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SODA_%28bande_dessin%C3%A9e%29 Le Vagabond des limbes (Godard and Ribera)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Vagabond_des_LimbesI almost forgot that one. It’s an old classic. I like it very much. It’s a huge space opera (still running), strange and decadent. Very decadent.
Recommendations Part Two.
1. « De cape et de crocs », excellent French comic about 2 swashbucklers in a Cyrano de Bergerac style in 8 volumes so far
2. “Blacksad”, a detective story pretty brilliant, very dark, in 3 volumes so far
3. Loisel, you can basically buy anything from this guy he is a genious (I recommend his version of “Peter Pan”)
4. Jodorowski, another great comic writer I would recommend “Lincal” or “La Caste des Metabarons”
5. “Xoco”, in 3 volumes, an occult story taking place in Chicago with a nice Chtulhu atmosphere by Ledroit
6. And of course anything you want from Moebius
Out of the French guys, I would strongly recommend some Italian comics, especially Hugo Pratt (His corto maltese or his cycles on the American foundation like Jesuit Joe)