Edgar P Jacobs.

When I was younger, I tried tipp-exing the french out of 'QRN sur Bretzleburg' -- which, incidentally, is AWESOME -- and then doing the English over the top in joined up handwriting.

Didn't really work.

FYI:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/97/Spirou18QRN.jpg/426px-Spirou18QRN.jpg

Idées noirs is some dark and funny shit, and Franquin's more family-oriented comics are great too, obviously. It's kinda sad if someone of his stature really hasn't been translated to English.

According to this useful and entertaining thread on the Comics Journal Message Board

http://www.tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?t=5008&start=0

Franquin translations are available from an Indian publisher! Here's the link:

http://www.eurobooksindia.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=140&cat=Spirou+-+Series

This looks good:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~z14/euro-comics/index.html

I = nerd. I've ordered all the Spirou editions from Eurobooks. Only thirty quid. Apparently the translations are quite poor (surprise!) but hey, it's cheap.

why are there only 5 clifton translations?? i like 7 days to die best, big favourite when i was a kid

If you happen to be in Paris and are interested in foreign language versions of hell, just about any of Herge's or Moebius' contemporaries you could think of, I recommend this fantastic shop in the beautiful Passage Jouffroy, just a little north east of Opera on Blvd Haussmann.

Well worth a browse even if you are an English speaker, although the measure of heartache endured by the lack of English material will possibly be high.

http://i59.tinypic.com/167tbtf.jpg