I recently read about the publisher Cinebook, which publishes English translations of "Franco-Belgian" comics. Given how many volumes it seems to have already published I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before; perhaps others here have. Many of the series on its list are well-known comics in Europe. I'm still promising myself that I'll learn French someday and read the French language comics I'm interested in in the original but I figure others here might not share that quirk.
Some of the series might be familiar as they've had volumes translated into English before. Here are some notes. My comments are mostly based on previous translations (I don't know if the two Yakari volumes I've read were Cinebook's or not). More information on Blake & Mortimer and Valerian can be found at Cool French Comics.
Blake & Mortimer
This is an SF series drawn in a Tintinish style. Mortimer is a British scientist, Blake his military friend. The creator of the series was Edgar P. Jacobs, who was one of Hergé's collaborators. The last Jacobs story was completed by another of Hergé's collaborators, Bob de Moor. The series is now being continued by others, apparently in Jacobs's style. I've read two of Jacobs's volumes. (The one I liked more, The Time Trap, hasn't been done by Cinebook yet). Their storytelling is Tintinish, and they're attractively drawn. On the other hand, Jacobs's characters aren't memorable the way Hergé's are, and he doesn't make the same use of humour.
The Bluecoats
I've not read any of this series. It's set during the American Civil War.
Lucky Luke
This is a comedic series set in the Old West, drawn in a similar style to Asterix. Some of the volumes were written by René Goscinny, the original writer of Asterix. I think this series is popular in France. I read translations of one or two volumes as a kid in the 70s. I don't really remember the stories or gags; the back covers showed Luke outdrawing his shadow.
Iznogoud
This is a comedic series set in the medieval Islamic world, co-created René Goscinny. The title character is a grand vizier who plots to replace the caliph. I saw translations of a couple of volumes c.1980, but I haven't read one. (I read a story of a couple of pages in one of the volumes that was just a runaround and put me off being interested, but it may have been atypical.)
Valerian
This is an SF series. The two volumes I've read were imaginative, with elements of humour and mild adult content. Valerian is fallible but likeable. He works with a capable woman, Laureline, who is also his girlfriend.
Spirou & Fantasio
This is the anchor feature of the long-running children's comic Spirou, which started in the late 30s. Different creators have worked on the feature over the years. Wikipedia tells me the three volumes Cinebook has so far translated date from the 1980s. Its page on the feature is here.
XIII
This is an adventure series about an amnesiac who is hunted by mysterious parties for reasons connected with his previous life. Wikipedia's page on the series says it started in 1984 and was inspired by Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity. The latter shows; it starts very similarly to the 1988 TV adaptation of Ludlum's novel, anyway. (I've neither read the novel nor seen one of the recent movies.) Wikipedia's page lists three attempts to get the series into English previously, one or more of which some reading this may have encountered. (I've read the first two volumes.) Cinebook's series has gotten much further than the others.
Yakari
This is a series about a young plains Indian. I think the two volumes I read were well-drawn, but it's a children's series.
Replies
Augie De Blieck, Jr. has often talked about these comics in his Pipeline column at Comic Book Resources. In fact in this recent column he specifically talked about learning French so he could read more of them, since their availability in translation has always been spotty.
I've read a few of the XIII books now, and I think they are pretty good. When I first read an issue (when Alias was first reproducing them) I didn't know how old the original series was, but it just felt like a product of the 80s when I was reading it. I do recommend it though.
Some may not have clicked through, so I should note that Cinebook has many more titles. The titles I singled out were mostly ones I happen to have run into, and two others (The Bluecoats and Spirou & Fantasio) that seemed particularly worth mentioning.
One wouldn't guess it from Cinebook's thumbnail, but Yoko Tsuno is another SF adventure series, with a female protagonist. I don't know much more than that about it.
I read a few volumes of Lucky Luke back in dinosaur times. I seem to recall them being fairly amsuing.