European Graphic Novels+

So far I've been quite impressed from what I've read . Altho Franka is officially a PI (private investigator), she also reminds me a lot of an adventurous super-spy... very resourceful, dangerous, and strong-willed. She's also super-attractive, and Kuipers' LC (ligne claire) is some of the best I've ever seen. The pages and panel-flow are just wonderful to observe, and the stories, quite entertaining.

Note: I've mainly read the late 80's stuff and on. It seems like the 70's-era books weren't drawn as appealingly, FWIW.

Franka is a popular Dutch comic book series drawn and written since the mid-1970s by the graphic artist Henk Kuijpers. The principal character is a strong female sleuth who solves mysteries in exotic locales. The cases she solves often take place in the worlds of art, antiquities, fashion and film, and also often feature exotic locales full of smugglers, pirates and other shady businessmen.

Dominant women are a recurring theme of the series, similar to BD series such as Yoko Tsuno. A single woman for a long time, Franka acquired a male partner and love interest in the later volumes, the reformed art thief Rix. More often than not she is also accompanied by her dog Bars. --WP

The series has been translated into a variety of languages, including Danish, German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Galician, Catalan and Chinese. As far as I can tell it's never officially been translated to English, but perhaps there are some 'scanlations' out there..

A vastly more extensive writeup of Kuijpers and Franka can be found here:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kuijpers_h.htm

EDIT: While searching around for scanlations, I did find a little English-translated sequence. below: