Bandes dessinées (singular bande dessinée; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (BD franco-belge), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition in comics, separate from that of English-language comics. Belgium is a mostly bilingual country, and comics originally in Dutch (stripverhalen, literally "strip stories", or simply "strips") are culturally a part of the world of bandes dessinées; these are translated to French and concurrently sold to the French-reading audience and vice versa.

Among the most popular bandes dessinées are The Adventures of Tintin (by Hergé), Gaston Lagaffe (Franquin), Asterix (Goscinny & Uderzo), Lucky Luke (Morris & Goscinny), The Smurfs (Peyo) and Spike and Suzy (Willy Vandersteen). Some highly-regarded realistically drawn and plotted bandes dessinées include Blueberry (Charlier & Giraud, aka "Moebius"), Thorgal (van Hamme & Rosiński), XIII (van Hamme & Vance), and the creations of Hermann.