The Masters of the Barley

The Masters of the Barley is a series of comics created by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by Francis Vallès. This series tells the adventures of Steenfort family over several generations, creating a brewery craft in the Belgian Brabant half the XIX th century to the creation of a multinational beer with headquarters in the United States the dawn of the year 2000. It blends precise documentation on the tradition of brewing craft a historico-economic background back, which transcribes well the evolution of the western world for a century through the example breweries, and all kinds of purely fictional adventures that happen to different characters. 

Each volume follows a particular family members at a key moment in his life and the history of Steenfort breweries. Generally, it takes 25 years between episodes, which does not prevent some characters to appear in several volumes a row.
The latest volume, The Steenfort , is a collection of short stories that shed light on different events occurring between each other tomes.

Rani

Rani is a serial comic, written by Alcante from an original screenplay by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by Francis Vallès. 

The story begins in the year 1743. The young Jolanne Valcourt is the daughter born out of wedlock old Marquis Charles de Valcourt, who nevertheless recognized. Philippe Valcourt half brother Jolanne, murders his father and then robs her half-sister by making her take responsibility for another crime he himself committed. Escaped, joined a band of robbers and arrested again, Jolanne manages to escape execution by hiding under the identity of another prisoner. She was deported to the French Indies , where many adventures await. As the war between European powers resonates to India, Valcourt of the marquis died, leaving the future of the family at the hand of his son Philip, notorious libertine. His only glimmer of hope lay in Jolanne, natural girl he recognized and erected with the nuns in the vain hope of tempering a strong character. Philippe does not intend to let this bastard relative to the nose in its affairs.