Knights of the Zodiac manga were all over the place both in France and Brazil when I was younger, along with Dragonball Z stuff. Those were probably the most popular, but I'm sure other obscure stuff were also around. Especially in France the whole "comics" thing was always taken slightly more seriously than in say, USA, a lot more similar to Japan. The graphic novel was always a much more respected medium in the artistic sense, not perceived as only for children.