That's one yes, albeit for a younger crowd, like Tintin, Spirou, Lucky Luke... but then you also have Blueberry, Valerian & Raveline (where Star Wars got all its ideas), Blake and Mortimer, and tons more in that style. And on top of that you have the more auteur oriented output like from Moebius (The Incal, Edena, ...), Bourgeon (The Passengers of the Wind, ...), Schuiten (Cities of the Fantastic) etc... Another you might know is the books that led to the Snowpiercer movie, and Blacksad which is hetting a game somewhere this year.
It's pretty big especially in Belgium and France, but they don't seem to capture a global audience that often, compared to US comics / graphic novels and manga.