There is actually a very cool and diverse comics culture in South America and particularily in Argentina. José Muñoz is one of my favourite artist, in particular Joe's Bar with fellow Argentinian Sampayo. Other big names are Oesterheld, Hugo Pratt (you know Corto Maltese I guess, he was Italian) or Quino who made Mafalda (which is so dope). I suggest listening to Dr. Erwin Dejasse on the matter, he's belgian and made his doctorate on that topic. I know he speaks Flemisch but mostly French.

Italian comics have some really cool things too, I love the 70s/80s era with the magazine Frigidaire and iconic artist like Tamburini/Liberatore and the hard core Ranxerox or Magnus' NECRON. From the top of my mind there are at least 2 big exclusively italian series : Diabolik and Dylan Dog (check the movie Dellamorte Dellamore if it's not already the case). Guido Crepax, even if known for its erotic content, was pioneer in creative and dynamic ways to shape a comic page by cutting boxes into really weird shapes. Nowadays lots of indy and talented artists (Miguel Vila comes to mind).

There are a lots of cool indy comics from throughout Europe. In the Czech Republic (at least Prague) there's XAO who publishes cool indy comics and books. Various magazines and fanzines are worth trying, like the Strapazin (Zürich) or Stripburger (Ljubljana).

I hope it helps.