I don't know about the US, but here in Canada we got the English translations through WH Smith (a British bookstore chain that had stores all over Canada)
In my highschool the library had the original French versions of Asterix, Tintin, and something called Les Schtroumpfs (this was before they were translated and had their TV series in the US)
I can add that i even have some of Uderzo's "Tanguy et Laverdure" comic books. Published in Swedish as the series Jaktfalkarna(The fighting falcons), 2nd edition switched to Jetpiloterna(the jet pilots). Apparently the series was even made into a TV series in the late 60s(which i have never seen at all).
Really starting to run out of the classical big Franco/Belgian comics names.
I know Leloup(Yoko Tsuno books) is still active, but of those i know he seems to be rather alone in that.
Just noted that just 12 of 62 books of Bluecoats have been translated to English. And i thought it was bad here where we have 24 of them. :-/
The creators, Cauvin/Lambil are still alive, but retired.