Production surges for French language comic books
More than four thousand new comic book titles were released in the European Francophone market in 2012, the 17th consecutive year of growth.
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The French association of comic strip critics and journalists, ACBD, says the latest figures show more comics were produced in the Francophone market than in the United States.
More than 2,000 comic titles from Belgium, France and Switzerland were translated, mostly in Asia.
Didier Pasamonik, the editor in chief of the comics news website Actua BD, told RFI the production of comics in 2012 was not only remarkable in terms of its quantity, but also its quality.
“It’s a sign of [a] good answer to the market because each book is targeted to a special audience. You have [comics for] girls, for people who like very artistic books, all kinds of comics exist on the market. That’s why, year after year, the production is in augmentation,” he says.
“At the comics convention in San Diego, there is [sic] more and more French books in competition, and translations of French comics are more and more important in the world, and with big success,” he adds.
New and classic titles, such as Tintin and The Smurfs, continue to be translated into more than 10 languages.
ACBD says 326 publishers released comic books in 2012.
But the market is dominated by four major publishers that published almost half the titles on sale.
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