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| Monday, 6 December 2004 |
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French Humanoids land in the United States The signing of an agreement between Humanoides Associes, the French comic book publisher, and American giant DC Comics, home to Batman, Superman and other superheroes, marks the beginning of unprecedented economic and cultural co-operation between the two nations. Fabrice Giger, the young director of comic book publisher Humanoides
Associes, is poised to introduce a new form of cultural partnership to the
United States. In January 2004, he signed a special distribution agreement
with DC Comics for his company's comic books to be included in the
American publisher's catalogue. Since July 2004, this unprecedented comic
book industry agreement has enabled European comic books, mainly
French-language albums, to be published in the USA and enjoy the same
distribution and promotional resources as the American majors, says
Humanoids Associes. Humanos was founded in 1974 by a group of avant-garde French authors including Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Moebius and Philippe Druillet. Their aim was to steer the French-language comic book of the 1970s to adulthood. The company alternated between critical and editorial success and hard times and even verged on bankruptcy on several occasions in the 1980s. Fabrice Giger took over in 1988 and got the publisher back on its feet complete with its avant-garde roots. The agreement signed with DC Comics in January 2004 was a long time brewing. It was back in 1997 when Fabric Giger first realised that the United States was, "The natural market for Humanos. At that time, Universal was working on a film adaptation of 'The Meta-Barons', the comic book series by Alejandro Jodorowski and Juan Gimenez. The project fell through, but the business possibilities were clear. It gave me the idea to introduce French comic books to the States, which other French publishers had already attempted without great success since they didn't have a sufficient grasp of the American market." "We started modestly, sounding out the American market by exhibiting our publications in translation at the San Diego Comic-Con Festival," says Fabrice Giger. "This attracted artistic interest and got our name out there. We then launched our American label, Humanoids, with the upshot that we sold 8,000 copies of our 'Nikopol Trilogy' by Enki Bilal outside of the classic comic book distribution channels. At $40 per book, that was a miracle! As we started to work with American authors, DC Comics approached us in early 2003, interested in the fact that we sold our comic books in real bookshops." It didn't take long before the two publishers were looking at teaming up, "But it wasn't quite as easy as all that. We didn't share the same perception of the type of partnership we wanted to build," explains Fabrice Giger who had to fight to hang onto the subsidiary rights to the comic books published under the agreement. In early 2004, the two publishing companies founded a joint label and created a new comic book format containing some 120 to 180 pages, the equivalent of two or three classic French books. As Giger puts it, "It's the first framework agreement of its kind in any sector. It's the first time that a European cultural product has had such access to the American market!" And Fabrice Giger is delighted. "The first titles were released in July. We launched a few pacesetters like 'Miss' and 'The Nikopol Trilogy', which incidentally were both nominated graphic novel of the year by 'Publishers Weekly'. In May, we released our first joint Euro-American publication, 'I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun' by Fabien Nury and John Cassaday, already a hit with 25,000 copies sold." The partnership is slated to eventually run to as many as sixty releases per year, while "leaving the authors total creative freedom and ensuring that DC Comics, a member of the Time-Warner group, takes all the editorial risks and handles all promotional and marketing activities." The agreement gives French titles an incredibly high profile, especially with Hollywood decision-makers, a vital factor for Fabrice Giger who sees the comic book as inextricably linked with the multimedia industry. "If it doesn't work, we'll know that the American public will never accept the comic book as we see it. But at least we'd have done our best!" concludes Fabrice Giger. Bruno Gimmig Websites: www.humano.com www.humanoids-publishing.com www.dccomics.com Actualite En France |
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