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In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business (nytimes.com)
It's a big year for comic book anniversaries. Batman's 80th is this year, and Asterix is turning 60. But at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in France, which finished on Sunday, there was a sense that the form's best days may be yet to come -- in the French-speaking world, at least. From a report: "It's a kind of golden age," said Jean-Luc Fromental, a comic book author who also runs a graphic-novel imprint for the publisher Denoel. "There has never been so much talent. There have never been so many interesting books published."
There are now more comic books published annually in France and Belgium than ever before, according to the festival's artistic director, Stephane Beaujean. "The market has risen from 700 books per year in the 1990s to 5,000 this year," he said in an interview. "I don't know any cultural industry which has had that kind of increase." Research by the market research company GfK, released to coincide with the festival, showed that turnover in the comic book industry in those two countries alone reached 510 million euros, or around $580 million, in 2018.
The bumper year in France and Belgium contrasts with a mixed situation worldwide. Comichron, a website that reports on comic book sales in the United States, where the market is worth around $1 billion, says that sales there are declining. But in terms of respect and recognition, comics are on the way up.
There are now more comic books published annually in France and Belgium than ever before, according to the festival's artistic director, Stephane Beaujean. "The market has risen from 700 books per year in the 1990s to 5,000 this year," he said in an interview. "I don't know any cultural industry which has had that kind of increase." Research by the market research company GfK, released to coincide with the festival, showed that turnover in the comic book industry in those two countries alone reached 510 million euros, or around $580 million, in 2018.
The bumper year in France and Belgium contrasts with a mixed situation worldwide. Comichron, a website that reports on comic book sales in the United States, where the market is worth around $1 billion, says that sales there are declining. But in terms of respect and recognition, comics are on the way up.
The reason most of the Franco-Belgian comics never succeeded in the US, is that Americans interpret the art style as childish.
So the exceptions are the comics that actually are for children (the Smurfs!) and to some degree the realistically drawn stuff a la Moebius.
If "Percevan" for instance was drawn as an American superhero comic, I'm sure it would have been very popular. But for American comics readers it's jarring.
There are/were a few US comics artists who wrote for adults in a "childish" style, but then it was played as somewhat deliberately grotesque, and funny for that reason too. I'm thinking of Sergio Aragones and the others who wrote for MAD. But they were also very popular in Europe and had close contact with the Franco-Belgians (Aragones even appears as a villainous CIA agent in a "Natascha" story!)
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