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Comic wars, French Comic Books

Started by RedRaven,

6 posts in this topic

Scrooge

Scrooge

Posted
Posted
Economist has a quick article on French comic books...

 

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8454193

 

Interesting read for sure but so much is left unsaid that it really misrepresents a lot of facts.

 

First, yes the Sarkozy satire book is a comic but the choice of doing the book as a comic really hides the fact that it is really as the cover states a BD-Enquete, i.e., a journalistic book which uncovers some of Sarkozy's actions via interviews and fact-finding journalistic work hence the rush to make the comic the # 4 best-seller.

 

Second, the sentence about the growth in production numbers to a high of 4,000 from a number of 400 just 15 years ago hides the fact that it represents a glut that will have to be purged sooner or later as neither bookstores can keep up with the weekly arrival of those glossy books. Imagine, that's about 80 hardcover collections (to make it an equivalent) coming in every week. Bookstores can't hold that much inventory and certainly can't promote efficiently that many books. Moreover, the onrush of new material is killing the sales of back albums which collectors inundated by so much new material can't keep up with new releases and certainly can't afford to pick up earlier albums in many series.

 

Anyway, I'm glad to see the Economist make a mention of the French market.

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