Following pacts with DC Comics and, most recently, Devil’s Due, Les Humanoïdes Associés, the powerhouse French comics publishers, is back in the United States, this time giving it a go on their own. According to their editor’s blog:
Beginning in March 2010, Humanoids Inc. will formally reestablish itself as a US Comic Book Publisher. Humanoids Inc. will be overseen by Publisher Fabrice Giger, Director Alex Donoghue, Editor In Chief Bob Silva, and Senior Art Director Jerry Frissen. The first batch of Humanoids published comic books and graphic novels will debut in June 2010.
Humanoids has been in existence for 35 years in Europe. Throughout this period, the company has consistently published comic books and graphic novels of the highest quality worldwide. The catalog currently comprises more than 500 titles and is being enriched by a doznes of new titles each year. One of the unique attributes of this catalog is its diversity. Virtually all genres are represented from science fiction to thrillers to comedy to mangas. Quite uniquely in the comic book industry, Humanoids consistently works with top talent from both sides of the Atlantic: regular contributors have been and continue to be some of today’s most prestigious authors both in America (ie. Ladronn, John Cassaday, Terry Dodson, Butch Guice) and in Europe (ie. Alejandro Jodorowsky, Moebius, Manara).
The June Previews catalog lists Bouncer, Unfabulous Five, Whispers in the walls and the final volume of Metabarons as heir first releases.
The earlier DC/Humanoids collaboration was one of DC’s earliest attempts to boost their output for the bookstore market but it didn’t find much sales success — although the books themselves were generally top-notch French action comics, including the acclaimed work of avant garde filmmaker/writer Alejandro Jorodowsky, Mila Manara Enki Bilal and more. The Devils Due deal saw collections of work by American creators — including John Cassaday’s I am Legion — published, but it quickly languished in light of Devils Due’s cash flow problems.
There was also the Lucha Libre comic that Image published.
For those keeping track, their new EAN prefix is 978-1-59465.
Three titles in Books In Print:
Metabarons #1
Metabarons #4
I Am Legion
BIP does not list a trade distributor.
Although Heavy Metal is well known in the U.S., the Hurlant style of comics has not been very successful here. Of course, the same was once said of manga. With the recent influx of French classics, I expect this segment will become common-place in five-ten years.
I really hope they republish those Chaland volumes
Worrying about translation problems or art/dialog censorship has always kept me from buying these European reprints. I recently read one of the Soleil reprints and loved it, but I have no way of knowing if anything was altered. That still bothers me.
In America, comics are still for kids or adults who are as mature as kids, and I don’t see that changing significantly in the future.
Good luck to Humanoids on this new venture.
“I recently read one of the Soleil reprints and loved it, but I have no way of knowing if anything was altered.”
There’s one crucial thing that is always altered in America: SIZE.
http://comicscomicsmag.com/2010/03/random-riff-round-up.html
It’s a crime. It’s a crime that First Second Books reformats European sized albums like Christophe Blain’s Gus into those atrocious looking manga-sized trade paperbacks. At least NBM’s scaled-down versions of Sfar and Trondheim books are readable. If Paul Pope’s THB collection from First Second is that same manga size it’s going to have to come with a magnifying glass. I heard they are doing an oversize black-and-white collection of that (in addition to the manga-sized color edition) so I guess I shouldn’t complain. Still, it’s a real crime what they did to Blain’s Gus. And to Gipi’s Garage Band and all the other translations that I’m forgetting. A crime, I say.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25371
But the worst thing about a book that I still enjoyed despite spending all these hundreds of words railing against it: The size. There has been no bigger travesty committed in American comics in the last decade than DC publishing Francois Schuiten’s gloriously detailed highly-rendered architectural drawings in a shrunken standard America-sized comic book. There ought to be an Act of Congress to prohibit such things from happening. (Pelosi’s a supporter of the arts, right? What’s she doing next weekend?) “Ythaq” has a similar problem, though perhaps not as pronounced. “Ythaq” has a lot going on with every single page. It’s four tiers of panels, all of them with plenty of background detail, and lots of word balloons and caption boxes floating around. Reading “Ythaq” is an exercise for the eyes, where “exercise” is the polite term for “strain.” If Cinebook can produce these styles of books in an oversized and easy-to-read format, I don’t see why the mighty Marvel Comics can’t. If they can’t, they should hire someone to figure it out for them, or farm them out to someone who can. Compare the reading experience of this to something like “Largo Winch” and you can feel the difference. Not just see it, but feel it.
Perhaps I’m asking for too much. Perhaps I should just be happy that anyone is translating these books and reprinting them here in any format short a tankoubon. But why settle for that? Why not demand more? The notion that an oversized book is dead on arrival is a funny argument to make in a world where Omnibuses were flying off the shelves at Amazon a couples weeks back, where “Absolute” volumes are revered items, and even Image is producing oversized pamphlets, such as “Vikings” and “King City.” Did you see the beautiful new “Titan Edition” of “I Kill Giants?” It’s gloriously large for a style that would likely work just as well at digest size.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/steveduin/2008/08/chris_blain.html
My two regrets regarding Gus & His Gang are that First Second is (a) only releasing the book in trade paperback, and (b) releasing it in the company’s standard 6 x 8.5-inch format that — in the case of Blain’s work, at least — is hard on my aging eyes.
When it comes to this guy’s art and storytelling, I prefer the Little Nemo/Sunday Press Books format.
http://oakhaus.blogspot.com/2009/11/woman-i-love-is-assassin.html
Artist Christophe Blain proves adept at handling both funny animal cartooning and evocative medieval fantasy ‘scapes: his swashbuckling action scenes are particularly engaging, while the story’s thrillingly rendered catastrophic finale makes you wish that NBM was printing this series in a larger format than its approximately 7-x-9” book size.
http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com/2009/10/dream-team-dungeon-early-years-volume-2.html
This volume marked the first time I wished that NBM could have kept the larger page format. There are some spectacular action scenes that felt cramped shrunk down to a smaller size, and other pages crammed with panels that felt similarly claustrophobic. A lot of darker colors were used in this volume, which made those pages feel a bit muddy at times as well. In an ideal world, we’d get an “absolute edition” of DUNGEON on oversized pages and nice paper, but as a reader I’m grateful that we’re getting this much Trondheim & Sfar in English.
03/25/2010, I don’t quite get what you are trying to say. Is it something about SIZE perhaps?
It’s not me, it’s Santoro, DeBlieck and anyone with eyes and a brain.
I think the worst thing that Humanoids (and any other translator company) could possibly do is market these books to the super hero crowd. They’re books aimed at readers who like the comics medium, which is a far broader demographic than the limited audience that the Direct Market caters to.
That said, I have a bad feeling that they’re going to continue to do more of the same and wonder why their sales are so dismal. Hint: selling to an oversaturated market with a marginal interest in your genre isn’t good business sense.
I’m eager to see the Humanoids titles back in print over here, but what I really want is an oversized edition of the complete I am Legion. I’ve been waiting years for that!
Maybe we’ll get an Incal reprint with coloring that isn’t completely awful.
Speaking of European and North American differences, I have read differing opinions on the recolouring of Moebius’ Silver Surfer Parable GN. Some hate it.
The rerelease, which I believe is unavailable in an English language version, was to have apparently recoloured.
I say “apparently” because I have not seen it, but have seen the cover on European book sites.
Anyone care to comment?
What I would love to see is translated work where the same page is printed side by side, in the original language, as well as English. That way you can see what, if anything, had changed as a result, either in balloon placement or in translation (if you know the original language).
I think the larger printed page size totally freaks out Americans (both readers and marketing staff), it gives the subliminal feel of a kiddy book.
Plus, I don’t think the more difficult & sophisticated draftsmanship associated with Humaniods et al. will ever appeal to the majority pop-culture tastes.
Bon chance, Les Humanoides …