Hm, take one multinational publishing conglomerate; throw in a hot genre; stir in a mention of a hot new imprint in the first paragraph of a press release, and add an acquisition, and you have a LOT of speculation: Brigid,, Chloe, Tom. The bottom line? Manga is hot GLOBALLY — check out the publishing stats on manga growth in France in the 2nd graph.

On the heels of the recent announcement regarding Hachette Book Group USA’s graphic novel imprint Yen Press’ first acquisitions comes another exciting announcement from Hachette’s parent company Lagardère. Today, Lagardère announces that Hachette Livre is acquiring PIKA, the third largest manga publisher in the French market. The acquisition of PIKA will also contribute to manga businesses across Hachette Livre, including Yen Press.

In France, the manga market has shown a strong growth over the past four years and represents one third of the comics market. PIKA, with a 12% market share and a catalog of approximately 600 titles, including a number of European-created titles, was founded by Alain Kahn in 2000. Together with publisher Pierre Valls, they both developed the business to make PIKA the #3 publisher in the French manga market.

Hachette Livre, as well as PIKA, plan to further develop partnerships with Japanese manga publishers.

For Hachette Livre, the acquisition represents a new phase in the development of its graphic novel businesses, which will be enriched by this partnership and target a new customer base with this growing genre.

Lagardère owns Hachette Livre, which is the parent company of Hachette Book Group USA.

1 COMMENT

  1. IMHO, Hachette in manga is going to be something to really be reckoned with. They have great product and some truly amazing people working for them.

    Or maybe it’s just that I’m biased and am something of a Francophile. ;)

  2. Huh? Hachette Livre is acquiring PIKA for the american market? Well, it’s not that surprising, really, seeing how PIKA has been a part of a Hachette Livre France, since, like, forever… Plus, all their biggest titles (GTO, Love Hina and some CLAMP stuff like Sakura and Tsubasa) have all been published in the US already…

  4. Not to be argumentative, but anime and manga did not become widely popular until the SciFi Channel started showing movies AND Pokemon was translated. Before that, it was just a subculture of science fiction and comics. Great stuff, but it was hard to find.
    WOW. Will we finally see French comics in America? Or will that remain a subculture?

  5. An important thing the guys reporting it in english seem to have overlooked it that Pika was the very last big independent manga publisher in France. On the last couple of years, the bigger french publishers (some desperately needing to create and/or improve their own manga lines) entered on a buying frenzy that resulted on at least three manga publishers being bought out (entirely or partially) by big publishers (Tonkam by Delcourt, SEEBD and Asuka by Soleil).

    Pika was the third largest french manga publisher (the other two being Kana, a subsidiary of giant comics publisher Dargaud, and the manga division of Glénat), one of the few that still publish manga from the Big Three japanese publishers (Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan, all currently very demanding on its international partners) and so a coveted prize.

    All this is a bit like if Tokyopop and Viz were being bought out by Marvel and DC. Worrying, to say the least.

    Best,
    Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

  6. I meant, in France, where Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya were already extremely popular as early as 1986, preceded by Captain Harlock and Grendizer (known in those shores as “Albator” and “Goldorak” respectively).