Friday, April 06, 2007  
French Publisher Glenat Sets Up Shop in Quebec

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/06/2007 12:05:00 AM

After working on the project for over a year, it looks like Glenat, a giant of comics publishing in France, has established an office in Quebec for the purposes of publishing and recruiting new talent.

Publisher Jacques Glenat visited Quebec last May and mused publicly about the possibility of opening an office. According to this story at actuaBD, Christian Chevrier, who is currently the director general of Glenat's Canadian distributor Hachette Canada, is the president of the new venture. Annie Ouellet has been hired as editor of the imprint and the plan is to publish books by local cartoonists by the end of the year. Glenat will be recruiting new writers and artists at the Festival de la BD francophone de Quebec in Quebec City, beginning April 11.

Glenat is known for its genre adventure and humour comics, mostly intended for younger audiences. Its most famous property is probably the popular Titeuf series by Zep but it is also a major player in manga publishing in France. Glenat has also had success importing franchises (like Argentina's Mafalda and Italy's Corto Maltese) from other countries. Glenat has subsidiary offices in Belgium (Benelux), Spain, and Switzerland.



In an article in La Presse, Glenat is painted as a man with a messianic mission: to export French-language comics to the world in the same way U.S. superheroes and Japanese manga have been exported. He notes that manga has 40% of the book market in Japan, while in France the number is 5% and in Quebec BD has only 2% of the market. He also notes the ability of the Japanese industry to create titles with very specific demographics in mind.

Yves Rodier is perhaps the best-known artist from Quebec currently published by Glenat. His Herge-inspired Simon Nian has become a big hit. Voro and Delaf have also been published by Glenat imprints.

Most recently, two of Glenat's children's series by cartoonists from France, Le Cimetiere des Autobus (A Lou collection by Julien Neel) and Mes meilleurs copains (a Titeuf collection by Zep) were nominated for Quebec's prestigious Bedelys awards.

It's hard to say what kind of impact this new Glenat venture will have on the Quebec comics scene. It is certainly a major event. (By way of analogy, what would happen if DC Comics set up a branch office in Toronto to develop books for anglo-Canadians?) There is already an indigenous industry of children's BD publishing in the province, but it is quite tiny. Most successful humour franchises by francophone Quebec cartoonists (with the exception of rare home-grown successes like Safarir) find their way to French publishers without those publishers having to establish offices in Montreal. The last one to do so, Dargaud in the early 80s, certainly established a wider market for its own Franco-Belgian properties but did little in the way of developing local talent.

Another interesting aspect of the Glenat news is the announced intention of getting into the comics festival business, perhaps by underwriting a festival in Montreal. There are already festivals in Quebec City and Gatineau but nothing in the province's largest, most media-saturated city (outside of the BD Montreal event, part of comedy festival Just for Laughs). With a major player like Glenat to back it, a comics festival in Montreal would have more chances at success. In addition, Glenat's desire to develop the anemic Quebec children's market may result in a better standard of living for artists in the business, with the potential for more lucrative publishing deals and an increased audience, both here and abroad (assuming that the page rates and royalties are the same in France and in Canada). Who can say at this point? There certainly seems to be potential.

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