Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Dark Horse Comics, Image, Walking Dead | Tagged: bd, Delcouirt, Editis, france

French Publisher Editis To Buy Graphic Novel Publisher Delcourt

Editis, the second largest French book publisher, is to buy Delcourt, France/Belgium's third largest graphic novel publisher.

Published Sat, 10 Aug 2024 12:57:09 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Editis, France's second largest book publisher, to acquire Delcourt, the third largest graphic novel producer.
Guy Delcourt sells his company, citing Editis' humanist values and commitment to keeping its 145 staff.
Delcourt publishes 500 graphic novels annually, including titles like Hellboy, Sandman, and Walking Dead.
EU competition authorities must approve the purchase, expected to finalize by late 2024 or early 2025.

Editis, the second largest French book publisher, is to buy Delcourt, France/Belgium's third largest graphic novel publisher, behind Média-Participations and Glénat, and produces around five hundred graphic novels a year in the BD format. Negotiations for the purchase have begun, and sources say that discussions are going well.

Guy Delcourt, created the publisher 38 years ago, in 1986, through the fusion of the magazines Charlie Mensuel and Pilote. Guy Delcourt, chief editor of the latter, named the new publishing house Guy Delcourt Productions. He stated that he was selling the company because none of his three children wanted to follow in his footsteps, and he was interested in Editis' "humanist values" and that Editis had pledged to him that Delcourt would remain independent and not lay off any of its 145 staff. Guy Delcourt will continue to run the company for several years. It reported sales of €104.2 million in 2023 ($114 million), down from €108.4 million ($118 million) in 2022. As well as five hundred graphic novels a year, it also published another two hundred volumes of children's books and fiction titles, and has a catalogue numbering 13,000 books.

After general literature with sales of €627.8 million ($686 million) graphic novels are the second most popular publishing sector in France, despite almost a 5% drop in manga sales last year, with a total revenue of €466.8 million ($510 million). Delcourt is best known for publishing comics such as Beowulf, Baker Street, Okko, Les Legendaires, Showergate, and Carmer + Travis. As well as French translations of From Hell, Hellboy, Invincible, Love And Rockets, Sandman, Spawn, Savage Dragon, V For Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Supreme, Jinx, Wanted, Walking Dead and more, and a large manga library. Delcourt recently invested in the American comic book boutique publisher Dsltry.

The purchase will have to be approved by European Union competition authorities in Brussels. But the deal would be Editis' first major purchase since it was taken over by International Media Invest (IMI), a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest (CMI) founded by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, last year. The deal should be concluded by the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025.

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