YBZ has mentioned reading a European comics while in the army and libraries when he was broke. So he has a healthy appreciation for both European and Indie/Arthouse comics but it is the rants about the SJWs and the nostalgia that brings in the views.
Frog sees comics way differently than most of us, since he is a veteran creator, the same way a butcher sees a steak unlike most people.
But European comics come in an oversized format and 48-72 pages long hardcovers that cost about 15€. Now, if you take something Requiem Vampire Knight, The Cimmerian or Elric next to Cyberfrog, they look different, more artsy for sure but I'd say CF looks as polished (and often as late) as them.
I am yet to see Ethan and Zack elaborate on European comics then. "Appleseed" is the most exotic YBZ got, and all he did was talk about superficial elements. He claims to have read a lot of Manga, and "all of" Dark Horse's translations. If that's the case, it's pretty suspicious that YBZ did not hear of "Bersek" - Dark Horse's biggest manga title. He only reviewed it after year of nagging by fans. Besides summarizing the comic and few observations, he mentions that ending of the golden age arc was too much for him. If that's the case, I do not know how he could get through even edgier stuff commonly found in Heavy Metal. The magazine was the only widely available way to experience European comics in the U.S. that are not TinTin and Asterix until late 90s.
As to Ethan, it's largely the same thing. I have not seen him say anything about European comics other than mention that they use larger format and take long time between each volume. I did see him mention manga in this thread, and his insights were limited to talking about speedlines.
As to the European books being published late, I am not aware of situations like that, The few books I followed from announcement always came out at the promised date. Something like "Les Indes Fourbes" is ripe for delays by American standards. It was made by two industry veterans with multiple side projects, and it's a thick book full of elaborate art. And yet it came out on time and lived up to expectations.
I haven't really noticed European stuff sales being reported much.
That's most likely because a bulk of their sales are digital or targeting bookstores. Still, these numbers must have been good enough to sustain a group of small publishers specializing in publishing European comics in physical form, and for the likes of Image getting involved in this too. Manga was not reported for years, and then dismissed until its popularity grew too big to ignore. Ten years ago finding anything from Europe published in English in any form outside of Heavy Metal was still a challenge.
Where are you getting those Cimmerian sales? I haven't really noticed European stuff sales being reported much.
Comic book stores in my area and comichron.
Comic book stores near me order about as many floppies of "Cimmerian" as they do of "Conan the Barbarian" from Marvel. All people who used to read Dark Horse's Conan switched to them, and some buy both them and Marvel. Unfortunately, the pandemic affected numbers. Be it by panic and pivots by Diamond, publishers pausing work, disruption to comic book store operation, stress on the delivery infrastructure, paper shortages, and some publishers diversifying their distribution methods. Only pre-pandemic month we have figures from is March 2020. It's a small sample, and it matches with my anecdotal data.
Conan the Barbarian #14 - 20,983 units
Cimmerian Queen of Black Coast #1 - 18,475 units
Conan Battle For Serpent Crown #2 - 15,416 units
archived 24 Feb 2022 01:18:00 UTC
archive.ph
For other months we have a mix of rankings, numbers, and estimates due to aforementioned mess caused by pandemic. The trend of "Cimmerian" being close to Marvel's flagship Conan title persists. I think it's pretty good for a small publisher who can't even use "Conan" in the title. Saying "selling better" might have been going a bit far, as "Cimmerian" outranks "... the Barbarian" in months we do not have sales from or during ones where panic was in full swing.
I will paste links from 2020 and 2021 below in case you want to take a look:
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Estimated comic book and graphic novel sales to North American comic shops
www.comichron.com
Fabrice Giger's new strategy is to do films/TV based on the Humanoids back catalog with Humanoids itself producing them. I think the first one will be "the incal".
The hope is that something will hit it big and they will be able to get attention in Hollywood that way. Its not a perfect strategy, but its a better strategy than trying
to get publicity in the United States by publishing American comics. The relative recent "success" of European scifi films by Denis Villeneuve is also helping them
in a general way.
But Fabrice Giger's big idea for the past 15 years has been to sell Humanoids to some Hollywood company for a massive amount of money and
then spend the rest of his life partying in LA. Humanoids is really too European for that to easily happen.
From what I have heard, Humanoids has been mismanaged for years. The only thing they are able to deliver reliably is the magazine.
They are in a strange situation as a publisher. I would say that focusing on digital would be a good idea, but with the Comixology fiasco it might not be viable for a while. They did get Waititi to direct Incal after all, so it looks like the film strategy is finally paying off. Adult animation could be another viable option. If Zerocalcare got a Netflix deal, I don't see why something from Humanoids' catalog wouldn't interest anyone. Netflix could actually use it in their plan to dominate streaming markets in Europe.
