New Initiative to Promote European Content in English

A coalition of 13 European comics and graphic novel publishers will launch Europe Comics, a new initiative “to bring European comics and their authors closer to an international audience of readers and comics professionals” this fall. The effort will be coordinated by leading French graphic novel publisher Mediatoon and co-funded by the European Union.

The initiative will include digital distribution of translated European titles in the U.S., promotion of European titles through support of author tours, and the Europecomics.com website, which will provide information on European publishers, trade events, and academic studies.

Digital distribution will be handled by Izneo, which will distribute ebook graphic novels to English-language digital platforms. Izneo is a joint venture of nine Franco-Belgian publishers, including Mediatoon.

A B2B and B2C directory of comics will be provided on the website, and Mediatoon Licensing will represent titles from all of the participating publishers (and some independent publishers) for English-language publication.

The participating publishers are:

Ballon (Belgium)
BAO (Italy)
Cinebook (UK)
Darkwood (Serbia)
Dibbuks (Spain)
Dargaud (France)
Dupuis (Belgium)
Le Lombard (Belgium)
Tunue (Italy)
Timof (Poland)
Turkish agent Akan Ajans
French AV company Ellispanime

Development of animated series based on comics properties is also planned.