The market for bédé visual storytelling almost doubled over the course of the pandemic, but can the birthplace of Asterix continue to nurture creators?Like thousands of French people, Sylvie Pinault discovered comic books during the pandemic. Though bandes dessinées – literally meaning “drawn strips” and often simply referred to as BD or bédé – are venerated in France as the “ninth art”, the 52-year-old had preconceptions about them being for children. That changed at the start of 2020, when her partner suggested they go to the gigantic comic-book festival in Angoulême. The following year, with the country locked down, the limpid cover of Léonie Bischoff’s graphic novel Anaïs Nin: A Sea of Lies caught her eye in an exhibition that the cancelled festival had put on in Paris’s Gare d’Austerlitz. “It had a different style – maybe that lowered certain barriers I had,” says Pinault. It became her first comic-book purchase, and she took her maiden voyage on France’s infinite ocean of hand-drawn possibilities.Three years on, we are pausing for breath in the main exhibitors’ hall, Le Monde des Bulles (The World of Bubbles), at Angoulême. Pinault is clutching her copy of the Nin book, freshly signed by Bischoff. “She never knows what colour she’ll start a line with,” Pinault marvels from their exchange. “That leaves room for spontaneity.” The thin flooring underneath us is vibrating from hundreds of feet, milling around the stands for Dargaud, Casterman and other big publishers,... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-06 14:00:36 UTC ]
Apple is winning over the big publishers. Last week, Hearst Corp. said it planned to start selling its magazines using Apple's new iTunes subscription service. Now rival Conde Nast is actually doing it, via the publisher's New Yorker title. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three big publishers and AOL are set to launch Bookish, a "new digital platform for readers". Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, and CBS' Simon & Schuster are backing the new site, which is supposed to launch this summer; AOL will promote the property and handle ad sales. A press release... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 99-cents a week-service looks like the kind of thing that could drive the New York Times and the Associated Press batty. Instead, they've signed on for a piece of the action. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 03/03/2011 - 08:45 Half of all book buyers expect to pay less for ebooks, according to new research by Mintel, but those book readers who already own ebook devices have marginally more realistic expectations over price, suggesting that the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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