where are my foreign reprints

cosmic hobo · Newbie Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 14

now that marvel have become the wwe of comics and large parts of the industry is emulating them, the more discerning reader has to look into to comics past to get the kicks. so is it not about time that someone reprint euro masterworks such as barbarella and diabolik? both titles that i for one would love to read but they dont seem to be in print in english at this time. it seems to me that there is little appetite for comics which go far beyond dumb action heroes who as elements of the readership may say "kick ass!" . maybe the bigger question is save for a few masters out there are comics right now lacking any kind of intellectual value

oh, if titles such as these are being reprinted and i seem ignorant of such news, i would appreciate the heads up.

Raien · Regular Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 118

I honestly have no idea where you're getting the connection between old comics not getting released and the popularity of "dumb action hero" comics. The main reason for publishing Marvel Masterworks is that the original characters are still featured in current Marvel comics, and hence, still public icons. If Barbarella and Diabolik were still getting published today, I would not doubt we'd be seeing Masterworks from them. But of course they're not, and the reason why is a little more complex than just "readers are stupid".

The reason why Barbarella isn't getting re-released is because it's original value was derived from a period where society was breaking down various taboos on sex in literature and general culture. You cannot expect a 21st century audience to appreciate such stories/images now that the taboos have long since been broken and sex is better assimilated into literature. Other "sex revolution" type literature has been re-sold and the general reaction has always been, "This looks incredibly dated".

Diabolik looks like it could be enjoyed today, and a quick Amazon search says that it has been reprinted in its native language as recently as 2005. But it looks like the book has failed to break out of local appeal, so the publishers have not considered it worth exporting to other countries. This is actually quite common with a lot of non-English works (not just comic books); if a first export fails to make an impression, then it's not likely to make any money several years down the line.

That said, have you looked online? These old comics might cost too much to print, but there's no such financial restrictions on online hosting.

Batmanuel · Mod Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 2500 Location: Canterbury

Your absolutely right, some of these old euro masters defiantly deserve a second innings,
We recently added a european line of books to the shop from the publisher 9th art, i might mention it to the head honcho at said publishing house, you never know, the whatevercomics influence has been known to achieve certain twists and turns in the past.

Which brings to mind how a customer of mine in Maidstone found an old printing of Barbarella in a charity shop not a million miles from our shop.
lucky bastard Surprised

_________________