The European Market

The European Comic Book Market

So over on X (or Twitter or whatever you call it) Paul Azaceta asked a loaded question.

That’s a good one.

There are lots of working comics professionals over here in the America’s who would probably like to know this. So I asked Mathieu Lauffray, world-renowned illustrator and author. If you don’t know who he is, just google him.  😉

Please excuse the abruptness of it, this was done in a chat and I had to go back and forth with Google Translate to have the conversation in French.

I asked;

‘Hello, sir.  I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I have some questions about the European comic book market and how it works over there. Over here in the U.S., the companies freelance out the work to make a comic, that creator gets paid (rarely owns any rights to the work they’ve done), and the company puts the book out, uses a distributor(s) to get the books out to the comic shops. That creator gets paid a page-rate and might collect some royalties if the book(s) sell well. If they don’t sell well, that’s it, they got paid that 1 time. In a nutshell.  I think.

Does it work differently over in Europe?

I am asking for an article I’m writing for my website blog.  I’d also like to share what I learn with my colleague’s.

Thank you for your time.’

Mathieu Lauffray

So yes, there are differences, but also common points. I will try to answer point by point… THE BASIS: In France, the author is a “separate” legal status that gives him an “inalienable” right, that is to say that one cannot lose. Even if one signs a contract that specifies it, it is impossible to transfer one’s “moral right”. So one remains the owner of what one creates. One can sell, under conditions, the exploitation rights, in the form of a book, comics, films, etc…So the author is protected and copyright does not exist.

But there are a few successful licenses like you have in the USA.

But in terms of the number of releases, I would say that the vast majority are creations.

Me

Oh wow, that’s quite different.

Mathieu Lauffray

yes 🙂

SO, since there are many creations, there is no real competition between authors. There is a lot of variety of styles, and subjects, so each reader makes his own market…

and of course, few “comics” are successful….

this is the lot of new creations

(On the) financial side: we are paid in “advances on rights”

advances on receipts, for example $500 per page x 52 “script + drawing

plus $100 for color (for example)

Me

Ok, so it is similar to the American market.

Mathieu Lauffray

the book comes out in stores, the publisher starts to reimburse advances, Then, once the break-even point is reached, we start to collect royalties between authors.

about 10, 12% of the sale price excluding tax, (about $1.60 per book sold)

Me:

This is, I think, a much better distribution than in the US market.

Mathieu Lauffray

yes but, there are 360 ​​million of you 🙂

the comics here are quite expensive, large format and cost around $15

ME:

Most of them don’t read, but that’s another conversation… 😉

Mathieu Lauffray

🙂

Me:

That was very revealing, thanks for that, I don’t want to hold you back

Mathieu Lauffray

But we have an audience and booksellers quite used to very different graphic styles, it encourages us to do varied things. (I’m a fan of Us comics, but that’s another conversation) 😉

Here, here, it was a pleasure, have a good evening

ME:

Thank you very much for your time.

Eye-opening and Fascinating. There is A LOT to take from this information.