Dupuis (publisher)
Dupuis is a Belgian comic publisher , best known for the weekly comic magazine Spirou, which has been published since 1938 , and the resulting comic series such as Spirou and Fantasio , Lucky Luke and The Smurfs .
overview
The Dupuis publishing house , based in Marcinelle , today a district of Charleroi , has existed since 1922 at the latest. It was founded by Jean Dupuis and is basically a French-language publisher, but has also published many of its publications in Dutch since the beginning. The rights for publications in other languages are sold to interested publishers. Dupuis was a family business for a long time, until it was split up in 1985 as a result of internal disputes. a. was sold to the Belgian financial investor Albert Frère . In 2004 the Franco-Belgian media group Média-Participations took over the publishing house. According to its own information, Dupuis serves 14 to 15 percent of the Franco-Belgian comic market with 7 million comic books sold.
The beginnings
Jean Dupuis founded a printing company in 1898 , from which he started his first publishing attempts after 1918. He achieved lasting success from 1922 with the series of novels Bonnes Soirées , followed in 1924 by the entertainment and (radio) program magazine Le moustique. Dutch-language counterparts ( De Haardvriend and Humoradio ) appeared for both titles from the mid-1930s . The development into one of the largest comic book publishers in Belgium began in 1936 when Jean Dupuis wanted to expand his previous publishing offer to include a magazine for children and young people, a task he entrusted his sons Paul and Charles with. Spirou appeared for the first time on April 21, 1938 , initially only in French with a mixture of American comics such as Superman , Bill Bradford or Red Ryder and original creations such as Spirou and Fantasio or Tif et Tondu (German: Gin and Fizz or Harry and plate ). A few months later a Dutch version also followed under the title Robbedoes .
Growth after World War II
During the Second World War , Dupuis faced a number of problems. Paper was in short supply and American comics were banned from being published. Interventions by the German occupation forces even forced the magazine to be discontinued at times. After the end of the war, the company recovered quickly. The magazine Le moustique was expanded to include information on radio and later television programs and became one of the most widely read magazines in French-speaking countries. Spirou developed alongside Tintin to one of the leading comic magazines in Europe.
Dupuis also began to publish a few books, but these attempts could not achieve the success that was achieved by the collective republication of the serial comics from the magazine in book form, in so-called albums . Some of the comics were One Shots , i.e. comic stories that only consist of one volume, but most of the series such as Lucky Luke , The Smurfs or Gaston . Many of these books have been reprinted over and over again over the years, thus securing recurring income for the publisher.
Expansion of the offer
In the early 1960s , Dupuis tried other business areas, including the merchandising of the well-known comic series through characters or posters or the production of cartoons . The films weren't very successful, but they did get the underlying comics back into conversation. Nevertheless, the "golden days" seemed to be over for Dupuis by the end of the 1960s. Some magazines had to fight for readers, the merchandising activities were cut back significantly and the film studio was not successful. Only the core business, the comics and comic magazines, remained successful, the comic offer comprised over 2000 titles in French. Many of the series were used as templates for cartoons in the 1990s , including Papyrus and Spirou and Fantasio . Films and comics could be sold all over Europe. Dupuis also started producing computer games .
In June 2004 Dupuis was bought by the Média-Participations group of companies , which now owns almost all of the large Franco-Belgian comic publishers, including Dargaud and Le Lombard .
See also
Web links
- Dupuis homepage - French, English and Dutch