Geek Syndicate Issue 5 | Page 30

Geek Syndicate
GS: What have been your biggest commercial successes so far, and to what do you attribute them? Jerome: I think the absolute champion has been Lucky Luke, followed by Blake & Mortimer and XIII. Why do they sell so well? Quality, really–pure geniuses at the helm: Goscinny for Lucky Luke, Van Hamme for XIII, Jacobs for B&M... and the artists are no slouches either. They’re just fantastic series, and the readers in the Englishspeaking world have seen that. Same reason they worked in France and Belgium, I guess! On a more personal level, what are your favourite books and why? Jerome: Yoko Tsuno has been my favourite since childhood, for tons of reasons. Valerian comes in at a close second–I discovered it a bit later. For both of them, finding myself working on series I revere has been an absolute dream. Series I discovered since childhood, though... Orbital has really captured my imagination, and I look forward to the continuation of the story. My biggest and best surprise has been Long John Silver. For a fan of pirates and tall ships like me, it had all the right ingredients, but the truth is, it’s so good that you don’t need to be a fan of such things. Dorison’s Silver and Lady Vivian are such incredibly realised characters... And Lauffray’s art blows me away every time I see it. I cannot wait for the fourth and last volume to come out so I
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can get to work on it! Erica: The Bluecoats! Olivier: The Bluecoats as well, ever since I was little. Valerie: The Worlds of Aldebaran

some series forward. So far we’ve done most of the work, but our name is getting to be known, so people are coming to us now. You have an incredibly wide variety of books – what is the connecting factor? Do you seek specific genres, fill quotas on type and age of readership, or is it based purely on the taste of the scout? Are there bidding wars between yourselves and the like of Fantagraphics? Jerome: Again, I’m not privy to bidding wars or the absence thereof! As for the way we choose, well... Part of it is taste, of course—that’s unavoidable. But we do try to pick series than can sell–and avoid those that just can’t. Some series are just too French; others have subject matter that simply won’t fly in some countries. We’ve noticed, however, that series dealing with other countries (without making terrible fun of them, at least!)
Image © Cinebook, 2012

Selection
GS: So, in all important respects, you’re a publication business, not a comics company. The books already exist, simply not in the English language. I’m interested in how books come to your attention: how they cross the ocean to reach your door, and from there out into the English-speaking world. Do you have people who actively seek new titles and talents to publish, or do the continental agents petition you on behalf of their clients? Jerome: I’m not entirely privy to the whole process, but I’ve accompanied Olivier on his rounds during the Angoulême Comics Festival (the largest comics festival in Europe, second largest in the world after Comiket in Tokyo) and I’ve seen part of it. We team members keep an eye out for good series–old and new–and if we think they have potential, we bring them to Olivier’s attention. After that, he talks to the publishers to assess the feasibility. By now, we have a comfortable working relationship with Mediatoon, who oversee foreign rights for Dupuis, Dargaud, Le Lombard and Lucky Comics, and they also put