Comicfans: From Guangzhou to Paris

At the 34th paris International Book Fair， French Dargaud Media and Guangzhou comicfans Culture Science & Technology Development Co.， Ltd.， one of Chinese key companies in cartoon publishing industry， reached cooperation where both parties will establish a joint-fund professional cartoon press in France， through which more China’s original comics will become available in France and Europe.

It is the first time for Comicfans Culture to establish an overseas branch， and it is also a starting journey for China’s original comics globally. Their ideas are somewhat different from strategies in traditional sense： in addition to copyright output， they also “output” their staff. According to Jin Cheng， chairman of Comicfans Culture， he thinks that it is more important to train the comic makers with an international exposure. For Comicfans at this time， China’s original cartoons and comics could compete directly on the relatively mature European comic market and thus stimulate the authors’ creativity.

As introduced， the new press to be established is about to be independently registered with its operating headquarters in Paris and both parties hold equal equity. They are jointly involved in planning， composing， producing and marketing. Jin Cheng will serve as a joint publisher and carry out marketing by virtue of Dargaud Media’s sound selling network， achieving the long-term strategic layout of China’s original comics seizing international markets. In making comics， they adopt a co-authoring way that playwrights are from France and cartoonists are from China. Creation themes of comic stories are dominated by subjects relating to both China and France， and also include comics about “Kungfu”. The new press will give priority to launching e-comics and paper comics， and gradually develop films and audio-visual products.

Li Shu

Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department， 21th Century Publishing House

She was elected as an annual excellent rights manager in 2012. Speaking fluent English and Korean， she has been working at the 21th Century Publishing House since her graduation in 2010. The first book she exported was Children under the Chimney written by Chang Xingang. But what impressed her most was the paper and electronic rights export of 6 books in Korean in 2013， including Confucius Classroom， Mencius Classroom and Zhuang-Tzu Classroom. She has translated part of the content of Confucius Classroom into Korean in an easy-to-understand way， which made the Korean publisher think the book are very easy for both adults and children in Korea to read.

Among various books， Li Shu prefers popularizing picture books as she thinks the contents of picture books are clearer. She thinks it is of most difficulty to popularize literary books for the lack of qualified translators， which she considers it as the biggest obstacle affecting rights export. The introductory materials poorly translated also worsen the case.

Zheng Lei

Deputy Director of the Book Publishing Center， China Intercontinental Press

Publishing 200-300 kinds of books annually， China Intercontinental Press is still a small-scale publishing house. From 2000 to 2013， it has totally exported 405 books’ rights to international publishers. “We need internationalized， professionalized and localized rights managers. It is the practices at international book market， not any government that could help fulfill it.” said Zheng Lei.