I was listening to an interview where the people were discussing the difference in US and European publishing. They were suggesting that European comics tend to be of higher quality, because they don't push on delivery dates. So while many of the titles deliver late, they are better. (They gave examples, but all of them slip through my head)

And the big US publishers push to get delivery dates, causing non-consistent teams (Changing artists on some books for instance) and generally lower quality work.

Does anyone buy this?

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Nope. From my experience of British comic (and tv) you end up with a better product because there is less of it. Us tv series is 24 episodes, British 13. Comic tend to be 20 pages in us comic and 8 + reprint back up strip in the uk (it's been a while since I regularly got them so someone feel free to contradict me here)

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I know what you mean. I feel there is a general attitude among British writers that it's better to keep something consistently good for a couple of years than to milk it dry until it's a hollow mockery of its former self. I kinda feel like the attitude in Hollywood is to keep flogging the dead horse until people just aren't watching it enough. All memories of greatness are tainted by the obvious and pathetic cashgrab that the series became.

I'm not saying this is always the case, some shows like Frasier and Friends managed to stay consistently brilliant for their entire run of a huge number of episodes. Friends kinda tailed off toward the end, but for me Frasier actually just got better and better.

Most of the great British TV series' from the past have actually only had a relatively small number of episodes. The Office, Blackadder, Father Ted (Although that was kind of unavoidable), IT Crowd, Fawlty Towers, Mr. Bean, Black Books, Green Wing, etc. They were short, sweet and went out on a high note. I think that's why they're fondly remembered. Series' like Scrubs, Family Guy, Two and a Half Men... they go way past their peak and get into territory where they're just not good enough anymore. That's what people remember.

And for the UK audience who do want inane tripe repeated year on year until your brain slowly turns to pâté, we have Eastenders.

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I think they were talking more of continental publishers rather then UK comic publishers, which, at least as far as I have heard, have the same model as US comic publishers.

On UK comics, are they generally better written (in mass) then their US counterparts (again, in mass, not talking specific since there are always standouts), and do UK comics tend to miss ship dates alot?

Of for that matter, do better comics tend not to hold to fast, steady releases. Do they have more gap in them then their metronome like counterparts?

I think their end insinuation was that the forcing of comics to hit shelves hurts the creative output.

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Kez's point is well made. There are many shows that stay on TV way way beyond their expiration date, and it seems in general UK tv doesn't have that problem as much.

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To be honest, I think the market has mostly merged now in terms of the comics that are available. It's difficult to distinguish what is US what is UK without looking it up. In terms of European comics in general, I'm not too sure.

What I would say, though, is that this is probably more linked to the size of the companies than any cultural difference. When you think of US comics, Marvel and DC immediately spring to mind. A much larger proportion of the comics coming out of Europe and the UK are, I think, smaller-scale creator owned affairs. Working in this sort of environment, you have a lot more creative freedom and a lot more leg-room as regards deadlines and profit margins.

When companies get really big, they get run by businessmen, statisticians. To these people final quality of the product is only relevant in terms of how much money it brings in, nothing else. They are heavily motivated by profit, deadlines and sales. They like to stick to proven formulae. Smaller publishers are usually run by actual creators, people who want to produce genuinely memorable pieces of work. Of course they want to make money, but they also have professional pride and a more personal stake in what they put out. They're less afraid to take risks and innovate.

I think this is true of most mediums. Think of companies like Activision who have to churn out a cookie-cutter CoD game every November compared to companies like Team Ico, who take as long as they deem necessary to make their next game - which almost invariably turns out to be a polished work of art.

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Again someone correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware the uk has sweet f-a native comic publishers, at least of any size accept for kids ones where we have stacks. - http://www.downthetubes.net/resources/c ... shers.html

The biggest one of the lot is pannini which is effectively just marvel uk, but with a new name. If you asked most people over here what they sold, appart from sounding like an Italian sandwich, then almost everyone would say sticker books which they do for every football season and major competition since the 70's.

It's really easy to keep up quality when you don't have full comic to produce, only part with a reprint.

As for European comics being of a higher quality, I would debate that based on two things. Moving the deadline by a couple of days isn't going to make it better, moving it by a month might, but that just ruins your readership as they never know when it's coming out. The second thing I would point out is the audience. The big American publishers are trying to appeal to 300million+ american and canadians with a small thought that they are also sold in the uk and translated and sold around the world. If you are a publisher in Germany you know that all you have to appeal to is 80million Germans and 20milllion Austrians. It's easier to produce things targeted at the smaller audience.

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As The European I don't understand one thing: why do You keep discussing european comic using UK? U could just as well use Turkey (it's in Europe too).
To me and 95% of Europeans european comic = Franco-Belgian. And i believe that's what Travis been suggesting all along.

European Publishers (like for example Dargaud) give more time to their creators. Usually it's one 50-page book by year. That means one cerator can write more than one series at the same time. That means more diversity - for example van Hamme: fantasy (Thorgal), adventures & thriller (Largo Winch, XIII) western (Western), historical family saga (Les Maîtres de l'orge). And diversity is a good thing because it allows to keep open mind & fresh look.



We have this problem here, but on the smaller scale. European series are generally shorter. That means european artists has more freedom (again van hamme and his amazing one-shots :Chninkel, Histoire sans héros, Lune de guerre created with greatest european illustrators)
Also european publisher doesn't have to print Captain Marvel series once in a few years not to loose rights to his name.



I don’t know about today British comics (haven’t read many of them), but it’s true on TV. Every regullar US TV series, even the best one, has those stupid filler epiodes, which break the spell. It’s fucking annoying.



If it's a good comic I'll always wait for it, even if it had to be 10 years (and I’ve done it before, especially with polish comic books). If it's shitty, who cares when it's printed?



I have to disagree: Does that also mean that for a musician it's easier to write songs for german audience than doing it in USA? And what about sausage? Does it apply to the food companies? My guess is that smaller audience is always more demanding. We have here something called "The smaller concert of the world". Every few monts one of the top polish band gives a performance for 10 (TEN) listeners.Those are great, but ALL the performers agreeably claims it's the hardest performance in their life.

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Well... I'm from the UK, so that's as far as my perspective extends. Although I have spent a decent amount of time in countries on the continent, I didn't research the comic industry while I was there.



Don't know about this... monthly comics aren't exactly enormous, I think a few days of really hard work could make a huge amount of difference.

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I think that's part of the answer to Travis's Europe vs US question: european reader, not bound by this new-issue-every-month habit is willing to wait for an excelent comic as long as it takes, while US reader quickly (usually too quickly) transfers his affection somewhere else.

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