Tintin Forums

I've been dipping into Cinebook's output at more or less monthly intervals - they've really been a godsend to me, if not to my bank balance ;)

Had a look at Aldebaran and The Scorpion last month. Splendid tales both of them are too, though point taken about the revised artwork (in Aldebaran's case, I'm assuming that it refers to the underwear rather ham-fistedly drawn onto female characters to cover up their naughty bits - it looks as though Cinebook don't think the UK's quite ready for the full-on adult BD experience!) Fascinating, epic, story though, and after two (or four, depending on how you look at it) volumes I'm still none the wiser about what's going on with all the weird stuff happening on the planet, but totally involved, which is great! It's funny though - I was thinking, the fictional setting of Aldebaran is as well thought-out and depicted as, say, Frank Herbert's Dune (and a lot more accessible, in my opinion,) but it'll never be taken as seriously in the English-speaking world because it's "only" a comic strip...

The Scorpion is great, rip-roaring swashbuckling fun, with some absolutely lovely artwork of a highly stylised Renaissance Rome. Again, there seems to be a central mystery, which'll hopefully unfold over subsequent volumes. I think it would make a good movie, or even a TV series!

I'm afraid I'm not as taken with Largo Winch - he comes over as a bit smug and unlikeable, and I'm hoping that some of his adventures to come involve more than bad guys trying to ruin him / take over his business empire. I think I'll still persevere though, and see if I can get to like it any better.

That's the one. To be fair to them they do have a little note at the start of the book stating that the content has been edited to not upset their sensitive readers - or something like that. I think Largo Winch has the same disclaimer. So far as Aldebaran is concerned I've seen the covers of the French editions and it looks like there's going to be a lot more nudity to be covered up in future editions.

Cinebook has put a PDF of their 2009 catalogue on-line finally (I believe there have been print copies around for a while). There's mention in it of there being eight new series coming next year the highlight of which (for me) is the cover-featured Buck Danny.

George

And here's the catalogue for late 2009/early 2010.

Highlights would perhaps be:

+ The start of XIII, as discussed HERE. This will be in the smaller sized trades.
+ Confirmation that, at least for now, there'll be no double volumes.
+ And...

That's about it actually. Nothing on there strikes me as a surprise really, at least nothing that hadn't been gleaned from Amazon listings.

Actually, I'm not sure of the reasoning behind XIII being in the smaller trade. It's a new series so there's no real need to match previous volumes. And now that nothing is double-sized we have two formats at the same price.

George

(broken links removed)

Slightly disappointed that they are not launching any new series except XIII

I suspect it has to do with the age range they are aiming for who are more used to the smaller American sized books. Of course, American books are drawn to fit that size whereas European comics are not.


I suppose this means the reports that Valerian might be appearing in 2010 may now come to naught. :(

On the other hand, given the state of the economy and the pressures that small press outfits like Cinebook must be under, it's probably for the best if they consolidate the existing catalogues. I'd prefer them to stay in business releasing the many excellent series they already have than overreach themselves and go bust, which would be a disaster. I can't think of another company that's managed to make a success out of European comics (apart from Tintin and Asterix, obviously) in the English-speaking world.

That makes sense. Although... haven't Cinebook been dropped by the major (comic shop) distributor over there? If so, the audience that is used to comics, which almost exclusively patronises comic shops, will be missing out. And, now I think of it, I believe their books may be smaller than the US standard comic size.


I'm pretty used to that now, though it might be that I'd only find it acceptable on series that are new to me - I really don't like the size of the Tintin 3-in-1 books we get here in the UK.


They do two catalogues a year, so there's a chance they might pop-up in the second-half of 2010. Like you, I'd prefer to see them survive the recession and if that means I have to wait a bit longer for my books, then so be it.

George

I think that even on this side of the Atlantic, and despite UK comics like Beano, 2000AD etc. being closer in size to the European comics, that the older, teenage crowd are so used to US imports at this stage that they expect that to be the standard size for comics not meant purely for children. And Cinebook have to take that into account in marketing to them.

Mind you I would have thought that Orbital more properly belonged to the "older" range but it came out in the correct large size.


The Cinebook size is the same height but slightly wider than the US size. The iBooks omnibus of three of the Valerian albums was the same dimensions so that seems to be the closest they can get.


I'm not. To me, it's as heinous as widescreen movies presented in pan and scan or monochrome movies/TV colourised: not how the artist intended.

Do teenagers even read U.S. comics these days? I’d have thought that the manga books would be what teenagers considered a comic these days. Whenever I visit Forbidden Planet, it’s teens in the manga section, and forty-something blokes (like me) in the “comics” bit…


I’ve said this somewhere before, but maybe not here, but silent movies were often tinted and coloured in ways that we often don’t imagine, and only became totally black and white when the techniques, and inclination, were lost, and the films - if shown at all - were seen on B&W TVs.

While some effort has been made in recent restorations and reconstructions to return tints and colours (the Red Death costume in Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera should be red, as should the flag in The Battleship Potemkin), nobody seems to have come out firmly on the side of the artists to demand the integrity of their intention, and to return night scenes to a blue wash, and forests green, etc., as appropriate.

In fact, when Lucas and Spielberg were putting adverts in the trade papers, against the processing of old films, Hal Roach made it clear that they weren’t speaking for him.

He was delighted that colour was added to the Laurel and Hardy films he made: he only made them in black and white because he couldn’t afford to make them in colour, and that is how he would have wanted them if he could!

So while I agree that colourization has its down-side (it can look nasty), artistic intentions are open to interpretation!
Personally I don’t have any problem with it, because it does nothing to the film per se - one can always turn the colour down.

I know what you mean because I'd rather they were standard size as well, but I think that's a battle that has been, largely, lost. For whatever reason - and, like you, I suspect it is down to cost and marketing - almost all the translated European comics are being published in a smaller format.

Thinking about it, almost all the First Second books are tiny - much smaller than even the Cinebook ones - and the NBM Dungeon series has settled on a similar size to those we're getting in the UK. The recent Fantagraphics Tardi books (highly recommended btw) are also smaller than a traditional BD, albeit not by much. In fact the biggest 'cross-over' success of the past few years must be Satrapi's Persepolis, which was much reduced from the original.

In most cases I think it is a compromise I can live with if the choice is reduced size or nothing. Saying that, the paperback double-volume of Persepolis is pretty poor. The reduced format, in that case, is a step too far, even for her more expressive and simplified art.

Ideally the English language market would support the books being as close to the original format but it isn't and I suspect it never will be. Interestingly, the one area that publishers can publish the original size in is the Children's market. Perhaps because there's already a history there of over-sized picture books?


I'd argue (well, suggest maybe; I don't feel that strongly about it!) that a more apt comparison would be the viewing of a film on a home television rather than in the cinema. The content is the same in either case, it's the delivery which has changed and which perhaps affects the experience. I feel pan-and-scan/colourising is more akin to vandalisation than the reduction in size, no matter how unfortunate that may be to the book.

On that note, it is Cinebook's ham-fisted censorship that really gets my goat. I don't know if anyone has seen the latest Aldebaran/Betelgeuse book (just out) but the redrawn parts really draw attention to themselves. Oddly, there seems to be no problem with swearing - the 'f' word appeared in one recent book (Insiders I think).


There's a disclaimer inside the Cinebook volumes about the censorship, and how it is with full consent of the author. I wonder what the author's feeling would be about the format? Does Garen Ewing still visit this board? It'd be interesting to hear the thoughts of a creator on this - I imagine in three or four years time there'll be a collected 'Rainbow Orchid' and, if current form is followed, it'll be in the smaller size.


Perhaps akin to Herge's recasting (and colouring) the early albums? Of course one can argue this many ways - the books were redrawn as well, perhaps to take advantage of the added colour.

Sorry for the long-winded reply. It is either this or writing a self-appraisal...!

George

At the risk of looking obsessed and/or talking to myself, I just want to draw attention to an article by Paul Gravett which touches on this very matter. The whole piece it here, but the quotes to pull out are:

For Cinebook’s 15+ line, however, Cadic chose to reduce the pages slightly to “a smaller size, closer to the height of an American comic book to help booksellers display our books properly.”

And this bit, relating to the half-sized volumes:

“We realised that this made it too pricey for some readers to try, so in 2010 Cinebook will publish only single volumes to let everybody sample our series.”


At the foot of the article there's a nice "TWELVE HOT NEW EUROCOMICS FOR 2010" which mentions Valerian, so all hope need not be lost :-) . And there's an eye-popping piece of non-cinebook news in the article as well, relating to a certain part-Cornish sailor...

George