German Ehapa to launch English Disney comic

Posted on May 2nd 2009 in Germany, New Titles

German Lustiges TaschenbuchEhapa, publisher of Disney comics in Germany, has recently announced that it is planning to launch an English version of its hugely popular Lustiges Taschenbuch. The 256-page books feature 3-tier Italian and Danish Disney comic stories starring Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Not much is known about the new English title, but the chief editor wrote in a German forum this week that the English version of the pocket books will launch on July 1st and will contain only stories that have already previously been published in Germany.

This is great news for all those people saddened by the loss of English Disney comics after the news that Gemstone Publishing in the United States has (for now) ceased publication. I wonder if this is in some part a reaction to that news; surely there is a huge market for English Disney comics and this is a great start.

The German version of Lustiges Taschenbuch, which was launched in 1967, is a newsstand title, but the new English version is expected to be available by mail order to people outside Germany. Information on pricing or how to subscribe is not yet available. I will publish that information here as soon as it becomes available.

Comments

May 5, 2009
7:12 am
#1 JeffConn wrote:

I’m not going to pretend to understand the nuances of European magazine distribution, but why couldn’t this be distributed to newsstands in the EU? Isn’t this one of the reasons the euro was conceived, to make international purchase of goods easier?

May 6, 2009
5:25 am
#2 Coentor wrote:

I don’t know if you are European or not, but the problem is that, even despite The eurozone is, de facto, an unified marked as the US is, there are a lot of barriers that escape to the European Community goverment.

In other words, even supposing that English is an international language understood by all Europeans, a full European distribution means to look for an enterprise that distributes the magazine in all the Countries of the Union, or, at least in a significant part of. The problem is that such enterprise dosen’t exists, in each country (or at least in the big ones) the newstands titles are distributed by local distributors, that have the logistics for distributing in their country but not in the others. If several newstands distributors don’t distribute to libraries, imagine to distribute to other country!!!

The alternatives are suscription online and send the titles by mail or to look for 25 distributors to distribute your titles. (Well, there won’t be 25, because to sell a magazine in English in Spain, Portugal or Italy will be virtually Impossible, even despite in Spain could be easier due the tourism. I don’t know how is the level of English in the Eastern Europe, I hardly doubt it would be any better.)

It’s a pity, but the publication of a Disney title in English (let’s hope that with better luck that Gemstone) is good news, and maybe thanks to the internet can be delivered worldwide.

May 18, 2009
1:01 pm
#3 Comic Book Stores wrote:

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

Trackbacks to this post. Thanks for the linkage.

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Disney Comics Worldwide Blog
Arthur Disney Comics Worldwide is an unofficial website with information on Disney comics and magazines from around the world. With approximately 50% of the market, Disney is the largest publisher of children's magazines and comics (excluding manga) in the world!

I'm Arthur and on this blog I write about Disney comics news, new comic book releases and other Disney related stories. If you have any news about Disney comics please don't hestitate to contact me.


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