190 EUROPEAN COMICS
the American comic book industry and were responsible for some outstanding comic
book miniseries such as Watchmen. Europe, meanwhile, attracted important artists
from other continents, such as the work of the Argentines Muñoz and Sampayo
( Joe’s Bar, Alack Sinner), the American leader of the underground, Robert Crumb
(Dirty Laundry Comics), the Iranian Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis). In addition, artists
moved between various European countries: Belgium from the 1950s until the 1970s
became a kind of comics Eldorado for artists from other countries (e.g., Martin from
France, Rosinski from Poland, Andreas from Germany); from the 1970s onwards,
France became a leading country for adult comics that utilized the talents of a similar
range of European artists. Remarkably, Italy in the postwar period became the world’s
biggest producer of Disney comics by local artists such as Bottaro, Carpi, Cavazzano, De
Vita, and Scarpa. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands local artists created their own Donald
Duck stories. European artists sometimes felt inspired by the American superheroes
too, but this genre never met the same success in Europe as in the United States.
Th ough the Spanish syndicates (Creaciones Editoriales, Bardon Art, Selecciones Illustra-
das) exported a sizeable number of comics in the 1960s and 1970s, European publishers
were in general not very effi cient in exporting their creations to other continents. While
North American and Japanese characters such as Batman, Th e Peanuts, Astro Boy, or
Dragonball became known worldwide, only a very limited number European comics
such as Tintin, Tex Willer, Astérix, and Les Schtroumpfs (the Smurfs) were known and
read outside Europe (and those that were known often owed much of their profi le to
spin-off animated television series). Europe consists mostly of rather small-ish markets
in indigenous languages. Furthermore, the United States and Japan had an advantage
in that they had a much more extensive secondary market for their comics, in the form
of exports of their comics and spin-off adaptations (animated or live-action) for televi-
sion or fi lm. Nevertheless, very few foreign publishers are directly involved in Europe:
most of them work with local fi rms (e.g., the Italian publisher Panini translates not only
manga but also typical American superhero comics from DC or Marvel). Indeed, the
comics market is still very volatile with publishing fi rms changing ownership quite fre-
quently. Th e independent publishers are rather small, with exceptions like L’Association
producing a considerable number of comics each year.
Comics magazines still exist in many countries, but their role is far less signifi cant
than decades ago. By the end of the 1970s, the album (similar to American trade paper-
back compilations) market had taken over. Overall, readers showed that they preferred
to buy a complete story rather than wait for short episodes in weeklies or monthlies. Yet,
contrary to cinema or literature, “one-shots” remain the exception: the majority of com-
ics publications since the early 20th century have built upon the idea of a series based
around a limited number of protagonists (contemporary popular series are, for instance,
Th orgal, XIII, Titeuf ). Notwithstanding this dominance of series, in recent years the
number of one-shots for adults seems to be growing. Th e variety of styles and themes is
wider than ever, the old popular types (adventure, humor, animal) have been joined by
newer trends such as the graphic novel (with subgenres like autobiography). Among the
