This 2022 that he has left us has been a year of clear generational change, within the universe of European comics. No longer at a superficial level, but in its essential core; thus authors such as Catherine Meurisse , Bastien Vivès , Manuele Fior , Neyef , Jérémie Moreau , Pénélope Bagieu , Leo Ortolani , José Luis Munuera , Zerocalcare , Riad Sattuf , Teresa Radice , Stefano Turconi , Alicia Jaraba… have usurped the position of the eternal authors of previous generations as the main claims of the publishers. Only the incombustible Enki Bilal , Rubén Pellejero , Jean-Marc Rochette , Paolo Bacilieri , Zidrou or François Boucq seem to hold up and some precursors, such as Frederik Peeters , Christophe Blain or Émile Bravo , continue to give us absolutely masterful works.
Numerically, sales will be similar to those of previous years and for the second consecutive year the best-selling book in general on the French market is a BD, specifically The Endless World by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain , published in Spanish by Norma . It is clear that the two driving forces behind comic book publishing in Europe are the Franco-Belgian market and that of fumettiwho also enjoy iron health. Thank you Toutatis! On the other hand, in the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula, obvious signs of a slowdown are beginning to be noticed, for various reasons specific to each region. Although price increases due to the relative scarcity of raw materials is one of these reasons, it is not the only one. And the eternal debate on the best economic and social protection for authors remains to be resolved...
In Italy, the market is reasonably stable and the hangover from an event like the Lucca Comics & Games a few weeks ago is still going on, where the success of the public and guests has been truly spectacular.
This 2022 that is over allows us to be reasonably optimistic for the future, we can assume that 2023 will be the same or why not? better than previous years. As always, the Angoulême Festival will be an excellent sample of what awaits us. But now it's time to analyze what 2022 has brought us. Let's start with what's closest to us.
Although it does not happen as regularly as we would like, each year we can read a good handful of works created in other European countries. The one we can read the most about is usually from Germany, from where we have received two such interesting works related to music, Starman: The David Bowie Years as Ziggy Stardust ( ECC ) by Reinhard Kleist and Young Ludwig ( Reservoir ) by Mikaël Ross , another with literature such as Frankenstein ( Obelisco Editions ), by Ralf König and Isabel Kreitz , as well as the first part of Vatermilch ( New Nine), the series inspired by his life by Uli Oesterle .
But it has not been the only country of the old continent from which we have been able to sample comics, since we have also received works from the Czech Republic, ( RUR by Katerina Cupovâ ), Sweden ( The Hall of Mirrors by Liv Strömquist , Take Me With You by Anneli Furmark or Diana & Charlie by Elias Ericson ) or Finland ( Moomin by Tove Jansson ).
In addition, although it is not Europe, we are also going to review the comics that have come to us from South America, among which are the editions or reissues of works published many years ago, such as the new edition of Planeta de El Eternauta by Oesterheld and Solano López , cartoonist . also Ana and sad stories edited by Norma or the two works by Alberto Breccia ( Versions and The Gray Traveler ). We have had fewer opportunities to read more current works, although we cannot ignore the heartbreaking La sombra de la cucaracha ( Astiberri ) byCat Fernandez .