Paris (AFP)
The comic strip experienced a new year of growth in France in 2020, in a difficult context with weeks of closure for bookstores, according to figures from the GfK institute published on Thursday.
The number of copies sold climbed 9% to 53.1 million, and sales by 6% to 591 million euros.
For several years now, comics have been the fastest growing publishing segment, enabling them to increase their market share which has now reached 18%.
According to GfK, with one in six books purchased, it is "the third segment" in the market, after general literature and children's books.
The closures of bookstores in the spring and in November had the effect of disrupting the calendar of new releases, with the number of releases down 12%, and cancellations or postponements that concerned lesser-known authors.
Within comics, manga is the most dynamic genre, representing 42% of copies sold, and growth of 18% in 2020. The rest of sales are divided between "genre comics" (27% of the market), comics youth (25%) and comics (6%).
The best sales of the year were an album by Lucky Luke, "Un cow-boy dans le coton", followed by "L'Arabe du futur 5" by Riad Sattouf and the 27th volume of the adventures of Blake and Mortimer, " The Cry of Moloch ".
If "the French bought massively comics at the time of the reopening" of bookstores, this has especially benefited the most famous authors.
"Their weight has been increased throughout the year," says GfK.
These figures appear on the eve of the winners of the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
The general public part of this festival has been postponed to June so that it can be held outdoors if the health crisis requires it.
© 2021 AFP