Comics: Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke… expensive comics

Comics have always been very popular in France and neighboring countries. Big hits originated in Belgium. But for three years, a newcomer has come to upset the established order. The manga. They are taking up more and more space in our stores and represent a real market. France is the world’s second largest consumer of manga, behind Japan. At the Angoulême comic book festival, manga are now making a place for themselves and even winning prizes. Hajime Isayama, the author of the worldwide hit work, “Attack on Titan”, received an honorary award at the 50th edition of the festival last January. We can add award-winning horror specialist Junji Ito and cartoonist Ryoichi Ikegami.

Franco-Belgian comics are holding up well. The new works struggle and hold on against this tidal wave coming from the east. We can note “The Endless World” by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain or “The Arab of the Future” by Riad Sattouf. But die-hards continue to sell their adventures. The new album by Asterix and Obelix in particular will be released on October 26.

The comic book industry has had record years. According to the newspaper “Les Echos”, the number of albums sold jumped by more than 80% between 2020 and 2021, or 87.5 million albums sold. In 2022, this figure has dropped slightly. 84.6 million albums were sold that year. In addition to the classic sale, a parallel market has been created. Collectors seek out historic albums and are willing to shell out big bucks to get their hands on them. They are looking for rare albums, the most popular are the first editions of the first albums or works that no longer appear today. Among these works we can find: