Ivanka Hahnenberger, general manager
of VIP Brands, a licensing company she
founded in the 1980s. A multilingual
American raised in Geneva, Switzerland,
she’s a former investment banker, former
digital content entrepreneur, and a translator, as well as a rights consultant.
Hahnenberger sells rights for Glenat,
a major French comics publisher that
releases 800– 1,000 titles per year, in
addition to representing some smaller
publishers. Working with BIEF, the
French equivalent of the AAP, she was
instrumental in organizing a one-day
symposium on French graphic novels
held last spring at the French Embassy
in New York, which kicked off BookExpo
America and attracted nearly 60 U.S.
publishers. She’s also a consultant to
EuropeComics, a collaborative effort by
13 European publishers to provide easy-to-find rights and contact info on French
graphic novels for North American
publishers.
“I like to be on the cutting edge, and
graphic novels are the boom sector in
North America right now,” Hahnenberger
said. “When I began selling rights, I
realized that there were no publishers
from North America [at the fair], so I
said, Let’s bring them here.” One of the
publishers she’s brought over is Ted
Adams, CEO of IDW Publishing, a
major U.S. independent comics house
that publishes comics based on licenses
such as Transformers, Star Trek, and My
Little Pony, as well as offering original
genre and literary works through Top
Shelf, which IDW acquired in 2015.
This was Adams’s first trip to Angoulême.
“I’ve bought the rights to so many books
I’ve lost track,” he said, guessing that he’s
acquired at least a dozen titles at the show.
“I’m focused on getting the kind of books
we don’t see in the U.S.: biographies,
slice-of-life narratives, independent
books driven by an individual creator’s
vision.” The highlight of his buying spree,
Adams said, was The Story of Boddah:
How I Killed Kurt Cobain by Nicolas Otero,
a fictionalized story of the revered rock
musician’s life and death. IDW plans to
publish the book in fall 2016 with a big
marketing push behind it.
Hahnenberger said there were about
26 offers made on books at the rights
market this year. Acquisitions include
Caravaggio: The Palate and the Sword
(published by Glenat), an account of the
life of the 16th-century Milanese painter
by cartoonist Milo Minara, to be published in the U.S. by Dark Horse; and
Castro by Richard Kleist (published by
the German house Carlsen), a graphic
biography of the Cuban revolutionary, to
be published in the U.S. by Arsenal Pulp.
This isn’t the first time French comics
publishers have tried to market their
titles to the American market. But
Hahnenberger is confident her approach—
“slow and steady, and bringing over
American decision makers” to see
Angoulême—will make the difference.
“I’m an American—we know how to pitch
to consumers,” she said. “The French don’t
work like that; they expect their knowledge of comics to win people over, and
that just doesn’t work.” —Calvin Reid
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ FEBRUARY 8, 2016
stupefied by the cruelty and vulgarity of
the ceremony as a whole. The announce-
ment of fake awards, which broke the
hearts of numerous authors, publishers,
and readers, in addition to the sexist and
off-color remarks of the MC, are beneath
the dignity of a festival that remains an
internationally respected flagship event
in the world of comics.”
Despite its tone-deaf organizers,
Angoulême is an impressive publishing
event. The festival showcases hundreds
of exhibiting publishers and artists,
attracts thousands of fans, and takes over
virtually every venue in the city. It is the
Frankfurt Book Fair of graphic novels.
More than 12 pavilions are arrayed
around the city, each one focused on a
theme and includes more than 20
museum exhibitions.
Angoulême’s Rights &
Licensing Market
Much like Frankfurt, FIBD is a major
market for buying and selling foreign
rights. The rights market attracts
60–100 publishers (including a small
but growing number of Americans).
The French comics market is almost
completely a book market, though
American-style comic book periodicals
(and superhero comics) have a small presence. Angoulême is all books—graphic
novels of all kinds and genres—with no
displays based on blockbuster movies or
TV shows.
All of this rights activity usually takes
place without North American publishers, but that is changing, thanks to
Feature: PLA Preview
Issue: Mar. 21 Deadline: Feb. 24
For our preview coverage, we want to hear about
titles being promoted at the Public Library Asso-
ciation 2016 Conference in Denver, April 5–9,
and about major stories relating to the event.
We’re also interested in q&as and other events
taking place in conjunction with PLA. Sidebar
information on the show is welcome. Please
email pitches, links, and artwork to features@
publishersweekly.com by Feb. 24 and put
“Call for Info: PLA Preview” in the subject line.
Call for
Information
Quarterly
Results Down
At HC
Revenue at
HarperCollins fell
5%, to $446 million,
in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015,
compared to the
previous year.
Earnings dropped
26%, to $57 million.
The company
attributed the
decline to fewer
e-book sales and
fewer sales of
books in the
Divergent series.
Indigo
Restructures
Indigo Books &
Music has laid off
a number of vet-
eran book buyers,
as part of a down-
sizing that cut
about 20 employ-
ees. The store con-
firmed it underwent
a “reshaping” in
January, but said
it remains fully
committed to the
book business.
NewsBriefs
