How the long and controversial end of ECC Comics has been forged

Even if it is for a short period of time, DC Comics is left without a home in Spain. The publisher that was in charge of it, the Catalan ECC Editionsis declared bankrupt and the judge in charge has launched its liquidation and dissolution, as reflected in the Public Bankruptcy Registry this past Saturday. It is nothing more than the official confirmation of a rumor that has plagued networks and fan forums for months: that ECC was about to lose the publishing rights to Batman and Superman.

DC, an abrupt history of editions in Spain. Contrary to what one might think, DC has had a rather bumpy time in our country: Novaro, Bruguera, Zinco, VID, Norma, Planeta have been responsible for publishing its catalog and for just over fourteen years now, ECC . And its arrival to the rights of the North American publisher was not exactly easy: the ADLO blog remembers it! diving into the newspaper libraryand remembering that ECC obtained the rights in a struggle with Planeta (owner of the rights since 2005) that is still full of chiaroscuros.

The comic packaging machine. ECC did a job as a packager (in English, packaginga services company that manages translation, layout and even distribution tasks) for Planeta. The transfer of powers, the loss of the rights by a seemingly untouchable giant like Planeta in favor of a fledgling publisher is a strange move, and the official version of ECC is that they got the rights straight from DC. The truth is that, doing all the work of packaging for Planeta when it was outsourced, it had gained considerable experience. However, bad press came to ECC when, after six years as DC’s editor, she decided to launch a minor classic of the house, the ‘Kamandi’ by Jack Kirby via crowdfunding.

Of the crowdfunding to heaven The decision, because it was unusual, was highly controversial: not only is it not usual for an established publisher, but it is much less so if it is about launching a comic of one of the majors of superheroes. It was especially controversial among booksellers, since in a crowdfunding which finances and ships directly to readers, the product bypasses intermediaries. The decision to launch more and more crowdfunding (and no less classics, like ‘New Titans’ or ‘Batman and the Outsiders’) and open your own stores continued to raise suspicions.

The beginning of the end. In 2020, Panini (Marvel publisher in Spain) acquired the rights in Italy to publish DCwhere Marvel also edited. It was the beginning of four long years of rumors in which in Spain it was said with increasing force that ECC would end up losing the rights to DC. Rumors that have been accentuated as the delays accumulated and the unrest with the stores took shape in a much more tangible way: the Madrid-based Akira Comics, one of the most important specialized stores in Spain, detailed in a tweet “SERIOUS accounting disagreements” with the publisher, with a number of concerns shared by the Madrid Booksellers’ Guild.

The authors cry too. While the relationship with fans it was becoming more and more tensealso began to be so with the creators: the cartoonist and screenwriter Bruno Redondo published a thread on Twitternow deleted, about the Spanish edition of his ‘Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder’, protesting the “disastrous” translation and labeling of the comic. The responsibility, according to Redondo, lies with a tool that uses generative AI, which undoubtedly added fuel to the fire, generating a new controversy from which ECC had to defend itself. in a statement.

If these complaints reached DC’s ears and could have precipitated the publisher’s fall, it is something that belongs, again, to the rumor mill, but what is true and verifiable is that since the summer, the publisher’s delays and series that are left hanging They are counted in tens.

Who gets DC. Once again, rumors abound about the purchase, not officially confirmed by Panini, but which go far beyond “if the river sounds…” (for starters, the publisher itself tweeting that “as soon as possible, we will share official information with you”, without specifying whatbut at a time when rumors were a clamor). Contacts familiar with the case and close to the publisher confirm that Panini is carrying out personnel movements with the idea of ​​creating a department for the DC edition, and that the intention is to leave before the summer, although for now, in the communication of news From the publisher for April DC Comics does not appear yet.

Added to the clues that Panini herself is advancing online is the indisputable fact of her experience editing Marvel, and that she already publishes DC in Italy and France. The other possible candidate to publish DC, Planeta, has already announced that it will imminently publish the other important license that ECC had, Skybound (‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Invencible’). All clues point to Panini.

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