It is already official: Panini buys from DC Comics the exploitation rights in Spain of its catalog, as confirmed In a statement This Thursday. In the same, the Italian multinational specifies that “DC, one of the largest comics and graphic novels in the world and home in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and Panini, one of the largest comics publishers in Europe and Latin America , announce the agreement ”, for which the second will publish the comics and graphic novels of the first in Spain since the beginning of April 2025.
In addition, Panini guarantees the distribution of said catalog in specialized bookstores, kiosks, general libraries and in the main online stores. This launch, says Panini, “will coincide with the start of the line Dc all in and of Absolute Universe” Panini also ensures that “it will focus on the extensive trajectory of DC throughout the decades through various formats that allow readers to discover in depth the immense catalog of the company and large classics belonging to all times.”
“In the 1980s, by the hand of Watchmen, New Titans, Camelot 3000, Batman: The Return of the Dark Knight And the Superman of John Byrne, we learned to love DC and in my case, that love never disappeared, ”explains Alejandro M. Viturtia, editorial director of Panini Comics. “I have kept DC all these years as one of my referents comiqueros, therefore, I can hardly express the emotion that causes me to welcome the Panini Comics pantheon,” continues the manager who says that “from the First moment, DC superheroes will feel at home with us. ”
“Not surprisingly, Panini is also DC’s house in Italy, Germany, Brazil and Mexico. As Superman would say, we will work for a better tomorrow, ”he concludes. For its part, the company closes the statement explaining that it will soon present “the advance of the DC 2025 Editorial Plan”.
Transfer of rights after the bankruptcy of ECC
The rumors of bankrupt voluntarily in creditors competitionand a judge in Barcelona had decreed the liquidation of goods and the dissolution of the same, left in the sector a great uncertainty about who would be the next recipient of the management and exploitation of the DC catalog, together with Marvel the most powerful editor to global level.
The reason was to know what would be the next house of Batman, Superman, Catwoman and other superheroes that, to date and since 2012, had been distributed by ECC, a company that was about to cease to exist and whose bankruptcy in the sector was links with the loss of the rights of the DC catalog.
In fact, the aforementioned rights passed from Planet to ECC in a movement that different sources, such as the cartoonist Pedro Rodríguez or the owner of the Madrid store Akira Comics Jesús Marugán, qualify as “financial contralature”, since at that time ECC was a company outsourced by planet and much lower dimensions.
In the comic atmosphere, on the other hand, both among artists and among the different stores, it was an open secret that Panini would be done with rights. “It seems good and the most logical, Panini is a serious and European company,” Fernando Garrido, owner of the Madrid store, declared at the time Alcalá Comics. Also from the Zaragoza store Taj Mahal Comicsits owner, Daniel Fernández, was confident that “the distribution of the catalog and communication will now be more fluid.”
Bad communication as a problem in ECC
Both from the shops and from the artists who worked with greater or lesser regular with ECC, they emphasize that the main problem with the editor and distributor was the poor communication. After an initial fluidity in relationships and information on payments, it was passed, according to stores and artists consulted, to a closure of the communications that made it difficult to liquidate the books not sold and returned as to clarify certain payments or charge for the work done .
“I started with them by signing a contract for several projects, for which I perceived an advance and then monthly amounts while developing the project, and the truth is that they were really well paid,” explains Lorenzo Montatore, one of the reference authors of the Spanish comic and cartoonist ECC franchise for the National Catalog.
Also the illustrators Daniel Deamo DanideDavid Rubin and Fernando Rodríguez, or screenwriter Álvaro Velasco highlight that the remuneration offered by ECC was generous. “They paid as in France,” says Rodríguez. However, after an impeccable start in payments and relationships, all the authors consulted agree that communication was suddenly cut at some time last year and the difficulties in claiming emoluments began.
“With me they agreed to reissue all my stories and also take three books from the series Cuervo apprentice”, Explains Danid Cuervo apprentice”, He preferred to suspend his publication. “They ended up paying the second book, anyway,” he clarifies, “but it is very frustrating not to see him published.”
Little transparency and very unhappy stores
Nor the series screenwriter Old promises Álvaro Velasco came to see a parallel project published that agreed with ECC, which canceled it without prior notice, “although they finally compensated for me.” “I never saw an excel with the sales of my works,” Velasco Apostille. The illustrator David Rubin, who worked promptly with the editor, also highlights his good rates, but criticizes the lack of transparency by the company. “It knows me badly that things have ended like this and I think about both workers and stores, that they will see them and wish to collect,” says Rubin.
Danide believes that “in general they have behaved well with the authors of the house; At least they have left them paid ”, but it does not see that ECC closed their doors without notice either to stores or authors.” It is the same reproach that Rubin performs: “The legal thing would be to notify the stores so that they could return the stocks that have not sold and charge for the return.” The cartoonist ensures that the authors should also, by law, have been notified to exercise the right of scoring on the copies of their works. ”
Rodríguez corroborates the opinions of his teammates and rivets: “We have charged, but this sector is a handkerchief and we all know each other, so we feel bad about the stores, which will have to eat the stocks that cannot be sold and surely From the moment in which the agreement with Panini enters into force, they will not be able to sell more DC catalog edited by ECC, which is an important part of the commercial weight. ”
From the comic store Universal Llibreria From Barcelona its owner, Ferran Velasco, corroborates the vision of the illustrator: “The closing of ECC has left us with a lot of stock of his books, so we will do nothing and nobody will want, since a new editorial will begin to edit Very soon and surely with a very different style, leaving the books without value. ”
“ECCs have taken this whole issue very dark,” criticizes the bookseller, “since they have not notified us of closing and against what the Book Law marks we have not been able to return the books.” He also denounces that “we have been invoiced by news that have not reached the bookstores, for important quantities, of which it is now possible that the bankruptcy administrator wants to demand their payment.”
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