That should comfort comic book writers. While the Angoulême festival, initially scheduled for January 27 to 30, has been postponed due to health restrictions, the annual report published on Thursday January 27 by the GfK institute testifies to the brilliant health of the sector. With 85 million copies sold (+ 60% compared to 2020) and 890 million euros in sales (+ 50%), comics now represent one in four books sold, a level never reached before.
Unlike the vast majority of cultural industry sectors, which have suffered severely from the health context, this sector has largely benefited from the pandemic: “We were already seeing significant growth in 2020 despite the confinements, says Camille Oriot, GfK Market Intelligence Books consultant. It seems that the scarcity of available leisure offers has enabled the French to devote more time to reading. »
“Big boost”
This record growth is largely driven by the extraordinary success of manga, whose sales have doubled compared to 2020 (+107%). These now represent one in two comics, making these series from Japan the leading segment in the sector. Moreover, if the new album of Asterix, released in October 2021, occupies by far the first place with more than 1.5 million copies sold, the top 5 is completed by four mangas, sold to more than 200 000 copies each.
The Adventures of Naruto, the most famous ninja of the literary genre, notably occupy three places in the top 10. “Manga has been on a very positive trend since 2015, but we were surprised by the scale of the growth”, explains Camille Oriot. “The Culture Pass gave a big boost, even if the increase would have been strong in any case. »
Youth comics, led by the series Deadly Adele, represent for their part 21% of copies sold, while genre comics account for 20% and comics complete the picture with 4% of sales. Furthermore, if Asterix has long been an essential locomotive for the market, this is no longer the case today, the sector showing almost the same growth with or without sales of the little Gaul: “For several years now, the comics market has freed itself from Asterix and managed to prosper independently of the series by relying on new titles that are emerging”, analyzes Camille Oriot.
Comics now occupy a central place in the literature sector. With 24% of copies sold, they represent the second segment of the literary industry, just behind general literature (25%) and ahead of children’s books (22%). In 2021, they will have attracted a third of book buyers, i.e. 7.2 million French people.