Ediciones B

Last updated

Ediciones B is a Spanish publisher, which currently operates as a division of Penguin Random House. Ediciones B is headquartered in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; with branches throughout Latin America. It was established in 1986, but has its origins in El Gato Negro (1910) and Editorial Bruguera (1940).

Contents

Ediciones B
Parent company Penguin Random House
Founded1986;38 years ago (1986)
Country of originSpain
Headquarters locationBarcelona/Madrid
DistributionPenguin Random House Grupo Editorial
Imprints B de Blok
B de Bolsillo
B de Books
Official website www.megustaleer.com/editoriales/ediciones-b/EB/

History

El Gato Negro

It was founded in 1910 by Juan Bruguera Teixidó under the name El Gato Negro and specialising in popular literature, joke books and especially in comic magazines. [1] They followed the example of the Spanish comic magazine TBO (founded in 1917) and in 1921, they created Pulgarcito which proved very successful. They published another twenty magazines including Charlot (1928) with content of Film Fun .

It came to possess, as indicated by Jesús Cuadrado:

An industrial plant (in Parets del Vallès), an advertising division (Nueva Línea), a library (Proa), a distributor (Libresa), stamps subsidiaries (Ceres), several branches in the Spanish territory delegations outside (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Lisbon, Mexico, Portugal, Venezuela), and an internal communication newsletter (Nosotros). [2]

After Juan Bruguera's death in 1933 his sons, Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera Grane, succeeded him. [1]

Editorial Bruguera

Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera changed the name from El Gato Negro to Editorial Bruguera in 1939.

In 1947, the publishing house increased profits with other comics such as El Campeón (1948), Super Pulgarcito (1949), Magos de la Risa (1949) and El DDT (1951); romance novels of Corín Tellado and western novels (notably the ones of Marcial Lafuente Estefanía) and adventure comics such as El Cachorro or Capitán Trueno . In 1957, a group of comic artists tried to secede from the publisher and founded their own magazine Tío Vivo , but they did not succeed and in 1960, the magazine was acquired by Bruguera. Bruguera also published a comic for girls Sissi . By then, Bruguera was one of the largest publishers of comics in Spain, along with Cliper, Hispano Americana and Toray. [3] Over time, the family business also became a truly multinational publisher, being implemented in several countries in Latin America.

Many works by Maria Dolores Acevedo, a Galician romance and western writer, were published by Editorial Bruguera between 1956 and 1974. [4]

Comics

In the field of comics, the role played by the Editorial Bruguera after the Spanish Civil War was fundamental, especially its humor publications. Directed by Rafael González Martínez, the Editorial Bruguera cartoonists created an easily recognisable style (called "Escuela Bruguera") that was halfway between children's entertainment and a satire of manners.

Comics titles and characters published by Editorial Bruguera included:

Other directions

Since the mid-1960s, they launched new magazines such as Din Dan (1965), Bravo (1968) and Gran Pulgarcito (1969) in which the influence of television is clear. They also published in Spain Franco-Belgian comics such as Asterix or Blueberry, always beating their competitors.

In the 1970s, they increased their production of comics, taking advantage of their feature characters and combining new and old material. [5]

In the literature field, they lost lawsuits against Corín Tellado and Marcial Lafuente Estefanía in 1974, [2] so they started to publish material by Jorge Amado, Jorge Luis Borges, García Márquez, Juan Marsé o Juan Carlos Onetti. [6] They also launched two pocket book collections: Libro Clásico and Libro Amigo. [5]

The end

In the early 1980s, books such as Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez became big best-sellers. [7] Despite this, the publishing house filed for bankruptcy on 7 June 1982.

In 1986, it was acquired by Grupo Zeta and transformed into Ediciones B. [2]

It was briefly relaunched under Ediciones B from 2006 to 2010.

Ediciones B

Ediciones B was established in 1986, when Grupo Zeta purchased Editorial Bruguera, and renamed it "Ediciones B".

From its inception, Ediciones B's focus has published magazines such as TBO. It included stories from fictional characters such as Mortadelo & Filemon, SuperLopez, the naughty twins Zipi and Zape, and Capitán Trueno. Later, Ediciones B published comics and other stories that originated in foreign countries.

In the late 1990s, Ediciones B launched magazines geared toward children and teen audiences. As time passed, Ediciones B's publishing focus grew to include books from other genres. Some of these included adult content. The company acquired the rights of the American companies Disney and Bongo Comics, and directed by Carlos Santamaría Martínez, he launched Top Disney (1996–1999), Minnie Disney (1996–1999), Mega Top (1999–2005), Super Mini (1999–2005) and Top Cómic Mortadelo (2002–present). in addition to Calvin and Hobbes and the Simpson Comics (2003). [8] The new version of Zipi and Zape commissioned by Cera y Ramis was canceled in 2002, due to its lack of success. [9]

In March 2011, under the direction of Ernest Folch, he managed to shut down web pages centered on the study of Mortadelo and Filemón, provoking the subsequent controversy on the Internet. [10]

In April 2017, Grupo Zeta sold Ediciones B to Penguin Random House for €40 million ($46,658,000). [11] The transaction was completed in July 2017.

Genres

Ediciones B publishes multiple literary genres, including:

Imprints

After merging with Penguin Random House's web, the publisher changed its distribution. Significant sections include:

Literary events

Ediciones B takes part in literary events.

Historical Novel award "Ciudad de Úbeda": After organizing this contest together with other entities, Ediciones B published the winning historical novel. The contest is called once a year.

"La Trama" award: Beginning in the year 2014, this Ediciones B's annual contest looks for new writing talent in the categories of thrillers and whodunits. The first winner was Laura Balagué with her Las Pequeñas Mentiras (lit. The Little Lies).

Boolino awards: These annual awards began in 2015 and award accolades to the best illustrated youth and children's books. Ediciones B awards the winner with publication under "B de Blok". The first winning book was Entre Todas las Estrellas (Lit. Among All the Stars), by Cristina Alfonso Ibáñez.

Ediciones B can be found in some book fairs, such as those of the World Book Day/International Day of the Book. Others are held in cities such as Madrid or Barcelona.

Internet

Ediciones B offers two weekly contests so their readers can interact and try to complete their own books. They are "Los Martes nos vemos en B" ("We see at B on Tuesdays") and "Viernes con B" ("On Fridays with B"). The contests are not held in August due to the holiday period.

Los martes nos vemos en B: It consists of uploading a picture of a book cover together with a question. Answering it allows readers to participate in a drawing for the book.

Viernes con B: To become a participant, readers must retweet a message B has published. After the weekend, the person having retweeted the already mentioned message can win the book that has been tweeted that Friday.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francisco Ibáñez Talavera</span> Spanish comic book artist and writer (1936–2023)

Francisco Ibáñez Talavera was a Spanish comic book artist and writer.

Pulgarcito was a weekly illustrated magazine of Spain that was published by Editorial Bruguera from June 1921 to 1987.

<i>Zipi y Zape</i>

Zipi y Zape are the names of two Spanish comic book characters created by José Escobar in 1947, and of their eponymous strip. Their name is derived from the Spanish word zipizape, meaning "turmoil" or "chaos."

José Escobar Saliente was a Spanish comic book writer and artist, born in Barcelona. He signed as Escobar, and is most famous for his creation Zipi y Zape, as well as the character Carpanta. He was also an author and a theater actor, as well as one of the pioneers of animation in Spain during the 1920s, and worked on early Spanish animated movies, such as La ratita que barría la escalerita.

Spanish comics are the comics of Spain. Comics in Spain are usually called historietas or cómics, with tebeos primarily denoting the magazines containing the medium. Tebeo is a phonetic adaptation of TBO, a long-running (1917–1983) Spanish comic magazine, and sounds like "te veo".

José Sanchis Grau was a Spanish comic book writer. He also worked for Editorial Bruguera and Spanish children comics in general. He was the creator of strips like Pumby (1954) and Robín Robot (1972).

Las hermanas Gilda are Spanish comic characters of the series of the same name created by Manuel Vázquez Gallego in 1949. The protagonists are the sisters Hermenegilda and Leovigilda, who live together. The names of the series and its characters refer to the movie Gilda, released three years earlier in Spain, and the deadly conflict between the visigoths rulers Hermenegild and Liuvigild who also were family.

Rompetechos is a Spanish comic character created by cartoonist Francisco Ibáñez in 1964, protagonist of the series of the same name. Rompetechos is a short and myopic man whose poor vision generates comical situations. Ibánez stated repeatedly that, among his creations, this was his favorite character and due to this he appeared frequently in other series by the author, notably Mortadelo y Filemón.

Joaquín Cera is a Spanish comic book writer more famous for his Pafman strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmond Ripoll</span> Spanish comics artist

Edmundo Fernández Ripoll, better known as Edmond, is a Catalan comic book artist and illustrator, born in 1938 march in Barcelona. His most famous creation was Jan Europa.

Mortadelo is a Spanish comic magazine published from 1970 to 1991 first by Editorial Bruguera and subsequently by Ediciones B. The magazine is named after the popular Mort & Phil comic series created by Francisco Ibáñez.

La Estatua de la Libertad is a 1983-1984 comic written and drawn by Francisco Ibañez for the Mortadelo y Filemón comic series.

La familia Trapisonda is a Spanish comic series created by Francisco Ibáñez in 1958 for the magazine Pulgarcito about the comic misadventures of a low-middle-class family. Most strips of the series are one page long.

Jorge or Jordi Goset i Rubio, better known as Gosset, was a Spanish cartoonist.

El sulfato atómico is a 1969 comic written and drawn by Francisco Ibañez for the Mortadelo y Filemón comic series. It is the first long story of the series and the first appearance of the T.I.A. secret agency.

Joan March i Zuriguel is a Spanish cartoonist, member of the ill-fated third generation the Bruguera School, alongside other authors such as Casanyes, Esegé, the Fresno brothers, Rovira and Rafael Vaquer. His most famous series are El Mini Rey and Tranqui y Tronco.

Miquel Bernet Toledano, better known by the pseudonym Jorge, was a Spanish comic artist. His most famous character is Doña Urraca.

Juan Carlos Ramis Jiménez is a Spanish comic book artist born in Chantada, Lugo in 1962.

Tete Cohete is a Spanish comic character created by the artist Francisco Ibáñez. He first appeared in 1981 in the Mort & Phil album titled Tete Cohete and later in the magazine Pulgarcito.

References

  1. 1 2 Martín (01/1968), pp. 11 a 12.
  2. 1 2 3 Cuadrado (2000), p. 187.
  3. Martín (03/1968), pp. 135–137.
  4. Cora, José de (9 April 2021). "María Dolores Acevedo y Vázquez". El Progreso de Lugo (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 December 2024.
  5. 1 2 Martínez (2004), p. 52.
  6. Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel (12/06/1982). Crónica de una ruina anunciada , "El País".
  7. ARROYO, Francesc (10/06/1982). "La suspensión de pagos en Bruguera no supone la desaparición de la editorial," "El País".
  8. Guiral (2012), pp. 130-131.
  9. Guiral (09/2010), pp. 164 a 165.
  10. Pons, Álvaro (7 April 2011). "Viñetas en el banquillo de los acusados". El País (in Spanish). ISSN   1134-6582 . Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  11. "PRH acquires Barcelona-based Ediciones B from Grupo Zeta". The Bookseller. Retrieved 25 November 2017.

Bibliography