Titan Comics is rapidly expanding its line of European albums for English-speaking audiences.  The company recently brought over Lizzie Kaye as editor from graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero (acquired by Abrams in 2011, see “Abrams Acquires U.K. GN Publisher”).  Kaye has taken over all of the titles in the pipeline, which now amounts to 20 to 24 titles for 2015, she told ICv2. 

“Titan has been interested in bringing European graphic novels to the UK and US market for a while now and started the process quite slowly in late 2013,” Kaye said. “I have been amping up the schedule, amping up the line as time has gone on.”  The titles are currently all bandes dessinees, Franco-Belgian albums, although Kaye plans to add material from Germany, Spain, and other European sources as time goes on.

Titan’s initial BD releases have been well received, especially Snowpiercer (see “Review:  ‘Snowpiercer Vol. 1:  The Escape; HC”) and Elric (see “Elric:  The Ruby Throne”).    

“We have seen that there’s a market for this material in the US.,” Kay said.  “Snowpiercer and Elric did incredibly well, both going to reprint almost immediately. They were fantastic. And we’ve had wonderful responses from retailers, most recently at the ComicsPRO summit.  They were thrilled, very excited, wanted to know more, wanted to know what we had coming out.

“The thirst is there. People want to be reading these stories and people are aware that there is some fantastic work coming out of the Franco-Belgian market. It’s up to Titan now to bring it to people, and I’m hoping that that’s what we’re going to do and people are going to be thrilled with it.”

Titan is going to be doing some longer series, which Kaye says distinguishes Titan’s BD line from those of most other publishers. The line is being sold under the Titan Comics mark, and does not currently have a separate imprint. 

Titan will be releasing books in two hardcover formats.  “Masterpiece” editions will be oversize (238mm x 316mm, or around 9.4” x 12.4”), and what Kaye is calling the Euro-novel size (205mm x 276mm, or 8” x 10.7”).

A new edition of Enki Bilal’s The Nikopol Trilogy, last available from DC in the mid-aughts (see “DC Goes Euro”) is in the works, Kaye told us.  “Another one that I’m really excited about is our new translation and new release of The Nikopolo Trilogy,” Kaye said.  “We’ll be releasing a new edition of that, which is one that I’m beside myself with excitement about. It has been out in English before, but many, many years ago, and it’s been out of print for a long time.  It’s one of those books that you want for your own collection so you obsessively watch listings just to hopefully get one.  It’s been one of those books for me for the last decade, obsessively watching the listings and never being able to afford it. The fact that we’re bringing that out, I’m beyond excited and it’s going to be wonderful.”

Samurai, by Jean-Francois Di Giorgio and Fredric Genet, will launch later this year.  It’s an eight-volume series in France.  Titan will kick off with a fatter volume, collecting volumes 1-4, followed by four single volumes of 48-64 pages. 

Titan is also doing a new translation of The Quest for the Time Bird, by Serge Le Tendre and Régis Loisel, which will be released in the oversized Masterpiece format.  “It means you just have these incredible pages that really show off the artwork,” Kaye said.

Titan will release Mutafukaz, by Run, this fall.  Kaye outlined the story. “It’s a fantastic story about a dystopian Los Angeles called Dark Meat City. It’s following these two incredible little characters who have life thrust upon them and they have to figure out their way around it which a whole science fiction element, which is fantastic.”

Under:   Volume 1:  Monsters Beneath, by Christophe Bec, Stefano Raffaele, and Christian Favrelle, will launch in August. 

The classic The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane, by Philippe Druillet, will launch in June, the first of a series by Druillet (see “Titan Brings Back Druillet”).

Titan also plans to release Showman Killer by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Nicolas Fructus.