- Semic Interprint
Semic Interprint is a Hungarian publishing company, located in
Budapest . It was recently re-named to Adoc-Semic. It publishes mainly translated Hungarian comics and magazines. It has been the main comics company, and the only source for American comics in the country for over a decade.Publishing History
Formed in 1988, it started as a Hungarian-Swedish
joint venture , incorporating the former publisher Interprint. It took over former titles and introduced a whole series of American and European comics, never before seen in Hungary. Some of them whereSpider-man ,Batman ,Superman andThe Phantom . Publishing peaked in 1991 where the company put out more than 120 books a year.After the success of the three well known American titles, new ones got introduced.Transformers and the
X-Men .Marvel Extra , which featured the Avengers,Fantastic Four , Daredevil and many more. Others whereTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage comics) ,Robocop ,Garfield ,Calvin and Hobbes . Kretén featured mainly works of Hungarian artist, later it translated some material from MAD. Some older ones where forced into joint bi-monthly titles likeBatman andSuperman . Besides the growing number of comics, there were also unsuccessful moves like the short lived X-07 magazine, which was meant to feature Franco-Belgian comics, like XIII andLargo Winch .At the end of the mid '90-s, financial disputes with
Marvel Comics (who at that time was bankrupt) led to cancelations of Marvel Extra,X-Men , and the Transformers, leaving only Spider-Man, as the last Marvel character in the country. After this the company turned to Dark Horse and Image. X-Files, Spawn and Star Wars where launched in 1997. X-Files got canceled after one year, Spawn in 1999 together with Spider-Man, leaving the county with practically no comics.In 1999 the company introduced the first manga published in Hungary, namely Dragon Ball,
Video Girl Ai andSailor Moon . The first two where manga sized 52 page, monthly titles, Sailor Moon featured the colored Animanga version in a 52 page comic book size edition. The ban on Dragonball in Hungarian TV broadcasting had a diminishing effect on the spread of anime and manga at that time, and after the cancellation ofVideo Girl Ai andSailor Moon , Dragon Ball also got sacked.The next big move for the company was the introduction of the hit US comic series,
Ultimate Spider-Man . Titled Csodálatos Pókember in Hungarian, it got the same title as his predecessor in hope of wider recognition in older comic fans. 2001 also featured a sad event. DCs last representatives, Superman & Batman disappeared from the news stands.The years since can be dubbed stagnation at the company. No new regular titles, few one-shots like the Batman movie adaptation got published, but no big investments.With the Appearance ofPanini Comics inHungary , who also publishes American comics, Semic chose to make Csodálatos Pókember a monthly title.Adoc-Semic products are available at
newsstand , there is noDirect market for comics inHungary . Some back issues are still available from the publisher.Currently published comics
Published titles
External links
* [http://www.semic.hu Semic Interprint's official site]
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