Norma Editorial is a Spanish

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, with its headquarters in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

.Home
Norma Editorial. Retrieved on 1 May 2011. "Passeig de Sant Joan 7. 08010 Barcelona. Spain" Founded in 1977 by Rafael Martínez, Norma Editorial publishes both original Spanish comics (such as '' Miguelanxo Prado''), Spanish translations of Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

(such as work of

Kia Asamiya , best known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist whose work spans multiple genres and appeals to diverse audiences. Biography Before becoming a manga artist, Asamiya graduated from the Tokyo Designer School, then worked as a character de ...

, Clamp,

Haruhiko Mikimoto is a Japanese anime character designer, illustrator and manga artist. Mostly active during the 1980s, during that decade he rose to prominence and is considered one of the top character designers of his time. He graduated from Keio University, ...

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese Mangaka, manga artist, screenwriter, animator, and film director. He first rose to prominence as a pioneer founder of the New Wave (manga), New Wave in the 1970s. He is best known as the creator of ''Akira (franchise), Akira'', bo ...

, and

Masamune Shirow , better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga ''Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television film, an ani ...

) as well as Spanish translations of American or European comics and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

s (including works of

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner ( ; March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) wa ...

Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book artist, comic book writer, and screenwriter known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'', for which he created the character Elektra, and ...

Dave Gibbons David Chester Gibbons (born 14 April 1949) is an English comics artist, writer and sometimes letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries ''Watchmen'' and the Superman story " For the M ...

Enki Bilal Enki Bilal (born Enes Bilal; born 7 October 1951) is a French comic book creator and film director. Biography Early life Bilal was born in Belgrade, PR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, to a Czech mother, Ana, who came to Belgrade as child from Karlovy ...

Hugo Pratt Ugo Eugenio Prat (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), better known as Hugo Pratt, was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as '' Corto Maltese''. He was indu ...

, Manu Larcenet,

Joann Sfar Joann Sfar (; born 28 August 1971) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director. Life and career Sfar was born in Nice, the son of Lilou, a pop singer, who died when he was three, and André Sfar, a lawyer well know ...

Lewis Trondheim Laurent Chabosy (; born 11 December 1964), better known as Lewis Trondheim (), is a French cartoonist and one of the founders (in 1990) of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic ''La Mouche'' and Kaput and Zösky have been ...

History

Origin

In 1981, Norma Editorial absorbed magazines from Riego Ediciones; '' Cimoc'' and ''

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

'', and later on ''

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

'', '' Sargento Kirk'' and '' Humor a tope'', all directed at 1984 for Joan Navarro. With these brands, the company honed its focus on

Spanish comics 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 (1 ...

and

European comics European comics are comics produced in Europe. The comic album is a very common printed medium. The typical album is printed in large format, generally with high quality paper and colouring, commonly , has around 48–60 pages, but examples with ...

. Among its first published works where those of Enrique S. Abulí, Alfonso Azpiri, Beroy, Alfonso Font, Miguelanxo Prado, Segrelles, Daniel Torres or Sento; followed by the works of

, François Bourgeon, Vittorio Giardino,

Jean Van Hamme Jean Van Hamme (born 16 January 1939) is a Belgian novelist and comic book writer. He has written scripts for a number of Belgian/French comic series, including ''Histoire sans héros'', '' Thorgal'', '' XIII'' and ''Largo Winch''. Biography ...

Alejandro Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French Experimental film, avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films ''El Topo'' (1970), ''The Holy Mountain (1973 film), The Holy Mountain'' (1973) and ''Santa Sangre'' ...

, Milo Manara, Moebius,

, Grzegorz Rosinski, Jacques Tardi, and Marika Vila. Some sagas from these authors were published in collections such as ''Álbumes Cairo'', ''B/N'', ''Cimoc Extra Color'', ''El Muro'' and ''Pandora''. They edited the theoretical collection ''Un hombre, mil imágenes'' (1982–1985).

New paths

In the 1990s, Norma Editorial started to edit works from North American authors. Their most successful was the work of

, followed by John Byrne,

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

Mike Mignola Michael Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a Hellboy Universe, shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', ''Abe Sapien'', ''Lobster Johns ...

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', Swamp Thing (comic book), ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman: The Killing Joke' ...

in brands like ''Made in USA''. The company participated in the

boom of the '90s, publishing the works of

, CLAMP, Kosuke Fujishima,

, Hiromu Arakawa, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and

. In the mid-1990s, Norma Editorial began a close collaboration with American independent

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

, and later joined their catalog series

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

es of

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

and collection

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

Later years

After the loss of the rights of DC in 2005, they started a series of collections including ''Made in Hell'', a terror comic; ''Comic Noir'', a political comic; and a sci-fi comic; ''El día después''. In 2006, they announced the purchase of a new superheroes series, from the ASPEN editorial (''Soulfire'' and ''Fathom'') and

WildStorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...

('' The Authority'' or '' Ex Machina'').

References

Sources

External links

Norma Editorial

Norma Editorial
{{Authority control Publishing companies established in 1977 Comic book publishing companies of Spain Manhwa distributors Economy of Barcelona Barcelona in popular culture Mass media in Barcelona