Publication types Books Official website www.dargaud.com Founder Georges Dargaud Parent organization Média-Participations | Country of origin France Fiction genres Comics Headquarters location Paris, France Founded 1943 | |
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Profiles | ||
Société Dargaud, doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud ([daʁɡo]), publishing its first comics in 1943.
Initially, Dargaud published novels for women. In 1948, they started Line, a "magazine for elegant women", as well as a French edition of the Belgian Tintin magazine.
In 1960, Dargaud bought the weekly Pilote magazine from René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, and Jean-Michel Charlier, and the same year they published their first albums. Goscinny continued as editor of the magazine, and Charlier was album editor for a period.
In 1974, Dargaud wanted to diversify, and Pilote became a monthly magazine, and spawned two other monthly magazines. The new magazines were Lucky Luke Mensuel (a Western themed magazine around the series Lucky Luke) and Achille Talon Magazine (a humor based magazine around the series Achille Talon). However, both magazines could not sustain a readership and folded within a year. The comics from these two magazines were put back into Pilote.
In 1988, Dargaud was acquired by Média-Participations. Two years later, it sold the weekly gardening and do-it-yourself magazine Rustica to Média-Participations as well.
In 1992, the publisher Le Lombard became a part of Dargaud, followed in 1993 by Les Éditions Blake et Mortimer. Over the course of the 1990s, Dargaud subsequently acquired several audiovisual production companies, including Citel in 1994, Marina Productions in 1997, and Millésime Productions in 1998. The latter two, specialized in television animation, joined in 1999 to create Dargaud Marina, later renamed Dargaud Media.
At the end of the 1990s, Dargaud created manga publisher Kana, followed by Lucky Comics, centered on the series Lucky Luke.
In 2003, Dargaud acquired the production studio Ellipse Animation, holder of one of the most extensive catalogues of European cartoons (including Tintin and Babar).
In 2008, Dargaud founded the foreign rights agency Mediatoon Licensing, and in 2015, it joined with twelve other European comics publishing actors to create Europe Comics, a digital initiative co-funded by the European Commission's Creative Europe program.