Semic Interprint is a Hungarian publishing company, located in Budapest. It was recently renamed 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 where Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and The 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 where Teenage 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 were forced into joint bi-monthly titles like Batman and Superman. 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 and Largo Winch.
At the end of the mid '90-s, financial disputes with Marvel Comics (who at that time was bankrupt) led to cancellations 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 and Sailor Moon. The first two were 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 of Video Girl Ai and Sailor 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 of Panini Comics in Hungary, who also publishes American comics, Semic chose to make Csodálatos Pókember a monthly title.
Adoc-Semic products are available at newsstand, there is no Direct market for comics in Hungary. Some back issues are still available from the publisher.