Ediciones B is a Spanish publisher, which currently operates as a division of

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

. Ediciones B is headquartered in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; with branches throughout Latin America. It was established in 1986, but has its origins in El Gato Negro (1910) and Editorial Bruguera (1940).

History

El Gato Negro

It was founded in 1910 by Juan Bruguera Teixidó under the name El Gato Negro and specialising in popular literature, joke books and especially in comic magazines.Martín (01/1968), pp. 11 a 12. They followed the example of the Spanish comic magazine ''TBO'' (founded in 1917) and in 1921 they created ''

Pulgarcito Pulgarcito (in Spanish, literally "little thumb") may refer to: *Pulgarcito, the Spanish variant of the folktale Tom Thumb * ''Pulgarcito'' (Mexico), a children's magazine of the Mexican government, 1925–1932 * ''Pulgarcito'' (Spain), a Spanish w ...

'' which proved very successful. They published another twenty magazines including ''Charlot'' (1928) with content of ''

Film Fun ''Film Fun'' was a British celebrity comics comic book that ran from (issues dates) 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with ''Buster (comic), Buster'', a total of 2,225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fiftie ...

''. It came to possess, as indicated by Jesús Cuadrado: After Juan Bruguera's death in 1933 his sons, Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera Grane, succeeded him.

Editorial Bruguera

Pantaleón and Francisco Bruguera changed the name from El Gato Negro to Editorial Bruguera in 1939. In 1947 the publishing house increased profits with other comics such as ''El Campeón'' (1948), ''

Super Pulgarcito Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard butt ...

'' (1949), ''

Magos de la Risa Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...

'' (1949) and ''

El DDT EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

'' (1951);

romance novel A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

s of

Corín Tellado María del Socorro Tellado López (25 April 1927 in El Franco, Asturias, Spain – 11 April 2009), known as Corín Tellado, was a prolific Spanish writer of romantic novels and photonovels that were best-sellers in several Spanish-language ...

and western novels (notably the ones of

Marcial Lafuente Estefanía Marcial Lafuente Estefanía (; 1903-1984) was a prolific Spanish writer of romance and western fiction, widely considered as the leading voice of the latter genre in the Hispanic world. The most conservative sources estimate he wrote 2,600 books ...

) and adventure comics such as ''

El Cachorro EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

'' or ''

Capitán Trueno El Capitán Trueno (lit. "Captain Thunder") is the hero of a series of Spanish comic books, created in 1956 by the writer Víctor Mora and illustrated mainly by Miguel Ambrosio Zaragoza (Ambrós). The comics were published continuously between ...

''. In 1957 a group of comic artists tried to secede from the publisher and founded their own magazine '' Tío Vivo'', but they didn't succeed and in 1960 the magazine was acquired by Bruguera. Bruguera also published a comic for girls '' Sissi''. By then, Bruguera was one of the largest publishers of comics in Spain, along with Cliper, Hispano Americana y

Toray is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, ...

. Over time, the family business also became a truly multinational publisher, being implemented in several countries in Latin America.

Comics

In the field of

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, the role played by the Editorial Bruguera after the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

was fundamental, especially its humor publications. Directed by Rafael González Martínez, the Editorial Bruguera cartoonists created an easily recognisable style (called "Escuela Bruguera") that was halfway between children's entertainment and a satire of manners. Comics titles and characters published by Editorial Bruguera included: * '' Don Pío'' (1947) by Peñarroya * '' El repórter Tribulete'' (1947) by Cifré * '' Doña Urraca'' (1948) by ''

Jorge Jorge is a Spanish and Portuguese given name. It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος (''Georgios'') via Latin ''Georgius''; the former is derived from (''georgos''), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker". The Latin form ''Georgius'' ...

'' * '' Zipi y Zape'' (1948) by Escobar * '' El loco Carioco'' (1949) by

Conti Conti is an Italian surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 63.5% of all known bearers of the surname ''Conti'' were residents of Italy (frequency 1:756), 11.8% of the United States (1:24,071), 9.2% of Brazil (1:17,439), 6.3% of Argentina ...

* '' La familia Cebolleta'' (1951) by Vázquez * '' El doctor Cataplasma'' (1953) by

Martz Schmidt Martz Schmidt or Schmidt is the pseudonym of the Spanish comic author Gustavo Martínez Gómez ( Cartagena, Murcia, 3 July 1922 -Barcelona, 5 January 1998). He is part of the second generation the Bruguera school alongside Figueras, Gin, Ibáñ ...

* '' El caco Bonifacio'' (1957) by Enrich ( es) * ''

Mortadelo y Filemón ''Mort & Phil'' ( es, Mortadelo y Filemón) is a Spanish comic series, published in more than a dozen languages. It appeared for the first time in 1958 in the children's comic-book magazine drawn by Francisco Ibáñez. The series features Mor ...

'' (1958) by Ibáñez * ''

Rigoberto Picaporte ''Rigoberto'' is a 1945 Argentine comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black ...

'' (1959) by

Segura Segura (, ; la, Thader; ar, شقورة, Shaqūrah, or ) is a medium-sized river in southeastern Spain. It has its source in the Sierra de Segura. Course The river begins at Santiago Pontones ( province of Jaén), passes Calasparra, Cie ...

* '' Agamenón'' (1961) by Nené Estivill * '' Aspirino y Colodión'' (1966) by

Alfons Figueras Alfons Figueras i Fontanals (Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona, Spain, 15 October 1922 – 6 July 2009) was a Spanish cartoonist. He created characters such as ''Aspirino y Colodión'' or ''Topolino, el último héroe'' (Topolino, the last hero) ...

Other directions

Since the mid-1960s, they launched new magazines such as '' Din Dan'' (1965), ''Bravo'' (1968) and '' Gran Pulgarcito'' (1969) in which the influence of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

is clear. They also published in Spain Franco-Belgian comics such as

Asterix ''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, wi ...

Blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

, always beating their competitors. In the 1970s they increased their production of comics, taking advantage of their feature characters and combining new and old material.Martínez (2004), p. 52. In the literature field, they lost lawsuits against

and

in 1974, so they started to publish material by

Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

García Márquez García or Garcia may refer to: People * García (surname) * Kings of Pamplona/Navarre ** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882 ** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970 ** García Sánchez II of Pampl ...

Juan Marsé Juan Marsé Carbó (8 January 1933 – 18 July 2020) was a Spanish novelist, journalist, and screenwriter who used Spanish as his literary language. In 2008, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, "the Spanish-language equivalent" to the Nobel ...

Juan Carlos Onetti Juan Carlos Onetti Borges (July 1, 1909 – May 30, 1994) was a Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories. Early life Onetti was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was the son of Carlos Onetti, a customs official, and Honoria Borges, who ...

. They also launched two pocket book collections: ''Libro Clásico'' and ''Libro Amigo''.

The end

In the early 1980s books such as ''

Chronicle of a Death Foretold ''Chronicle of a Death Foretold'' ( es, Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo-journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by th ...

'' by

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

became big

best-seller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

s.ARROYO, Francesc (10/06/1982)
"La suspensión de pagos en Bruguera no supone la desaparición de la editorial,"
"El País". Despite this, the publishing house filed for bankruptcy on 7 June 1982. In 1986 it was acquired by Grupo Z and transformed into ''Ediciones B''. It was briefly relaunched under Ediciones B from 2006 to 2010.

Ediciones B

Ediciones B was established in 1986, when Grupo Zeta purchased ''Editorial Bruguera'', and renamed it "Ediciones B". From its inception, Ediciones B's focus has published magazines such as TBO. It included stories from fictional characters such as Mortadelo & Filemon, SuperLopez, the naughty twins Zipi and Zape, and Capitán Trueno. Later, Ediciones B published comics and other stories that originated in foreign countries. In the late 1990s, Ediciones B launched magazines geared toward children and teen audiences. As time passed, Ediciones B's publishing focus grew to include books from other genres. Some of these included adult content. In April, 2017, Grupo Zeta sold Ediciones B to

for €40 million ($46,658,000). The transaction was completed in July 2017.

Genres

Ediciones B publishes multiple literary genres, including: * Children & Youth * Comic & Graphic Novels * Essays (including History) * Travel Guides * Historical Fiction * Narrative * Poetry * Romance * Self-Help * Science Fiction & Fantasy * Thrillers & Mysteries

Imprints

After merging with Penguin Random House's web, the publisher changed its distribution. Significant sections include: *B de blok: Children's literature *B de Bolsillo: A selection of books about many topics that had been published previously *B de books: Digital and physical books * Biblioteca de bolsillo CLAVES ("KEYS Pocket Library"): A collection of selected titles translated from the French collection ''

Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an editorial collection of illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in pocket format. The books are concise introductions to pa ...

'' *Cómic: Comic books and graphic novels: Mortadelo and Filemon,

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

, SuperLópez, etc. *La Trama: Thrillers and mystery novels *Nova: Science-fiction *Novela Vergara: Aimed at the female audience, this collection holds stories of love, friendship, family and varied human feelings. *Plan B: Fiction and essay books

Literary events

Ediciones B takes part in literary events. Historical Novel award "Ciudad de Úbeda": After organizing this contest together with other entities, Ediciones B published the winning historical novel. The contest is called once a year. "La Trama" award: Beginning in the year 2014, this Ediciones B's annual contest looks for new writing talent in the categories of thrillers and whodunits. The first winner was Laura Balagué with her ''Las Pequeñas Mentiras'' (lit. ''The Little Lies''). Boolino awards: These annual awards began in 2015 and award accolades to the best illustrated youth and children's books. Ediciones B awards the winner with publication under "B de Blok". The first winning book was ''Entre Todas las Estrellas'' (Lit. ''Among All the Stars''), by Cristina Alfonso Ibáñez. Ediciones B can be found in some book fairs, such as those of the World Book Day/International Day of the Book. Others are held in cities such as Madrid or Barcelona.

Internet

Ediciones B offers two weekly contests so their readers can interact and try to complete their own books. They are "Los Martes nos vemos en B" ("We see at B on Tuesdays") and "Viernes con B" ("On Fridays with B"). The contests are not held in August due to the holiday period. Los martes nos vemos en B: It consists of uploading a picture of a book cover together with a question. Answering it allows readers to participate in a drawing for the book. Viernes con B: To become a participant, readers must retweet a message B has published. After the weekend, the person having retweeted the already mentioned message can win the book that has been tweeted that Friday.

References

Bibliography

* Cuadrado, Jesús (2000). '' De la historieta y su uso 1873-2000'', Ediciones Sinsentido/ Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez * Guiral, Antoni (09/2010). ''100 años de Bruguera. De El Gato Negro Ediciones B''. Barcelona: Ediciones B. Depósito Legal: B-24625-2010. . * Martín Martínez, Antonio (01/1968). ''Apuntes para una historia de los tebeos II. La civilización de la imagen (1917–1936)''. Madrid: Revista de Educación, n.º 195. * Martín Martínez, Antonio (03/1968). ''Apuntes para una historia de los tebeos IV. El tebeo, cultura de masas (1946–1963)''. Madrid: Revista de Educación, n.º 197. * MARTÍNEZ PEÑARANDA, Enrique (2004). ''Vázquez (El dibujante y su leyenda)''. Madrid: Ediciones Sinsentido, Colección Sin Palabras, Serie A nª 04. . Depósito legal: M-39015-2004. * RAMÍREZ, Juan Antonio (1975). ''El "comic" femenino en España. Arte sub y anulación'' Madrid: Editorial Cuadernos para el Diálogo, S. A. Colección Divulgación universitaria, Arte y literatura, número 78. Depósito Legal: M. 8.752 – 1975 . * Regueira, Tino (2005). ''Guía visual de la Editorial Bruguera (1940–1988)'' Barcelona: Ediciones Glénat S. L. Depósito Legal: B-2551-05.

External links

* * {{Authority control Publishing companies of Spain Penguin Random House