The Société Parisienne d'Édition (S.P.É. or SPÉ), originally known as Offenstadt Frères then Publications Offenstadt, was a French publishing house founded by the Offenstadt brothers towards the end of the 19th century. They adopted the name "Société parisienne d'édition" just after the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The five Offenstadt brothers – Charles, Georges, Maurice, Nathan and Villefranche – had a wide range of publications within their portfolio, exploiting technical advances in low-cost colour lithography. They are best known for publishing popular

periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a Academic journal, journal ...

aimed at the youth market, such as ''L'Épatant'', ''L'Intrépide'' and ''L'Illustré''; and

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 ...

, often featuring larger than life characters like ''Les Pieds nickelés'', ''L'Espiègle Lili'' and ''

Bibi Fricotin ''Bibi Fricotin'' is a 1924 French comic strip series, drawn by , who also made ''Les Pieds Nickelés''. The first panels appeared on 5 October 1924 in ''Le Petit Illustré'', published by ''La Société parisienne d' édition''. Character Bibi Fr ...

''. They also published magazines aimed at adult audiences, providing a platform for emerging and sometimes controversial writers and artists – such as

Maurice de Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck (4 April 1876 – 11 October 1958) was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 w ...

and

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. I ...

. They were among the first to publish (in ''Sciences et Voyages'') Jean Vieuchange's bestselling account of the epic journey to

Smara Smara ( ar, السمارة ''as-Samāra'', also romanized ''Semara''; es, Esmara) is a city in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, with a population of 57,035 recorded in the 2014 Moroccan census. It is served by Smara Airport and Sm ...

, made by Jean's brother,

Michel Vieuchange Michel Vieuchange, born in Nevers in 1904 and died in Agadir in 1930, was a French adventurer who was the first European to visit the abandoned ruins of the walled city of Smara, in the interior of the Sahara. On 10 September 1930 Vieuchange set o ...

in 1931. The Offenstadt brothers were often the target of the moral censure of the period, particularly from French

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

René Bérenger René Bérenger, born in Bourg-lès-Valence (Drôme) on 22 April 1830 and died Alincourt (Ardennes) on 29 August 1915, was a French lawyer, judge, and politician. Life He was the son of Alphonse-Marie-Marcellin-Thomas Bérenger, and followed his ...

, popularly known as ''père pudeur'' ("papa prudity"). Because of the brothers' Jewish origins, they were stripped of ownership of their publishing house in 1940 under the Aryanisation laws during the

Occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

. They regained control in 1946 but by then competitors had moved into their

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

and they were unable to repeat their pre-war successes. In the 1960s, SPE was taken over by ''Publications Georges Ventillard'', which in turn disappeared in 1990.

Notable publications

Notes and sources

;Notes ;Sources * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Parisienne D'edition Publishing companies of France Comic book publishing companies of France Magazine publishing companies of France