Egmont Manga (EMA, formerly ''Egmont Manga & Anime'') is one of the largest publishers of

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was founded in 2000 as a daughter company of Egmont Ehapa, after the manga boom in Germany became apparent around the turn of the millennium. Since 2003, EMA has been part of Egmont vgs in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

History

In 1878, Egmont H. Petersen opened his own print shop in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, which formed the foundation of the publishing firm. Its first big success was the family magazine, '' Hjemmet'', in 1904, which still exists today in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. For the opening of its large printery building, the ''Gutenberghus'', Egmont received the title of royal court printery in 1914. In 1948, the publishing company managed to secure the rights to

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

comics for several European countries. In 1951, a German subsidiary was founded, Ehapa. In the field of comics, it sold Disney works (translated by Dr. Erika Fuchs) and later also ''

Asterix ''Asterix'' ( or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul"; also known as ''Asterix and Obelix'' in some adaptations or ''The Adventures of Asterix'') is a Franco-Belgian comics, French comic album book series, series about a Gaulish village which, thanks ...

'' and ''

Lucky Luke ''Lucky Luke'' is a Western (genre), Western bande dessinée, comic album series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris (cartoonist), Morris in 1946. Morris wrote and drew the series single-handedly until 1955, after which he started collaborati ...

''. In 1991, the Reiner Feest Verlag was bought out. The first manga of the publishing house appeared in February 1994 under this label, with '' Appleseed''. Further manga followed, but the great breakthrough did not occur until 1997/1998 with ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

''. In 2000, Ehapa published manga directed toward Japanese readers for the first time, with '' Wedding Peach''. In October of the same year, the firm Egmont Manga & Anime (EMA) was founded. Since then, the head of the publisher has been Georg F.W. Tempel, who had already been responsible for the previous manga publications as the former chief editor for trend subjects at Ehapa. EMA is the first German manga publisher to have an advisor directly on location in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. '' Weiß Kreuz'', the first anime, followed in 2001. It was produced in cooperation with Anime-Virtual under the label of IKASU. In 2002, EMA was again integrated with Ehapa, but the label was kept. There was a merger of several companies from the Ehapa concern, as well as a fusion with Egmont vgs, in 2003. This resulted in EMA and the Ehapa Comic Collection (ECC) moving to

. ECC became responsible for the comic publications of Ehapa in the book trade and it has also been led by Georg F.W. Tempel since the fusion with vgs. The Ehapa magazine department, which also publishes the '' Micky Maus'' magazine, is still located in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. From 2003 until 2005, EMA in cooperation with the organisation, Animexx e.V., organised the annual

anime convention An anime and manga convention (often called just anime convention) is a fan convention with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Anime conventions are commonly multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college cam ...

, Connichi, in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

. The semi-annual program preview is the ''Shinkan''.

External links

Official site
Book publishing companies of Germany Publishing companies of Germany Manga distributors Manhwa distributors

References

{{reflist