La Pastèque is a
French Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
of
comics
a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
, based in
Montréal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Québec
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...
.
Overview
La Pastèque ("The Watermelon" in English) was founded by
Martin Brault and
Frédéric Gauthier in
Montréal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Québec
Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...
in July 1998, and their first publication, the first volume of ''Spoutnik'', appeared that December.
The establishment publisher arose from talks between Brault and Gauthier about the state of comics in Québec around 1997. Things seemed pessimistic, and it seemed unlikely that the small market in the province could sustain itself. The two wanted to invigorate comics publishing in Québec, and chose to adopt a different approach to that of
Franco-Belgian or American comics by publishing artists who had more personal work. They are the main French-language publisher of a number of artists such as
Michel Rabagliati, and have also revived older albums, such as
Jean-Paul Eid Jean Paul or ''variation'' may refer to:
Places
* Rue ''Jean-Paul-II'', several streets, see List of places named after Pope John Paul II
* Place ''Jean Paul II'', several squares, see List of places named after Pope John Paul II
People Given nam ...
's ''Jérôme Bigras'' and
Réal Godbout
Réal Godbout is a Quebec writer and comic book illustrator, best known for his ''Michel Risque'' and '' Red Ketchup'' series which he co-created with his long-time friend Pierre Fournier.
Biography
In the 70's, Godbout published his comic strips ...
&
Pierre Fournier
Pierre Léon Marie Fournier (24 June 19068 January 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists" on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound.
Biography
Pierre Fournier was born in Paris, the son of a F ...
's ''
Red Ketchup''.
Recognition
La Pastèque has received support from the
Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...
, the ''
Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles
The Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (, ''Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises'', abbr. SODEC) is a Quebec government agency founded in 1983 under the name of Société Générale du Cinéma du Québec (''Gener ...
'' ("Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises") and the Government of Quebec's tax credit program for support of book publishers. In 2010, La Pastèque won the
Joe Shuster Award
The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards (or Joe Shuster Awards) are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadians. The awards, ...
for Outstanding Publisher.
Published work
*
Red Ketchup
*
The Postman from Space
See also
*
Canadian comics
Canadian comics refers to comics and cartooning by citizens of Canada or Permanent residency in Canada, permanent residents of Canada regardless of residence. Canada has Official bilingualism in Canada, two official languages, and distinct comic ...
*
Québec comics
*
Culture of Québec
References
Quebec comics
Companies based in Montreal
Comic book publishing companies of Canada
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