Worlds Within Worlds...

Wow, I haven't seen anyone mention this yet:

Paul Levitz, President and Publisher of DC Comics ... and Fabrice Giger, founder of the Humanoids Group ... , announced today an agreement that calls for the publication of 36 books per year from Les Humanoïdes Associés, and Humanoids Publishing, as part of the DC Comics catalog. DC retains worldwide English language publishing rights on these titles.

The venture marks the first time that the full array of avant-garde and high-end European graphic novels have been available in the American marketplace. European stars of the Les Humanoïdes Associés library (such as Moebius, Bilal, Jodorowsky), and the big American stars of the Humanoids Publishing Catalog (Charest, Busiek, Cassaday) will now be published under the Humanoids brand name. The steady supply of graphic novels will support DC Comics' continued efforts to aggressively expand into trade bookstores, while building on its impressive presence in the comic book specialty market.

Pretty interesting, eh? It seems like the first titles are slated to start coming out in July. It also sounds sort of like they'll be released as Humanoids books with DC just doing marketing and distribution, but I guess we'll see how prominant the various logos are. It'll also be interesting to see if they decide to go with a digest format or regular larger format TPBs.

I can't help thinking that with the combination of Vertigo, Elfquest, and now Humanoids, (and I think it was DC looking to start releasing some real manga?), DC is making some real effort to diversify their lineup. Not just by their own content, but by distributing previously published works....