Wait, I was talking about why Bédé was not popular in OTL.
And I am not convinced that "not popular in OTL" is an accurate
description of Bédé.
"Not currently as popular as manga", sure, but we're talking about one of
the three major "schools" of comics, one that has been exported,
translated and internationally popular long before manga. It's not exactly
obscure-language comics catering only to connoisseurs even in their
native country.
"Not as popular in the US" is also true, but how to change that is what
we're supposed to discuss.
"Not as popular worldwide", separate from "not currently" is less certain
as the number of countries published/distributed in seems a better
measure than said countries' total population and until the manga boom
that appears to have favoured Bédé.
(I'm pretty sure the numbers on international distribution manga vs. BD
has been compiled and can be found somewhere on the web. In French,
presumably.)
By the way, googling African comics gets things like
this:
The implication being the French BD industry had an umbrella big enough for Francophone African artists in ways I doubt Britain would or could. Add to the mix the lucrative economics of still dependent former colonies and France’s eagerness to stay engaged with them by creating new avenues for cultural exchange and cooperation, one could see how funding and promoting comics was therefore a win-win situation for both sides.
(Edited to add additional extra space, so as to not give the impression
that the sentence below is in any logical way connected to the quote
above.)
I think we can/should go back to "If Napoleon wins, both Tezuka and Kirby
are butterflied away..." now.
