ECC, one of the largest comic book publishers in Spain, home of Batman and Wonder Woman, closes | Culture

Wonder Woman and Batman have saved the world countless times. Not even their powers, however, have been able to rescue ECC, the Catalan publisher that publishes them in Spanish. The label that publishes DC superheroes in Spain, in addition to characters like Sonic or Ninja Turtles, has declared bankruptcy. And the judge in charge has launched its liquidation and dissolution, as stated in a judicial order from last Thursday and, as of today, Saturday, in the Public Bankruptcy Registry. Both documents thus confirm the rumors that surrounded the company, locked in silence for weeks: one of the main companies dedicated to comics in Spain, which also distributes mangas such as Kakegurui, the cartoons of legends such as Richard Corben or Junji Ito, prominent national authors such as Lorenzo Montatore or the children’s label Kodomo. Accustomed to defeating any villain, even Superman and company have had to surrender to the economic problems that have arisen in their own home.

For superheroes, in reality, it is just a move: Panini is finalizing negotiations to acquire the distribution rights for its stories in Spain, as confirmed by at least three sources familiar with the operation to EL PAÍS. Hence, the DC myths are preparing to share an editorial with those of Marvel. Catwoman and Flash, under the same roof as Spiderman or Hulk. Time will tell if an unbeatable alliance in sales is forged or if so many icons together have a difficult time coexisting. The truth is that Panini has been publishing the two US publishing giants for years, for example, in Italy and Germany. In addition, it also has licenses for mangas such as Bleacho Berserk, as well as Disney, Kick-Ass, Locke and Key o Cyberpunk.

The paradox is undoubtable: while the DC heroes find immediate refuge, the weakest link is left out in the open: the ECC employees, a hundred including the stores that the label owns in Alicante, Barcelona and Madrid and who, say sources from the editorial, “they seem doomed to closure.” The order of the Commercial Court No. 12 of Barcelona handed over control of the company to a bankruptcy administrator last Thursday and established its liquidation – to cover outstanding debts and payments, such as salaries – and dissolution. A worker, who requests anonymity, assures that the staff is waiting to negotiate the conditions of his departure. Uncertainty also surrounds the accumulated debts and the allegedly irregular practices reported by several bookstores, as well as the recent comics chair that ECC helped promote at the University of Alcalá de Henares. The store that the publisher has in Barcelona told EL PAÍS days ago that they were still selling and no one had communicated anything to them at the moment.

Rumors about the end of the label’s activity had been circulating in the sector for weeks. The evidence, furthermore, was accumulating. Bookstores such as Akira Comics in Madrid shared on the social network X the communication they had received from ECC: “Stop sending orders until further notice. As soon as we have new information, we will send it to you”; Planeta Cómic announced that it would begin publishing the Skybound catalog —with universes as famous as Invincible o The Walking Deadthe Robert Kirkman—whose rights were retained by ECC until November 2024; It has been impossible to contact the publisher in Barcelona for days; Last Tuesday they already disabled the option to buy any of their comics from the website; and the last statement about future launches presented the news for February 2025, with the start of the event Absolute powerstarting point of a revolution in several phases (All In, Absolute) of the great DC heroes. They will already be seen, in all probability, under the Panini seal.

“Akira Cómics stopped working on both the new releases and the backlogs of the ECC publishing house last November due to SERIOUS accounting disagreements with them that significantly harmed our company and in the face of which the aforementioned publishing house did not agree to solve it in any way. Quite the contrary, they put us in the position of not receiving any more of their products if we did not accept their accounting requests, which were divergent from our own accounting,” wrote one of the best-known bookstores specializing in the ninth art on the social network X a few days ago. in Spain.

“The Madrid Booksellers’ Guild to which we belong was informed in November by Akira Cómics in a detailed manner regarding the entire accounting problem that we were suffering with ECC and decided to send an informative note to the associated bookstores in Madrid so that they could review their respective accounts. in case anyone was also incurring (without being aware) in serious accounting disagreements equivalent to ours,” the message added.

Finally, the ECC adventure has lasted about 14 years. In 2011, the company El Catalogo del Cómic acquired the exploitation rights of DC, which until then was managed by Planeta DeAgostini. And, under the acronym ECC, it began to be in charge of publishing the icons of the American colossus: previously, as a subcontracted company, it only carried out translation or layout tasks for those comics. “We publish more than 700 new titles every year and we have a catalog of more than 4,000 active references, which makes us one of the world leaders in publishing in Spanish,” its own website still states.

Despite certain difficulties for superheroes, these publications still represent the second largest piece of the income pie distributed by comics in Spain, behind manga. With his help, ECC became the second largest comics publisher in terms of the number of releases: 804, in 2022, according to the data collected by the website. comic guideprecisely behind Panini. In short, a giant in the sector falls. A huge problem for all those affected. A notice to the rest of the industry. And an unprecedented bitter taste for DC’s heroes: not even their superpowers have prevented defeat.