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Éditions Lug
Founded	1950; 75 years ago
Founders	Marcel Navarro and Auguste Vistel
Defunct	Jan 1989; acquired by Semic Group / Semic Press
Successor	Semic Comics
Country of origin	France
Headquarters location	(1950–1956) 10, rue Bellecordière, Lyon; (from 1956) 6, Rue Émile-Zola, Lyon
Key people	Claude Vistel, Luciano Bernasconi, Roger Médina
Publication types	Comic books (reprints, translations, original stories)
Fiction genres	Adventure, war, superheroes

Éditions Lug (French: [lyg]) was a French comic book publisher based in Lyon, operating from 1950 to 1989. Originally known for publishing digest-sized reprints of old French and Italian comics, it then created its own characters and titles, such as the Tarzanesque Zembla. Later, Lug began licensing and publishing translated versions of Marvel Comics superhero comics with titles such as Fantask, Marvel, and most notably, Strange.

In 1989, the company was acquired by the Semic Group, a Scandinavian comic book publisher, and later became a French company, Semic Comics.

History

Origins

Éditions Lug was created in 1950 by writer/editor Marcel Navarro and businessman Auguste Vistel. The name of the company came from Lugdunum, the Gallo-Roman name for the city of Lyon.

When it started, Éditions Lug only reprinted old French and Italian comics in digest-sized magazines.

Among its most popular Italian imports were:

Tex Willer (which it began publishing in 1951, then moved to its eponymous magazine in 1952), from Sergio Bonelli Editore
Il Grande Blek (which it began publishing in Kiwi in 1955)
Capitan Miki (which it began publishing in Nevada in 1958)
Alan Mistero (renamed Ombrax) (which it began publishing in an eponymous magazine in 1967)

The latter three are from Studio EsseGesse.

Another notable non-French comic book series published by Éditions Lug at the time was Dan Dare (in 1962).

Original characters

Early on, however, Navarro decided that his company needed some original characters. He enlisted a number of French and Italian studios to script and draw original series and began experimenting with a wide variety of genres.^[1] The look of these series was often evocative of 1960s DC Comics.

Éditions Lug's first major original success was a Tarzanesque jungle lord named Zembla (1963); its eponymous title was an immediate hit.^[2] Among other notable characters created at the times were Rakar, a masked Lakota chief; Tanka, another jungle lord; Gun Gallon, a John Carter of Mars-type hero lost on a parallel world with three moons; World War II hero Rick Ross, aka Baroud; kung-fu cowboy Jed Puma; Barbary Coast corsair Dragut; and superhero Pilote Noir.

Marvel Comics / superheroes

In 1968, Claude Vistel, Auguste Vistel's daughter, returned from a trip to New York and convinced Navarro to publish the first translations of Marvel Comics in France, in a magazine titled Fantask (1969), which featured Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer.^[3]

Sensing that he was on to something, Navarro followed suit with his own creations. Wampus was launched the same year; it featured the eponymous alien monster sent by an evil cosmic intelligence to destroy the Earth, and the exploits of a S.H.I.E.L.D.-like organization named C.L.A.S.H.. Unfortunately, Éditions Lug had run-ins with French censorship,^[3] and both Fantask and Wampus were canceled after only six issues.

The following year, Navarro re-launched the Marvel characters, first in a magazine called Strange, then in Marvel (which also fell victim to censorship a year later).^[3] At the same time, he continued to introduce more new French characters in magazines such as:

Futura (1972), which published Jaleb, Homicron, Brigade Temporelle, L'Autre (The Other, a toned-down version of Wampus), Aster, Jeff Sullivan and Sibilla
Waki (1974)
Kabur which also published Le Gladiateur de Bronze (The Bronze Gladiator) (1975).

Throughout this period, Luciano Bernasconi became one of Éditions Lug's major artists, co-creating a number of major characters, such as Wampus, Kabur and Phenix.^[4]

1970s/1980s success

The late 1970s and early 1980s were arguably the best years of the company. Its line of French-language Marvel editions thrived with titles such as Titans (1976), Nova (1978), Spidey (1979), and graphic novels of The Fantastic Four (1973), Conan the Barbarian (1976), etc.

A number of original titles were added, including a revamped version of Mustang (1980), which published Photonik, Mikros and Ozark. Other characters introduced during this period included Phenix (1978) and Starlock (1980). It even licensed its own creations to Spanish and Italian companies, where they sold with great success.^[1]

Around this time, a shared universe began to emerge.^[1] It wasn't nearly as tightly integrated as the Marvel Universe. While the titles made references to each other, characters from different titles never interacted directly.^{[citation needed]}

Acquisition by Semic Press

In the mid-80's, Auguste Vistel died. This was the beginning of the end for Éditions Lug. Eventually, Marcel Navarro chose to retire. In 1989, the company was sold to the Semic Group, a Scandinavian comic book publisher, which renamed it Semic France.^[5] It later became a French company, Semic Comics.^[6]^[1]

Hexagon Comics

In 2004, after Semic Comics decided to cancel the Éditions Lug lines of comic books, a syndicate of French, Italian, and Spanish former Lug writers and artists reclaimed the rights to their characters and reorganized under the banner of Hexagon Comics.^[7]

Selected titles

Plutos (1950)
Rodeo (1951)
Tex (1952)
Pipo (1952)
Pampa (1954)
Kiwi (1955)
Pim Pam Poum (1955) (French edition of the Katzenjammer Kids)
Hondo (1956)
Nevada (1958)
Flambo (1959)
Bourask (1960)
Yuma (1962)
Zembla (1963)
Blek (1963)
Bronco (1966)
Baroud (1966)
Dago (1966)
Ombrax (1966)
Mustang (1966)
Fantask (1969)
Wampus (1969)
Strange (1970)
Marvel (1971)
Futura (1972)
Yampa (1973)
Waki (1974)
Kabur (1975)
Titans (1976)
Nova (1978)
Spidey (1979)

Selected characters

Afrikanders, Boer War adventures
Agent Sans Nom, espionage
Ami Barry, ghost detective
Antonin, Musketeer adventures
Apollo, western adventures
Archie, eccentric scientist
Aster, science fiction
L'Autre, toned down sequel to Wampus
Babette, young fashion model adventures
Barefoot le Magnifique, French-Indian wars adventures
Baroud, WWII adventures
Bathy-09, underwater adventures
Ben Leonard, archeological, science fiction adventures
Benny du Bayou, growing up in Louisiana
Bill & Barry, a boy looking for his parents
Billy Boyd, western
Bob Lance, modern-days descendants of the Round Table
Bob Pepper, insurance investigations
Bob Stanley, an American in 19th century Japan
Brigade As, Interpol adventures
Brigade Temporelle, time travel adventures
Capitaine Giroflée
Captain Tiger, Polynesian adventures
Captain Tom & Co.
Le Chat, international boxing
Champagne
Chevalier de l'Espace, science fiction
Chikotawa, Canadian adventures
C.L.A.S.H.
Comte de Saint-Germain
Corsak, jungle lord
Dago, supernatural western
Dan Diamond, espionage
Dan Lucky, western
Dan Sabre, western
Dan Tempest, western
Dave Kaplan, news photographer
Dick Demon, supernatural western
Dick Spade, journalist
Digger Drake, India under the Raj
Doc Sullivan, medical adventures
Don Juan l'Epervier, swashbuckler
Dragut, pirate
Etoile à Cinq Branches, supernatural adventures
Face d'Ange, espionage
Fargo Jim, western
Flag des Neiges, Mountain rescue adventures
Flambo, Napoleon's Little Drummer
Flanagan, detective
Frank Ale, boxing adventures
Frank Universal, ecological science fiction
Fred & Gib, western
Frères Thunderbolt, private eyes
Fury, Korean War
Galaor, sword & sorcery
Gallix, heroic fantasy against Rome
Galton & Trumbo, NYPD adventures
Gladiateur de Bronze, superhero
Greg Jordan, racecar driver
Gun Gallon, heroic fantasy
Havoc, western
Homicron, superhero
Homme de Metal, heroic fantasy
Hunter, western
Indian Kid, western
Ivan Karine, Tsarist Russia adventures
Ivan Wolonsky, Teenage Psychic
Jacky West, western
Jaleb, alien telepath
Jaydee, alien shapeshifter
Jean Brume, Scarlet Pimpernel-like hero
Jean Girodet, espionage
Jed Puma, western martial arts
Jeff Sullivan, superhero
Jill & John
Jim Mississippi, masked western avenger
Johnny Bourask, Colonial hero
Kabur, heroic fantasy
Kit Kappa, martial arts
Larry Cannon, insurance investigations
Lion des Thermopyles, Greek Antiquity adventures
Lucifer, fallen angel must do good to redeem himself
Lys Noir, pirate adventures
Mac, three Scotsmen in the Old West
Madison Bill, Prohibition-era adventures
Malinbourne, space fantasy
Marino, underwater superhero
Masque Blanc, Apartheid superhero
Max Flanagan, World War I photographer
Max Tornado, superhero
Mikros, superhero
Morgane, supernatural adventures
Motoman, teenage superhero
Mozam, African jungle lord
Neptune, underwater adventures
Oncle Rufus, eccentric superhero
Ozark, Lakota magic
Patrouille des Profondeuirs, underground adventures
Pedro & Doc, western odd couple
Petit Cube, superhero
Petit Scout, western adventures
Phenix, superhero
Photonik, superhero
Pilote Noir, superhero
Prince de la Nuit, crimefighter in 1800 Paris
Quanter, genius scientist
Rakar, Lakota superhero
Rataplan, US Cavalry adventures
Renard le Flambeur, Mississippi riverboat adventures
Ricky Rox, western
Ring Joe, boxing
Rip MacQueen, journalist
Rod Zey, engineer and troubleshooter
Roi des Profondeurs, underwater superhero
Sadko le Prince Archer, Robin Hood-type adventures
Sergeant Cannon, WWII adventures
Sibilla, supernatural adventures
Silver Shadow, science fiction adventures
SOS Trio, detective
Starlock, superhero
Stormalong, 1800 New Orleans adventures
Superbill, young prodigy
Tahy Tim, adventures in the Raj
Tanka, jungle lord
Ted Brenton, western adventures
Tocard Gang, Prohibition-era adventures
Trapper John, French-Indian Wars adventures
Trois Lords, three British Lords fight crime
Utopia, three kids found a new country
Viking, a viking warrior in the New World
Waki, post-cataclysmic adventures
Wampus
Wingo Scout, western hero
X-101, espionage hero
Yatan, a jungle lord
Zapo, a western avenger
Zembla

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "History". Hexagon Comics. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
^ "Hexagon Comics". BDbase.fr. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lofficier, Jean-Marc. "French Silver Surfer: Vive le Silver Surfer!". Alter Ego. No. 1. TwoMorrows Publishing.
^ "Luciano Bernasconi: Lube, Saint Germain, Italo Bernasconi (b. 1939, Italy)". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
^ Jennequin, Jean-Paul (June 1990). "Semic France" [Semic France is taking the place of Lug Editeur, as of January 1989, as publisher of American comics in translation]. Les Cahiers de la Bande Dessinée (in French). No. 89. p. 57.
^ Mélikian, Laurent (February 2000). "Lug est Mort, Vive Semic". Bo Doï (in French). No. 27. p. 83.
^ Johnston, Rich (1 December 2022). "Hexagon Comics Puts Out Luciano Bernasconi's Kit Kappa in December". Bleeding Cool. In 2004, Luciano Bernasconi teamed up with other writers and artists to reclaim the rights to his characters under the banner of Hexagon Comics.