Great news

The chief editor writes in a German forum:
The first issue will come on July, 1 2009.
The stories will be only ones already published in Germany (perhaps that has something to do with the license).
The new comic book is based on the German Lustiges Taschenbuch.

All EHAPA subscriptions can be done from this page: http://www.ehapa-shop.de/shop/magazin.d … aschenbuch
I don't know, if there is a possibility to subscribe from other countries than Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

The English title isn't listed there at the moment. I think it will be added soon.

I think it's possible to subscribe to Hachette  comics from any place, although you need to contact them by phone. I also subscribed to Disney Italia comics while I am in France. If the French  and Italians are able to do it, the Germans must be able too
Maybe one of us can try sending them an email (even in English)...

I will call them tomorrow and ask for foreign subscriptions.

It's going to be material that's already been published in the regular Lustiges Taschenbuch, so they'd be stupid if they didn't choose the best of the best. (But you never know...)

It could really be a chance for American readers to get to know the great Italian classics that never made it to the US of A, like

the La spada di ghiaccio trilogy by De Vita
Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore by Carpi/Martina
La collana Chirikawa, La fiamma eterna di Kalhoa, La farfalla di Colombo and L'uomo di Altacraz by Scarpa
Sandopaper e la perla di Labuan, Guerra e pace and Il mistero dei candelabri by Carpi
Paperino e il vento del Sud by Carpi/Martina
Pippo e i missili antimaliardi by Bottaro/Chendi
the epic Storia e gloria della dinastia dei paperi by Scarpa/Carpi/Martina
the equally epic Paperolimpiadi by Scarpa
the better time machine stories by De Vita/Pezzin/Concina

and so on...

Thanks for letting us know!

For the record, this is a price of about 6 € per issue with postage, i.e. about the same as a Gemstone comic. However each issue has around 200 pages of comics, instead of ~ 60.

Morequack wrote:

That's about $6.20 per issue WITHOUT postage to the U.S. If postage from Germany to France is about $21 (for the whole year I assume) then to the U.S. it would probably be at least double that. A rough guess would make it a total of about $10 per issue at a minimum to include shipping—or $120 per year. But I'm guessing postage to the U.S. would be more than that.

You could always try getting it through The Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/) or the German Amazon.de (http://www.amazon.de/).

This sounds interesting! I just hope that they will be publishing some stories published in Germany but not in Sweden...

Morequack wrote:

That's about $6.20 per issue WITHOUT postage to the U.S. If postage from Germany to France is about $21 (for the whole year I assume) then to the U.S. it would probably be at least double that. A rough guess would make it a total of about $10 per issue at a minimum to include shipping—or $120 per year. But I'm guessing postage to the U.S. would be more than that.

Also expect to pay a lot of money on bank fees when paying for the subscriptions. Banks like to charge very high fees for international payments, although payments to Germany should be reasonably cheap for EU people.

Gerd Syllwasschy wrote:

Lustiges Taschenbuch is a newsstand title. This means it isn't distributed through bookshops, not even Amazon.

Really? The Swedish Kalle Ankas pocket is sold both at newsstands and bookshops.

Stefan wrote:

Really? The Swedish Kalle Ankas pocket is sold both at newsstands and bookshops.

Yes, really. Of course there are some bookshops (especially at train stations and airports) which also offer newspapers and magazines. Essentially, though, the distribution channels for books on the one hand and newsstand titles on the other hand are completely separate, so it means an extra administrative effort for a book dealer to keep titles like Lustiges Taschenbuch available.

Thus, you're far more likely to find a copy of Lustiges Taschenbuch at a tobacco store, a supermarket or a gas station than at a bookshop.

Yes, the German pocket book "Lustiges Taschenbuch" does only use the newsstand channel with a printed price and no ISBN. The books do only appear in a bookshop, if the bookshops sells newspapers and magazines as well.

Thanks for the additional information, "Charlie Brown"!
I'll look into this.

That's good to know Charlie Brown. Thanks.