Catalan Communications Totally Explained

Everything about Catalan Communications totally explained

Catalan Communications was a New York publishing company, operated by Bernd Metz, which mainly focused on English-language translations of European graphic novels, presented in a series of high-quality trade paperbacks.

Company history

The company published through the 1980s from a large loft located at 43 East 19th Street. Metz was the editor, and Elizabeth Bell provided English translations for the French titles, including Max Cabanes' Colin-Maillard (Heartthrobs). In 1990, the Cabanes graphic novel was the winner of the Grand Prix at France's Angoulême International Comics Festival. One of Bell's translated books for Catalan revealed errors in an earlier Heavy Metal translation of the same story. James Keller translated the German edition of Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs (Guido Crepax) in 1991, the year the company released its last titles. Tom Leighton was another Catalan translator.
Some outstanding books published by Metz were Jacques Loustal's Love Shots, Lorenzo Mattotti's Fires and Barcelona artist Marti Riera's The Cabbie, with an introduction by Art Spiegelman. Published in five languages, Trip to Tulum by Federico Fellini and Milo Manara, with essays translated by Elizabeth Bell, was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best trade paperbacks of 1990. PW reviewed: ť A beautiful woman falls into a pond chasing Fellini's windblown hat. Under the water's surface is an eerie world of preserved shipwrecks and planewrecks, a resting place for ghostly references to Fellini's films. Inside a submerged seaweed-encrusted 747 the woman is astonished to find Fellini himself. He sends her off with a very handsomely drawn Marcello Mastroianni--Fellini's alter ego--to make a movie of unknown content. They stop in Los Angeles and finally reach a grand hotel on the Mexican coast where magical transformations abound. Fellini and Manara have brought the dreamlike beauty of Fellini's cinematography to the comics medium. A consummate linear draftsman, Manara's deft portraits of Fellini and Mastroianni are complemented by his dazzling imaginary architecture, his characteristic lyrical eroticism and the playfully self-referential exchanges between Fellini and the characters in his story.

Around 1988/89, Catalan expanded its line with the "Comcat" line of comic albums aimed at all ages, focusing on non-adult European comic albums such as Blake and Mortimer, The Adventures of Yoko, Vic and Paul, Code XIII and Young Blueberry.

Catalan titles

Adventures of Rocco Vargas: Triton (Daniel Torres)
Adventures of Rocco Vargas: Whisperer Mystery (Vol.2) (1990)
Adventures of Rocco Vargas: Saxon (vol.3)
Anarcoma
Ape (1986)
Baciliero: The Talking Head
Bell's Theorem
Billy Budd, Kgb
Bodyssey (1986) (Richard Corben)
Boldlight
Breakthrough
Burton & Cyb
Companions of the Dusk
Dark Tales
Deep City
Den, (Richard Corben)
Den Vol. 2: Muvovum (1984) (Richard Corben)
Dies Irae, part 2
Dorm Girls
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Edgar Allan Poe, (Richard Corben)
Erma Jaguar
Exterminator 17
Ghita of Alizarr
Gods in Chaos
Good-Bye
Hearts of Sand
Heir, The
Hidden Camera (1990)
Hunting Party
Indian Summer
Jeremiah 13: Strike
Joe's Bar
Justine
Last Voyage of Sinbad (1988), (Richard Corben)
Man from Harlem
Mark of the Dog
Matter of Time
Mercenary: Cult of the Sacred Fire
Mercenary: The Formula
Morbus Gravis 1
Necron (1990)
New York/Miami (1990)
Orient Gateway
Outer States
Perchance to Dream
Peter Pank
Pioneers of the Human Adventure
Ranks of the Black Order
Raw: High Culture for Low Brows
Rebel
Richard Corben: Underground
Shooting Stars (hardback)
Specialist: Full Moon in Dendara
Squeak the Mouse (1989)
Stella Norris: Hurricane
Superwest Comics (1987)
Survivor, The (1990)
Talking Head
Tex Arcana
Torpedo
Town That Didn't Exist
Valentina
Venus in Furs (1991)
Video Clips (1985)
Werewolf (Richard Corben)
Woman Trap
Zeppelin

Comcat titles

Adventures of Blake and Mortimer

The Adventures of Yoko, Vic and Paul

Code XIII

Magic Crystal, v 1-3 (retitle of Altor)

Young BlueberryFurther Information

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