History GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff / ComicBooks

* {{ComicBook/Commando}} For Action and Adventure is a comic book virtually unknown outside of Britain, but curiously it is highly popular in Finland as well ever since the 1960's.

* A famous example are the ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDucksComics. Largely faded out of American culture (especially once WDC&S went into the prestige format, and it started to be marketed to collectors rather than children, in general making it really hard to get besides actually subscribing), these continue to be produced in most other areas of the world, especially Europe, where they continue to outsell SuperHero comics. More specifically, relatively obscure characters can get their own books (such as Italy's love for Clarabelle Cow), or familiar ones can get very different interpretations; Mickey as a gritty detective, Donald as a superhero [[UnscrupulousHero with little qualms about hurting the villains]] (see ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''), Goofy as a ComicBook/{{Superman}} parody, etc. This may be related to their look, which is closer to old FrancoBelgianComics than to American comics. Another possibility in some countries is a long history of '''really good''' {{Woolseyism}}.

* A famous example are the Creator/{{Disney}} Comics. Largely faded out of American culture (especially once WDC&S went into the prestige format, and it started to be marketed to collectors rather than children, in general making it really hard to get besides actually subscribing), these continue to be produced in most other areas of the world, especially Europe, where they continue to outsell SuperHero comics. More specifically, relatively obscure characters can get their own books (such as Italy's love for Clarabelle Cow), or familiar ones can get very different interpretations; Mickey as a gritty detective, Donald as a superhero [[UnscrupulousHero with little qualms about hurting the villains]] (see ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''), Goofy as a ComicBook/{{Superman}} parody, etc. This may be related to their look, which is closer to old FrancoBelgianComics than to American comics. Another possibility in some countries is a long history of '''really good''' {{Woolseyism}}.
** WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck

** It should be noted that Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} has more influence in Japan than its competitor Creator/DCComics, mostly because Marvel offers more relatable superheroes than what DC has to offer. Across from Spider-Man and the X-Men, Iron Man and Captain America have gotten a small fanbase in Japan. Especially Captain America, as he not only represents the American value of freedom [[note]]The stereotype of an American in the Japanese perspective is often this trait[[/note]], but he also represents justice, honor, dignity, and duty as well (four of the most distinctive traits of an idealized superhero in many anime and manga alike). Iron Man has also gotten a small popularity in Japan due to his Mecha Suit. Marvel is popular enough to even feature a crossover with one of the most popular manga in Japan, ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''.

* In Creator/ChrisClaremont's first ''ComicBook/XMen'' run, the X-Men were well-received in Japan, despite being hated and feared in their native USA. Little Japanese girls were even shown to idolize ComicBook/{{Storm}}.

** Japan really, ''really'' loves Franchise/{{Batman}}. Batman had a [[Manga/{{Batman}} manga]] in the 1960s (of which several stories appear in the American book ''Bat-Manga''), and has had several manga in more recent times -- ''Batman: Death Mask'', ''Batman: Child of Dreams'' by Creator/KiaAsamiya, and a story in ''Batman: Black and White'' by Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo. When Akita Shoten began serializing a Comicbook/{{Justice League|Of America}} manga in anticipation of [[Film/JusticeLeague2017 the movie]], it was titled ''[[WolverinePublicity Batman and the Justice League]]'', making it clear just who Japan considered the star.
** Franchise/SpiderMan is just as beloved as Batman and the Avengers. Spidey even had his own [[Series/SpiderManJapan Japanese exclusive live-action television series]]. Spider-Man is considered a ''national icon'' in Japan. The [[Anime/MarvelDiskWarsTheAvengers Avengers anime]] even made sure to include him as a main character to parlay some of that goodwill. Not bad for a kid from Queens, New York. A lot of this is down to Japan having a strong preference for the {{Kid Hero}} trope, which Spider-Man codified in in the Western superhero genre that had previously featured primarily adult heroes.

** Shuma-Gorath, a Comicbook/DoctorStrange antagonist who was all but forgotten in America when he appeared in ''Marvel Super Heroes''. Shuma became wildly popular with the Japanese, and was added as DLC to ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' for exactly that reason. Venom, on the other hand, while well-known in the US, is ''insanely'' popular in Japan, and it's easy to make the connection between his popularity and his appearances in the VideoGame/CapcomVs games. Acknowledged in Shuma's ending in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'', where he (she? it?) parlays the fame he gained defeating Galactus into a Japanese game show.

* A famous example are the Creator/{{Disney}} Comics. Largely faded out of American culture (especially once WDC&S went into the prestige format, and it started to be marketed to collectors rather than children, in general making it really hard to get besides actually subscribing), these continue to be produced in most other areas of the world, especially Europe, where they continue to outsell SuperHero comics. More specifically, relatively obscure characters can get their own books (such as Italy's love for Clarabelle Cow), or familiar ones can get very different interpretations; Mickey as a gritty detective, Donald as a superhero [[UnscrupulousHero with little qualms about hurting the villains]] (see ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''), Goofy as a Comicbook/{{Superman}} parody, etc. This may be related to their look, which is closer to old FrancoBelgianComics than to American comics. Another possibility in some countries is a long history of '''really good''' {{Woolseyism}}.

*** This concept was used again in 2008, in an Italian story arc called ''Ultraheroes'', which saw even more characters taking a costumed secret identity, along with the already-established ones: John D. Rockerduck and Peg Leg Pete (wearing a [[Franchise/SpiderMan Doc Ock]]-like costume) on the villains' side, Gladstone and Gus Goose with the good guys, the latter as an ''ComicBook/IronMan'' parody.

* SuperHero comics first appeared in Poland in TheNineties, thanks to the publisher TM-Semic. As a result, TM-Semic's three main initial titles (''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', ''ComicBook/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'') have much larger fanbases than other Creator/MarvelComics heroes or teams (the biggest Polish Marvel fansite evolved from a strictly X-Men website, then ran out of material). And because the only three DC titles TM-Semic published were ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', and ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', while later they brought a few Image comics, much more people will recognize ComicBook/{{Spawn}} than Franchise/WonderWoman (who possibly never even appeared in any TM-Semic comics). However, Vertigo titles and European Comics are still much more popular than the SuperHero genre.

* The Italian western comic ''Comicbook/TexWiller'' is huge in Brazil (probably helped by a good reception of the SpaghettiWestern), where it [[http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Colecao_de_tex.jpg receives many publications]] and at times locally-made stories.

** ''Comicbook/TheTombOfDracula'' and several other monster comics became popular in the early '70s. While their popularity waned in America, sales remained very strong in Britain. The American ''Tomb of Dracula'' comic was kept alive and on a monthly schedule largely due to its popularity in Britain.

* When Comicbook/BlackCanary joined ''Comicbook/BatgirlAndTheBirdsOfPrey'', the fact Dinah had been in a band in her own pre-Comicbook/DCRebirth title more or less got glossed over; they'd been kind of popular for a while, but that was ''months'' ago. Then there was a single-issue story set in Paris, and ''everyone'' recognises her as D.D., lead singer of Black Canary, because they'd been ''really big'' in France.

** Popular and well-loved mascot character in Japan, thanks in part to being a cute dog who happens to be marketed by {{Creator/Sanrio}}. Unfortunately, most Japanese seem unaware that the main character of the series is his ''owner'', despite the strip's long-running and faithful translation, which gets printed daily in Japanese newspapers and has numerous compilation books in both English and Japanese. He has also gotten everything from his own café to special donuts at Mr. Donut Japan. Because of how popular Snoopy is there, [[WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie the 2015 movie in the franchise]] was retitled "I Love Snoopy", was released a week after the American release and [[http://lunawings.tumblr.com/post/135102688523/the-peanuts-movie-was-a-bit-more-exciting-than-i was shown in 4D]], which is rare to happen to any Western animated film.

* Downplayed with the Belgian comic book ''ComicBook/Papyrus''. It has been much more successful on France and as a result is only available in French comic book stores or on the French version of ''Spirou''.

* Downplayed with the Belgian comic book ''Papyrus''. It has been much more successful on France and as a result is only available in French comic book stores or on the French version of ''Spirou''.

* A {{Edutainment}} Manhwa series, ''Why?'' receiving a massive popularity in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, its copies sold pretty well in bookstores.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': Germans Love Clever & Smart: Germany was the country where the series got its biggest sales, second only to Spain. And the margin is pretty narrow. It was a case of NoExportForYou from 2009 - 2017, but once a new publisher took on the series, sales right away went back to high. Besides the pre-established fanbase, the series' kind of humor simply is very popular in Germany.

** Regarding John D. Rockerduck, this character was created by Carl Barks in 1961, and very rarely used in American stories. In France and Italy, Rockerduck has been long since established as the ''true'' rival to Scrooge [=McDuck=], and he's popular on his own (he even was the eponymous character of a few stories), while Flintheart Glomgold (of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' fame) is practically unknown and never used. To the point where a celebration of Scrooge's 40th anniversary (1987) in the Italian weekly Mickey Mouse magazine described Glomgold as the character who later evolved into Rockerduck.

* It has been established a couple of times that the French love the ComicBook/FantasticFour. The team's first mission after "Heroes Reborn" involved them traveling to Paris, where crowds greeted them with cheers of "Vive la Fantastique!" When Ben later returned to Paris to get away from the ugliness of the Marvel ComicBook/CivilWar, he was met enthusiastically by Les Heroes de Paris, France's national superhero team, and had several adventures with them.

** Marvel's comic book adaptation of ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' was hugely popular in Britain, to the point that the British weekly ''Apes'' series outpaced the American monthly features. To meet demand, Marvel's British imprint had to [[RemixComic repurpose]] ''ComicBook/{{Killraven}}'' stories (redrawing the Martian villains to look like apes) as ''Apeslayer''.

** The ''ComicBook/XMen'' as a whole have been among the more popular American comics franchises in Japan ever since their '90s cartoon began airing there. Now, after four movies and two further cartoons, it's bigger than ever -- Madhouse has made a ''Anime/XMen'' anime. Comicbook/{{Psylocke}}, a fairly minor member of the ''ComicBook/XMen'', is inordinately popular simply because she was in ''VideoGame/XMenChildrenOfTheAtom'', ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' despite hardly mattering to anyone in the country of her creation.

** Li'l Bad Wolf is a lupine character who had his own comic series, but is now forgotten in English-speaking countries. But in France (where he is known as P'tit Loup), he is more popular, to the point he had his own magazine! He is quite popular in Italy too.

* SuperHero comics first appeared in Poland in TheNineties, thanks to the publisher TM-Semic. As a result, TM-Semic's three main initial titles ( ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'', ''ComicBook/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'') have much larger fanbases than other Creator/MarvelComics heroes or teams (the biggest Polish Marvel fansite evolved from a strictly X-Men website, then ran out of material). And because the only three DC titles TM-Semic published were ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', and ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', while later they brought a few Image comics, much more people will recognize ComicBook/{{Spawn}} than Franchise/WonderWoman (who possibly never even appeared in any TM-Semic comics). However, Vertigo titles and European Comics are still much more popular than the SuperHero genre.

** The Smurfs were very popular in the US and Canada during their [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs heyday in the 80's]].

* The Italian western comic ''ComicStrip/TexWiller'' is huge in Brazil (probably helped by a good reception of the SpaghettiWestern), where it [[http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Colecao_de_tex.jpg receives many publications]] and at times locally-made stories.