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[[folder:Real Life Examples]]

* Snoopy, of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' fame:
** 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 readers seem unaware that the main character of the strip is actually his owner Charlie Brown, despite the strip's long run and faithful translation to Japanese, which gets printed daily in various Japanese newspapers and has numerous compilation books in both English and Japanese languages. He has also gotten everything from his own café to special donuts at Mister Donut. Due to his popularity, [[WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie the 2015 movie in the franchise]] was renamed from "The Peanuts Movie" to "I Love Snoopy", was released a mere week after the American release and [[http://lunawings.tumblr.com/post/135102688523/the-peanuts-movie-was-a-bit-more-exciting-than-i was also shown in 4D]].
** In Sweden, ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' is called ''Snobben'' -- which is the Swedish name of Snoopy.
** Same thing in France, the Netherlands and Hungary where ''Snoopy'' is the title of the comic (though more recent publications tend to call it ''Peanuts'' again, or at least ''Snoopy & the Peanuts'').
** Ask anyone in Britain and they will probably make the same distinction, even though the comic is still published under the name ''Peanuts''.
** A similar situation happens in South America. The strip goes either by the name ''Carlitos'' (literally "Charlie") or... ''Snoopy.'' (Brazil goes both ways: "Minduim", a mangling of the Portuguese word for "peanut" that became Charlie Brown's nickname, or "Snoopy")
** Even the creator disliked the name "Peanuts" (his original title, "Li'l Folks", was considered too similar to the existing features "Li'l Abner" and "Little Folks" and the name "Peanuts" was basically forced upon him by his syndicate). A lot of people even in the US tend to refer to the entire strip by the name of its most popular character, Snoopy, so it may be a better example of BreakoutCharacter than of this trope.
*** Cedar Fair Entertainment licenses many of the Peanuts characters for use in their amusement parks. The ''Peanuts'' themed area in each of the parks is known as "Camp Snoopy" and/or "Planet Snoopy", which is pretty good evidence that this is not an "outside the US only" thing.
* ComicStrip/ThePhantom is one of the most popular costumed heroes in the world, but not in America.
** Scandinavia and Australia are standouts -- one report estimated Australian sales of ''The Phantom'' at ''ten times'' the amounts of the top-selling Marvel and DC comics.
** ''The Phantom'' is also highly popular among the Wahgi people in Papua New Guinea, [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-does-this-comic-book-hero-appear-on-so-many-new-gui-1621448221 who often draw him on their traditional wooden shields]].
* While Japanese readers in general aren't crazy about American superheroes, there are some prominent exceptions:
** Japan really, ''really'' loves ComicBook/{{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.
** ComicBook/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.
*** It was for that very reason why Spidey's reveal for ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' was saved for the 2010 Tokyo Game Show.
** 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 an anime, ''Anime/MarvelAnimeXMen''. 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.
** 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.
** It should be noted that Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} has more influence in Japan than its competitor Creator/DCComics. 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''.
** Deadpool originally had a modest following from Japanese Marvel fans, but ever since his appearance in the ''Anime/MarvelDiskWarsTheAvengers'' anime, his popularity increased significantly. Japan really loves Deadpool for his quirky humor, and overall prefers Daniel Way's interpretation of the character.
** Back to Captain America, this became circular. Following the above mentioned Japanese Spider-Man series, Stan Lee and Toei wanted lightning to strike twice with Captain America. Obviously, he was changed to Captain Japan, but the team wanted to give him an international sidekick... and came up with some good ones before finding an impass at France, Kenya, the Soviet Union, and the United States... so they decided to make a team, give them unique colors, and have them fight evil together... The result was ''Series/BattleFeverJ'', which became the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' series which was back translated into the hugely popular ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise.
* Malaysian cartoonists Reggie Lee and Mohammad Nor Khalid (Lat) are popular overseas. For the latter, his most famous work ''Kampung Boy'' won many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults.
* ''Kuso High School'' by another Malaysian artist Keith is gaining popularity in China. Even the artist himself is surprised by the huge turnout during an autograph-signing session at the 2nd China International Comics Festival.
* A famous example are the ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics. 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 and the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse as a whole:
*** A Creator/CarlBarks collection can easily sell two million copies in Finland... which has a population of five million. When Carl Barks visited Finland in the 90s, a minister of the that-time government was there to greet him. In Stockholm, Sweden, there is a Carl Barks väg (Carl Barks Road) and in Gothenburg, Sweden, there is a Kalle Ankas väg (Donald Duck Road). Seriously, back when he still made comics, his stories were hugely advertised in the front cover and it seems there's no story he's written that isn't in some compilation. Of which there are many.
*** In Norway, Donald is so popular he's ''more'' recognizable than Mickey.
*** Same goes for Sweden, where Donald is so popular that the Disney Christmas special ''From All of Us to All of You'' or ''Jiminy Cricket's Christmas'' (which airs on Christmas Eve and is always the king of Swedish ratings) is simply referred to as ''Donald Duck'' (or in some cases ''Donald Duck and his Friends Wishes Everyone a Merry Christmas''). Even though Donald barely appears, and Mickey co-hosts.
*** In Finland, Donald is ''the'' Disney comic character. In fact, the character's weekly magazine once ran an ad campaign with street signs bearing the legend "Have you ever met a person who has never read Donald Duck?", with a panel from a Donald Duck comic where Donald says "Fascinating, how did you come to know them?" And this is not much of an exaggeration, as the magazine sells 320,000 copies and is approximated to be read by over a ''million''. A. Week. Finland having population of 5.3 million.
*** Donald's alter ego in some Italian comics isn't a gentleman thief but a Batman-like superhero (although his name and appearance are based on a gentlemen thief whose old run-down mansion ends up in the possession of Donald after he receives a contest prize meant for Gladstone by mistake). Eventually it got to the point where about ''90 percent'' of Disney characters had their own superhero alterego. Some of these include Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Fethry Duck (whose identity, the "Red Bat," was an even more explicit parody of the Silver Age Batman), his girlfriend Gloria, Goofy, Gilbert, Huey, Dewey and Louie (all pretending to be the same person), Zé Carioca (whose identity, the "''Green'' Bat," was ''yet another'' Batman spoof, in this case of the gritty modern Batman -- at least, after a ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' spoof in his Brazilian comic title; before that, he only has the detective part of Bats down) and his nephews, and of course, WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck (who was always this way in the first place). In fact, the first five at one point had their own ''Justice League.''
*** 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 [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Doc Ock]]-like costume) on the villains' side, Gladstone and Gus Goose with the good guys, the latter as an ''ComicBook/IronMan'' parody.
*** Donald is popular enough in Malaysia that a rerun collection of Disney shorts is called ''Donald Duck Presents''.
*** Denmark for a time had a high-quality comic book with ''Stålanden'' ("The Steel Duck"), Donald's Batman-esque superheroic alter ego. It was rather popular until the original PKNA comics stopped. And even then, the Jumbo Books (larger and thicker comic books of mostly Donald Duck related comic stories that couldn't fit the normal Donald Duck & Co. comics) still feature his alter ego pretty frequently, albeit with their version of him.
*** In general, Scandinavia Loves Donald Duck. The Jumbo Books, mentioned above, fleshed out Donald a lot more as a character and even introduced more of his family members to the comics, adding to his large family. Heck, Donald is featured on almost every single cover for the Jumbo Books or Donald & Co. comics, adding to his fanbase in good ol' Scandi'!
*** In the Netherlands, Donald is the big star of a weekly magazine, aptly called "the Donald Duck". This magazine, published since 1952, features all new comics every week, focusing on Donald and his friends and relatives, but containing stories about other characters from the franchise, such as Mickey, Big Bad Wolf and José Carioca, to name a few. This weekly magazine proved to be so popular that it got a spin-off in the form of a monthly magazine called "Donald Duck Extra". Longer stories that don't fit in the weekly magazine can be published this way. Even though the weekly magazine doesn't focus on boys in particular, there was still room for a bi-weekly magazine centered around Daisy (called Katrien in Dutch) specifically aimed towards girls. Every few months a new "Donald Duck Pocket" is released; a small novel-sized comic book which mainly feature translated Italian stories. And last but not least, 2009 saw the release of a one-time glossy magazine focused on young adults, which pretended that Donald was a real person interested in real life stuff such as lifestyle, fashion, and cars, to name a few. This wasn't regarded as exceptionally weird by the Dutch.
*** In Brazil, aside from a [[ThePeteBest short-lived republication comic]], the very first magazine of the publisher of Disney comics, Abril, was a Donald Duck one in 1950. The title still runs, the usual comics digest size is referred to as "duck format", and Donald is the centerpiece of the Disney comics advertisement (along with Uncle Scrooge) in lieu of Mickey. As Abril became a huge media conglomerate, its founder parodied Walt Disney's declaration that "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse." by saying "It all started with a duck".
*** Donald Duck has a huge cult following in Germany. When Germany began importing U.S. comics in the 1950s, one particular comic caught the attention of the German people. Imported by the Ehapa publishing house, the first American comic to reach German children was “Micky Maus”. Although the comic was titled after the famous Mickey Mouse, the majority of the strips therein featured Donald Duck. Rather than translate the comics as literally as possible, the translators and copy editors at the publishing house, most notably one art historian Dr. Erika Fuchs, were instructed to take liberties with the translations and to insert as much German culture as possible into the comics. As a result, the Donald of the U.S. (a fiery-tempered brute prone to yelling, conflict, and bearing a sour attitude) became an erudite, German literature quoting, philosophical powerhouse who dug into both distant German history and current political events in a way U.S. readers would never have expected. To this day many Germans credit Donald Duck with giving them their first introduction to German literature and history. Not only do older Germans remember Donald fondly, but to this day over 40,000 monthly Donald Duck specials are printed per month in Germany and the majority of them are purchased by adult readers. In fact, in 2009, when an 8,000 page limited edition collection of Donald Duck strips was assembled into a beautiful collector’s edition (priced at nearly $2,000 USD we might add), the limited run of the book sold out almost immediately.
** WesternAnimation/MinnieMouse - At Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea, everyone has Minnie Mouse ears (there are no Mousketeer caps, and the only Mickey headbands feature the Sorcerer's Apprentice hat, while there are infinite variations of Minnie Ears). The most popular character, though, is Duffy, a teddy bear Minnie made for Mickey. Every girl there has one, and there are special outfits you can purchase to dress your bear for the season.
** WesternAnimation/DaisyDuck - Similar to Minnie Mouse, Daisy has gained similar treatment at Tokyo Disney Resort. She's frequently seen at Tokyo Disneyland's daily parades and shows, especially seasonal events (such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas). She's frequently paired with Minnie (who are canonically best friends) at the resort's promotional material and events focused on Minnie.
** Duffy is an especially interesting case. He was originally created as purely "merchandise" (you could buy a Duffy bear at a toy shop in Disney World, but he wasn't an existing character from a movie, book or TV show). Then the owners of Tokyo Disneyland/Disney Sea (which is a separate company, ''not'' the Disney corporation) latched onto him and popularized him in Japan to the extent that he eventually got re-imported ''back'' into the US parks (though he's still not as popular there as he is in Japan).
** Fethry Duck - Donald's slacker cousin enjoys such popularity in Brazil that he got his own comic for a while, complete with DistaffCounterpart and [[SendInTheClones clone nephews]].
** Brazil also loves the hillbilly Hard Haid Moe ([[http://coa.inducks.org/character.php?c=MOE&view=3 he's kinda obscure elsewhere]]), where he even got a female companion.
** 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/DuckTales1987'' 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.
** José (Zé) Carioca the Brazilian Parrot. You might remember him from ''WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos'', or ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', but he hasn't made many appearances since then, and remains a somewhat obscure character in the US. Apparently Disney got this caricature of Brazilian culture just right (and certainly got the marketing of it even righter), because Brazil fell in love with him. He started off in bi-weekly comics as an off-shoot of Donald Duck comics, but got his own monthly comic book series that [[http://www.papersera.net/vilaxurupita/zc/zc2326_2350.htm ran until July of 2018, after 57 years and 1332 issues]].
** Gyro Gearloose is very popular in France, so much in fact that his French name ("Géo Trouvetou" which can be translated as "Geo Finditall") is widely used to describe a GadgeteerGenius in France even by people who don't actually know the character. He is still to this day featured in French Disney publications in his own titled comics almost as often as Scrooge [=McDuck=], Donald, and Mickey comics. Little Helper (or rather "Filament") even has some comics of his own from time to time in mostly silent comedy-type adventures.
* In German-speaking countries, the work of Disney-translator Dr. Erika Fuchs became influential to such an extent that grammatical terms were named after her. During the 1950s, the Swedish Donald Duck translators created several neologisms that have become accepted as a part of the well-educated vernacular, e.g. ''läskeblask'' ("soda popsicle"), ''rosenrasande'' (a red-faced rage) and ''skinntorr'' (approximately "an old, dry and scruffy demeanour").
* A {{Edutainment}} Manhwa series, ''Why?'' receiving a massive popularity in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. To the point its copies sold pretty quickly in bookstores.
* While ''[[ComicBook/JonahHex Hex]]'' never sold particularly well in America, it was a great success in the UK, Spain, Italy, and Japan.
* ''ComicBook/IlGrandeBlek'': the comic met an unexpected popularity in France (where it was known as ''Blek le roc'') and former Jugoslavian countries, with the creation of original stories.
* 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 ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'', and ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', while later they brought a few Image comics, much more people will recognize ComicBook/{{Spawn}} than ComicBook/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.
* Generally speaking, ComicBook/ArchieComics aren't popular outside North America, but Archie is also a big seller in both India and Mexico. In the Mexican case, it did even get a ''theater play''.
* Mort Walker's ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' comic strip has been a very popular comic book series in Denmark and Sweden since the late 1950s. This probably has to do with both countries having or having recently abolished conscription, which makes military humor relatable to a large part of the population.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' is much more popular in France then it is in the USA. Thor is arguably the most popular Marvel superhero in France.
* ''Franchise/TheSmurfs''
** The Smurfs were very popular in the US and Canada during their [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981 heyday in the 80's]]. To the point that [[Film/TheSmurfs three]] [[Film/TheSmurfs2 feature]] [[WesternAnimation/SmurfsTheLostVillage films]] based on the franchise was created in the United States during Main/TheNewTens by Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation. Since the film rights were moved to Creator/{{Paramount}} and Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, multiple Smurf animated films were announced in early 2022. Contrast to Belgium (the franchise's native country), where they only created [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfsAndTheMagicFlute three animated Smurf projects]] prior to Sony Animation's Smurf film trilogy.
** The Smurfs are also very popular in Germany, with multiple German exclusive Smurfs albums released since the 90's. Vader Abraham popularizing the series during the 70's might have played a big role in this.
** Similar to Germany, the Smurfs are also popular in Greece, with Smurfette being the lead singer in various Greek Smurf albums.
* The ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW Transformers]]'' comics published by IDW feature street-racing samurai-type Drift, who is often accused of being a CreatorsPet, if not an out-and-out Japan-fanboy. Japanese fans seem to ''adore'' the guy, if the amount of fanart from there is of any indication. ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' (where Drift is a major character) sells well in Japan and [[MerchandiseDriven Drift's toy itself]] is considered decent. When ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015 Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' used a design more similar to the Movie's interpretation of Drift, his toy got a Japanese exclusive retooling to make him look more like his original self.
* The film adaptation of the ''ComicBook/TamaraDrewe'' comic strip was a flop in its native UK as well as the US, but managed to be a surprise hit in France.
* Most of the newspapers which publish ''ComicStrip/PiranhaClub''/Ernie comic strip are from Scandinavian countries and Baltic States. The comic itself is written by an American.
* ''ComicStrip/LittleLulu'' is known to have a significant fanbase in Latin America, particularly in Brazil where an InNameOnly, {{Animesque}} TimeSkip spin-off of sorts was released portraying an alternate depiction of Lulu Moppet and her gang as a modern-day teenager, and in a similar vein to the 2000s ''[[WesternAnimation/HollyHobbieAndFriends Holly Hobbie]]'' reboot, depicts the original Lulu as Teen!Lulu's grandmother.
* Italian comic book ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_%28comics%29 Alan Ford]]'', a [[PrintLongRunners long-running]] (since 1969) comedy/satire series about bumbling espionage agents, is fairly known in its home country but not really popular anymore; however, the translations for the former Yugoslav countries became unexpectedly popular, to the point that catchphrases from the comics became part of national slang, rock bands were named after characters, and so on. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, various scenes in EmirKusturica's film ''Black Cat, White Cat'' were inspired by the comic.
* {{ComicBook/WITCH}} was made by the Italian division of an [[Creator/{{Disney}} American company]], but is ''huge'' in Scandinavia - to the point that most of the ExpandedUniverse is created by Danish writers. (Lene Kaaberbøl and Josefine Ottesen)
* The Belgian comic strip ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'' is far more popular in TheNetherlands nowadays then in their homecountry. Of course, this is mainly because most of the Belgian references have been replaced by a more standard Dutch tone. The characters all speak standard Dutch now, use the Dutch airlines KLM and spent more time in Dutch locations then in Belgian ones. This also has something to do with ''Suske en Wiske'' being perceived as a quintessentially Flemish strip; although there is a French version, the feature has always done noticeably less well in the Walloon parts of Belgium.
* 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.
** It at least used to be rather popular and well known in Finland and seems to be sold even to this day, and is especially loved by young boys.
* Argentinian comic strip ''Comicstrip/{{Mafalda}}'', along with being popular in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world, proved to be a hit in Indonesia due to its relevancy with current events in the country. In fact, in the foreword the publisher mentioned that this was the exact reason they decided to publish the series.
* When Creator/MarvelComics created a British imprint in 1972, reprints of Marvel's superhero features did well enough, but British readers were much more receptive, for a longer period of time, to several non-superhero features than their American counterparts:
** ''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.
** 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]] their ''ComicBook/{{Killraven|AmazingAdventures}}'' stories (redrawing the Martian villains to look like apes) as ''Apeslayer''.
** In the '80s, some of Marvel's licensed features aimed at younger readers were much more popular in Britain than in America:
*** Marvel's New York office was unable to produce enough content for the Marvel UK titles of ''ComicBook/{{The Transformers|Marvel}}'', which led to Marvel UK producing additional stories in-house. ''Many'' additional stories -- so many that, when all was said and done, Marvel UK produced over twice as much ''Transformers'' material as the parent company. Indeed, it became a case of RecursiveImport, as Marvel UK provided the content for the later issues of the American ''Transformers'' title.
*** Similarly, Marvel's ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' adaptation didn't sell especially well in America, ending after 24 monthly issues. In Britain, ''[=ThunderCats=]'' was a hit, with 129 weekly or bi-weekly issues. Again, Marvel UK produced the, er, lion's share of the content.
* Bongo Comics do great business in Germany; it was even said that ''[[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Simpsons Comics]]'' made the jump to monthly publication before this would have been justified by American sales because the German edition (produced by Italian publisher Panini) was published monthly from the start and was in danger of running out of material.
* The Belgian comic strip ''Bessy'' was a colossal succes in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, so much that Studio Vandersteen earned more cash by exporting those stories to that country than in Belgium or the Netherlands, where the series has been terminated since the 1990s.
* 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''.
* ''Dukobu'' lost its steam in the Belgian comic book scene, but the series is such a humongous CashCowFranchise in France that there was a French movie adaptation of the comic.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' is so popular in France that they produced [[WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow their own show]] based off of the franchise that gets higher ratings than other French-produced shows and other popular foreign shows such as ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''.
* ''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. Notably, the German Network RTL is credited in the Cartoon.
** One of their best stories is set in Germany, with M&F going all around the country in their mission (and successfully crossing the Berlin Wall twice!).
*** Interestingly, the parts where they cross the Berlin Wall were replaced with something else in the German edition. The censorship took place since the wall was a taboo topic in the 80s.
** And in Denmark (as ''Flip & Flop''). Ibañez even made a (pretty good) story set in Copenhagen in honor of his Danish fans, featuring the Little Mermaid Statue as a main character.
* {{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.
* FrancoBelgianComics in UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}, where often (like in the cases of ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' and ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'') they were the first non-French language country where they were translated and published. In fact, Creator/{{Herge}}'s brother was only able to live through a [=WWII=] concentration camp because ''Tintin'''s Portuguese publishers paid him in sardine cans which he would give to his brother.
* ''ComicBook/LesNombrils'' was created and is drawn & illustrated by a Québécois couple, Delaf & Dubuc, from Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. It started out in ''Safarir'', a French Canadian humor magazine, but then was picked up by the FrancoBelgianComics magazine ''Spirou'' a year after it started and became huge in France and Belgium, as well as among ''bande dessinée'' fans elsewhere, and since pretty much moved to ''Spirou''.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' is popular in France, just like the main franchise.
* The somewhat obscure Cold War-era Hungarian comic strip ''ComicStrip/{{Jucika}}'' became reasonably popular on the internet, so its first official collection in 2022 was released bilingually. For the sake of English-speaking fans, additional text was included to explain the comic's cultural and historical references.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:In-Universe Examples]]
* In John Ostrander's ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'', it was revealed that J'onn is the most recognized superhero in the southern hemisphere and in Japan. This may be a response to the RealLife fan question of why DC downplays him despite [[SuperPowerLottery his many awesome powers]].
* 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 [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]].
** This carried over into "World Tour" arc in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' as well, where the team got treated like celebrities while visiting Tokyo.
** For whatever reason, Japan is simply shown to be more accepting of mutants than the US. Two of its biggest superheroes, Sunfire and the Silver Samurai, were both known mutants, for instance.
** It's not just Japan. During Magneto's trial before an international tribunal in Paris, there were huge pro-mutant demonstrations in that city.
** In-United States example: The comics do tend to show San Franciscans as more welcoming to the X-Men and mutants in general than New Yorkers.
* In the Creator/BrianMichaelBendis graphic novel ''Jinx,'' two guys talk about Hasselhoff and why he (and his music) is so popular:
-->"I don't know, man, I keep hearing he's, like, huge in Germany and shit, as big as Elvis..."\\
"Oh! Well, that's two good ideas the Germans have had: [[GodwinsLaw putting people into ovens]], and [[FelonyMisdemeanor listening to that shit]]. You'll excuse me if I don't go running out to buy it on their say so."
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' comic book featured a story about Dot in a "trading siblings" scenario with a Franchise/HelloKitty knockoff. When Dot arrives in Japan, she finds that she's really popular over there.
* ''Vertigo POP! Tokyo'' features this as an aside; Steve, an American man living in Japan, is invited to a concert. The band headlining the event is an American band, Boring Toaster. Steve's never heard of them, but evidently they're pretty huge in Japan.
* 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/{{Civil War|2006}}'', he was met enthusiastically by Les Heroes de Paris, France's national superhero team, and had several adventures with them.
* 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.
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