History GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff / ComicBooks

* 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 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 ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' comic book featured a story about Dot in a "trading siblings" scenario with a HelloKitty knockoff. When Dot arrives in Japan, she finds that she's really popular over there.

** 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'', 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/JusticeLeague the movie]], it was titled ''[[WolverinePublicity Batman and the Justice League]]'', making it clear just who Japan considered the star.

** Franchise/SpiderMan is even more beloved than Batman. 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 {{KidHero}}, which Spider-Man codified in in the Western superhero genre that had previously featured primarily adult heroes.

** Franchise/SpiderMan is even more beloved than Batman. 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.

* ComicStrip/ThePhantom is the most popular costumed hero in the world, but not America. Scandanavia 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.

** Back to Captain America, this became circular. Following the above mentioned Japanese Spider-man series, Stan Lee and the Japanese company that made it wanted Lightning to strike twice with Captain America. Obviously, he was changed to Captain Japan, but the team wanted to give him an international side kick... and came up with some good ones before finding an impass at France, Kenya, the Soviet Union, and the United States... so the 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.

** 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]] ''Killraven'' stories (redrawing the Martian villains to look like apes) as ''Apeslayer''.

* Africans love ''[[Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo Tintin in the Congo]]''. The album is widely considered as Hergé's biggest OldShame for its caricatural and paternalistically racist depiction of Congolese people. Oddly enough, it is quite popular in francophone Africa, and in [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales modern Congo itself]] in particular. [[http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/09/04/au-congo-tintin-est-une-star_4746163_3212.html Interviews of locals]] show that people don't mind the caricatures there (saying that local caricatures of white people there are in fact ''worse'' than what Hergé made of them), considering them as purely humor, and that Hergé; actually made the country's name world-famous and inspired the country to the point of making it Africa's number one provider of comic book artists. Not to mention the boost it gave to tourism.

* 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 GentlemanThief (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}}.

* 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 {{Spawn}} than 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.

* 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.

* 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.

*** 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 [[{{Spider-Man}} Doc Ock]]-like costume) on the villains' side, Gladstone and Gus Goose with the good guys, the latter as an ''ComicBook/IronMan'' parody.

** 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.

** Back to Captain America, this became circular. Following the above mentioned Japanese Spider-man series, Stan Lee and the Japanese company that made it wanted Lightning to strike twice with Captain America. Obviously, he was changed to Captain Japan, but the team wanted to give him an international side kick... and came up with some good ones before finding an impass at France, Kenya, the Soviet Union, and the United States... so the decided to make a team, give them unique colors, and have them fight evil together... The result was BattleFevorJ, which became the SuperSentaiSeries which was back translated into the hugely popular PowerRangers franchise.

* 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 TheOtherWiki, various scenes in EmirKusturica's film ''Black Cat, White Cat'' were inspired by the comic.

** 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'', 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/JusticeLeague the movie]], it was titled ''[[WolverinePublicity Batman and the Justice League]]'', making it clear just who Japan considered the star.

** 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'', and a story in ''Batman: Black and White'' by Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo.

** 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. Psylocke, a fairly minor member of the ''ComicBook/XMen'', being 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.

** It should be noted that [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]] has more influence in Japan than its competitor Creator/DCComics, mostly because Marvel offers more relatable superheroes than what DC Comics has to offer. Across from Spider-Man and the X-Men, Iron Man and Captain America has gotten a small fanbase in Japan. Especially Captain America, as he not only represent 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 LawfulGood 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''.

* 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 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 {{Spawn}} than 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.

* When 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:

* In John Ostrander's ''ComicBook/MartianManhunter'', it was revealed that J'onn is the most recognized superhero in the southern hemisphere and in Japan.

** The ''ComicBook/XMen'', As a whole they 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. Psylocke, a fairly minor member of the ''ComicBook/XMen'', being 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.

** It should be noted that [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]], when compared to their competitive rival, Creator/DCComics, has more influence in Japan than Creator/DCComics. This is mostly because Marvel offers more relatable superheroes than what DC Comics superheroes has to offer. Across from Spider-Man and the X-Men, Iron Man and Captain America has gotten a small fanbase in Japan. Especially Captain America, as he not only represent 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 LawfulGood 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''.

* ''Africans love [[Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo Tintin in the Congo]]''. The album is widely considered as Hergé's biggest OldShame for its caricatural and paternalistically racist depiction of Congolese people. Oddly enough, it is quite popular in francophone Africa, and in [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales modern Congo itself]] in particular. [[http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/09/04/au-congo-tintin-est-une-star_4746163_3212.html Interviews of locals]] show that people don't mind the caricatures there (saying that local caricatures of white people there are in fact ''worse'' than what Hergé made of them), considering them as purely humor, and that Hergé; actually made the country's name world-famous and inspired the country to the point of making it Africa's number one provider of comic book artists. Not to mention the boost it gave to tourism.