Imprimerie Pollina can now share the first images of the new Asterix album, the arrival in bookstores of the 39th part of the series lifting the seal of secrecy. For two months, the company located in Luçon in the Vendée region of France has produced some of the copies of Asterix and the Griffin published by Hachette Livre.
For the French market, two million copies of the comic book written and illustrated by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad were printed. Laurent Pollina, the manager of the 235-employee company, cannot say anything about the number of books produced in his workshop. "But this is our biggest draw of the year." he concedes.
A draw under high surveillance
The printing company, used to print runs of this size and reputation, had to apply a very strict confidentiality protocol.
"The smudges were put in special dumpsters that are locked. The files were in safes on USB sticks and were never on the servers, details the printer . Phones and cameras were not allowed around the machines that produce the works."
Printing began in August and continued until the end of September. "In the workshop it's a pretty special atmosphere, very enjoyable. People are happy to participate in this kind of event." The production of these prints has been planned for a long time and has not been affected by the shortage of paper and binding board.
Two other large prints made at the same time
"In fact, we ran several large print runs simultaneously. We also printed the Largo Winch album, The Border of the Night, to be published on November 5th. And a few days before, we started printing the graphic novel The Young Actor by Riad Sattouf, which comes out on November 4. These large print runs are counted on the finger of one hand each year and are concentrated on the start of the literary season and Christmas."
Pollina Printing is ready for the reprints of previous titles that always accompany the release of a new book.
