BUBBLE Comics (Russian: Комиксы BUBBLE) is the largest Russian comic book publisher, and the only publishing house in Russia with monthly releases of original, non-franchised comic books. English-language versions of many of their comics can be found on ComiXology, alongside DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Image Comics (among others). The publishing house also has a film studio, which is engaged in the production of films and series based on their own comics.
BUBBLE was founded in 2011 by journalist Artyom Gabrelyanov as part of News Media, a company owned by his father, media mogul Aram Gabrelyanov. Initially it published the eponymous BUBBLE Magazine, which published satirical comic strips on sensitive social and political topics. The magazine did not gain much popularity, and after releasing nine monthly issues, Gabrelyanov—taking inspiration from Marvel—decided to abandon humorous comics in favor of adventure and Superhero stories. However, his comics would be a uniquely Russian creation: a multifaceted reflection of the country, its history, and its people.
In October 2012, BUBBLE started releasing four ongoing monthly comic book series: Major Grom, Demonslayernote , Friarnote , and Red Fury. The four titles were quickly established as sharing a common continuity, often referred to informally as the BUBBLE Universe (or the "Bubbleverse"), with many issues referencing events and characters from the other lines. In 2013, the first major crossover event took place: the four-issue Miniseries Friar vs Demonslayer, which brought together two of the four main characters of the publisher. Two years later, BUBBLE partnered with the Russian Game Developers Conference to organize the first ever Comic-Con Russia festival in Moscow; during the event, BUBBLE announced the launch of the series Exlibrium, and Meteora, the first issues of which were released that month. Together with the four main series, these titles made up the First Wave of BUBBLE publications.
In October 2015, BUBBLE initiated the BUBBLEverse Crisis Crossover event Time of the Raven. The Miniseries ran from October 2015 through March 2016, and brought together the protagonists of BUBBLE's four main comic book lines—Major Grom, Demonslayer, Red Fury, and Friar—while impacting the storylines of Exlibrium and Meteora. Time of the Raven effectively closed out the first era of BUBBLE's publications, and in 2017, the company rebranded under the Second Wind initiative. Many of the classic titles were relaunched (with the stories designed to be more accessible to new readers), the circulation of new issues increased to 5,000 copies, and the synopsis pages were redesigned for the last three issues to make them unique to each episode. The comic covers also began to indicate the names of the writer, artist, and colorist (similar to Western comics).
In 2019, BUBBLE introduced the Bubble Legends line. Under the Legends imprint, the company initiated the New Bubble Heroes project, which allowed readers to compete to create a new comic book series based on an original character for the main Bubble Universe. The company also added BUBBLE Manga and Bubble Tin for publishing the company's manga and adult titles, respectively. The third wave of BUBBLE publications, which began in 2021, was not officially announced, as most of the series not related to Major Grom have ended (and have not been relaunched) However, the launch of the third Major Grom ongoing series (Major Igor Grom) and its spin-offs (Witch, Plague Doctor, Volkov, Major Grom: Army Nation, Igor Eel), as well as titles like MIR, Falcon, and the adult-oriented Manga Licorice, can be considered the actual third wave.
Imprints
- BUBBLE Visions
- BUBBLE Manga
- New BUBBLE Heroes
- BUBBLE Tin
- Affectionate Parody: Igor Eel, a parody of Major Grom in which Igor Grom is a talking eel and Sergey Razumovsky and Oleg Volkov are cobras. Lera Makarova is also later introduced as a humanoid puma. Much of the humor comes from Igor remembering that he is, in fact, an eel, and as such cannot carry out normal human activities or survive very long outside of water.
- An Arm and a Leg: Near the start of Allies, Nika recovers from a fight with zombies to find that both of her legs have been amputated below the knee. This leads to a long and arduous journey of self-discovery, as Nika – who is accustomed to relying on both her physical abilities and her sexuality – fights to regain her sense of self and her independence.
- Licorice involves a young woman having body parts gradually cut off and replaced by inhuman ones, causing her to resemble a human patchwork. (Since she's a jester, people assume it's part of her costume.)
- Bilingual Bonus: The Russian word for "eel" (Угорь) is only one letter away from the name "Igor" (Игорь) – hence, "Igor Eel".
- Comic-Book Time: While many Bubble Universe characters have appeared at a younger age in flashbacks, none of them seem to have visibly aged since their stories began, even though at least a decade has passed in canon.
- Follow the Leader: BUBBLE's founder and CEO, Artyom Gabrelyanov, has made no attempt to hide that he's trying to create Russia's own equivalent of Marvel or DC Comics. Marvel's influence can certainly be felt in the series Red Furynote and in the "power stones" side arc from Friar, and Meteora began as a blatant copy of Guardians of the Galaxy (complete with space pirates and talking animal sidekicks).Original description on BUBBLE.com: Just like Marvel or DC, but unmistakably ours, made right where we live.
- Protagonist Title: Demonslayer/Besoboy, Major Grom (and its follow-ups), Red Fury, Friar/Monk, Meteora, Ziggy: Space Hamster, Witch, Rivers, TurboCarp, Plague Doctor, Volkov, and Igor Eel. Just to name a few.
