In 1981, Norma Editorial absorbed magazines from Riego Ediciones;[2] Cimoc and Hunter, and later on Cairo, Sargento Kirk and Humor a tope, all directed at 1984 for Joan Navarro.

Among its first published works where those of Enrique S. Abulí, Alfonso Azpiri, Beroy, Alfonso Font, Miguelanxo Prado, Segrelles, Daniel Torres or Sento; followed by the works of Enki Bilal, François Bourgeon, Vittorio Giardino, Jean Van Hamme, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Milo Manara, Moebius, Hugo Pratt, Grzegorz Rosinski, Jacques Tardi, and Marika Vila.

Their most successful was the work of Will Eisner, followed by John Byrne, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola or Alan Moore in brands like Made in USA.

The company participated in the manga boom of the '90s, publishing the works of Kia Asamiya, CLAMP, Kosuke Fujishima, Haruhiko Mikimoto, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiromu Arakawa, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Masamune Shirow.

In the mid-1990s, Norma Editorial began a close collaboration with American independent Dark Horse, and later joined their catalog series superheroes of DC Comics and collection Vertigo.