Okay, stop laughing.

With the continued high price of wood-based paper, it will soon become apparent to everybody that a return to using hemp-based paper is needed. You can get the same amount of paper from an acre of hemp as you can from an acre of wood, and you can get it every year, not just every decade.

I would not expect this to happen in the US first, but perhaps in Europe, South America, or Canada. Or maybe even in China.

I would argue that the other big zeitgeists from last year were “blockbuster movies” and “Minxtinction”.

Interesting developments:
* Comicbook stores entering the 1990s with POS systems. (Libraries and bookstores had them ten years ago.) As with libraries and bookstores, comicbook stores will have hard data which will show how popular graphic novels and comics can be. Diamond’s new warehouse will also (supposedly) improve service to comicbook stores with greater efficiencies (fewer boxes shipped, fewer out-of-stock items). For 2009, as stores use computers more efficiently, reorders and down-stream orders for future issues of series will shift, creating more pressure on publishers.

* The generational wave. 2009 marks the tenth anniversary of the Pokemon card game in the United States. As the “manga generation” matures, their influence will continue to ripple throughout the industry.

* Young readers and young adults. While young adult graphic novels remains a brackish Sargasso Sea of a category (either they read down at a lower reading level or read up to adult comics), comics marketed to pre-teen readers continues to grow. Kids’ comics sell well on newsstands and via subscriptions. Book fairs offer a selection of graphic novels. Adults, some of which are comicbook fans, some of which are pestered by children, buy graphic novels for children, no longer viewing it as a commercial tie-in or sub-literate item.

* Seducers of the Innocent. Primary and secondary schools offer comics related clubs, some producing actual comicbooks. (http://www.comicbookproject.org/) Libraries long ago, using computerized catalogs, discovered how popular graphic novels were, and how they could be used to bring non-readers into the library. Teachers and librarians become respected advocates of graphic novels, and in turn encourage the young generation. Most educators become educators because another educator inspired them. Almost everyone can recall a teacher who made a difference.

* Evolution. As comicbooks migrate from store shelves to digital content, comicbook stores must make one of two decisions: become a hobby store, selling toys, games, and collectibles to a specific demographic; or become a specialty bookstore, selling graphic novels and related books to a wider demographic. Almost every graphic novel publisher has book trade distribution (although many are via Diamond Book Distribution) and is available on a returnable basis, allowing for greater flexibility.

* The Renaissance. Old masters and masterpieces are being discovered (Skitzy, Sam’s Strip). New talent is inspired by the old. Historians discover tangential links to comics from famous people. New mediums encourage experimentation, innovation, and passion. Conversations occur more easily, making connections previously not thought possible.

* The forgotten. So much is produced, some is marginalized or ignored. A Nobel laureate has a graphic novel in her backlist. A beloved children’s book illustrator’s cartoon book is reprinted, with hardly any notice. Comics is now a mass medium, but the subcultures still exist, which feed off of, and feed into, the greater culture. What was forgotten gets rediscovered, and sometimes forgotten again.

Predictions:
* Digital comics will have Won The War the moment DC and/or Marvel decide to move low-list titles exclusively to the Internet, possibly as free content supported by advertising. (Give it away for free, build an audience, then sell the digital content in a variety of physical media.) Older comicbook fans will remember when Marvel began selling Direct-Market-only titles in the 1980s, thereby effectively ending newsstand sales. Trade collections will continue to be published in mass market editions, but with the growing Print On Demand catalogs available, a wide range of options and content will also be made available. (Want a collection of DC gorilla covers? How about Marvel stories set in West Virginia? Perhaps you hunger for that Batgirl “Fruit Pies for Magpies” Hostess ad? All possible with digitization, on almost any surface. Think “Cafe Press”.)

* Comic book publishers will face increasing competition with general book publishers. Abrams now has a dedicated graphic novel imprint. HarperCollins, distributor of Tokyopop, offers the successful Simpsons graphic novels, Scott McCloud, Larry Gonick, and media tie-ins via Fox Atomic. Random House has Del-Rey manga, Pantheon, Knopf, and Villiard lines. University presses, fed by academics who specialize in cultural studies, are slowly publishing historical, biographical, and critical texts about comics. Comics can be an effect medium for presenting visual and textual information, and we will see more non-fiction graphic novels produced.

(Oh, and I want to be Flight Captain G.L. Walker, living in Tasmania, free of those pesky kids, living the good life with a stewardess. Gotta love those kids… so gullible for a good story.)

Of course there were lots of other threads and eddies.

Is this supposed to be sarcastic and I’m just dense? There were obvious themes across the three threads I read, but I sure didn’t see any consensus.