§ Mike Lynch reminds everyone that submissions are open for the 2007 National Cartoonists Society Division Awards.

§Tom Spurgeon asks:

If, as nearly two-decade old conventional wisdom would have us believe, the vast majority of art comics that move through the Direct Market are sold through a small percentage of diverse, elite stores (such as Comic Relief, The Beguiling, Chicago Comics), and if, as a general look at the retailing landscape suggests, there are more of these kind of diverse, elite stores than ever before (such Comix Revolution, Secret Headquarters, Rocketship), why do art comics sales suck worse than they used to?

We’re not sure we entirely agree with that — art comics periodical sales are way down but more than offset by the rise in book sales through both channels — but a variety of people answer it from all walks of comics.

§ Jeff Vandermeer at Bookslut presents his Best Graphic Novels of 2007, and it’s sort of an alternative list that includes books with “a significant fantastical or surreal element.”:

This really isn’t an arbitrary decision, though — it’s a reflection of the fact that 2007 was a very strong year for fantasy in graphic novels. Much of the autobiographical or more realistic material I read seemed to rehash themes and approaches I’d seen done better before.

The list includes THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY gn that we worked on so we can only say, thanks!

§ Joel Meadows posted his photos of the Alan Moore signing at GOSH!

§ ICv2 interviews Lance Fensterman the show runner for New York Comic-Con, who seems to be a very, very enthusiastic guy.

Right now we’re talking about floor space. It’s pretty early to be looking at the attendee numbers, because we’re just starting to register. In terms of fans, we’re at triple the number we had at the same point last year (in reference to the show). If we’re roughly 12 weeks out from the Con, at the same point last year, we’ve got triple the number of fans registered to come to the show, which is great. I couldn’t ask for more. And we’re really just starting to ramp up our marketing efforts, and talk about all the guests and artists we have coming.

It’s called The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard:

My pal Dan Best worked with me on the story. You may recall him from the Escapist piece we did for Dark Horse a couple of years back. Leotard is a huge sprawling epic that gobbles up a large swathe of history from the Franco-Prussian war to the sinking of the Titanic
My book tour will not be quite so epic, but will impress nevertheless, starting in July with San Diego, where I am a guest of the convention, and finishing with an appearance at Page 45 in the UK on the first Sunday of August, with a couple of other stops in between, still to be worked out and announced here in due course.

Dick Hyacinth has posted the top ten books in his admirable campaign to tote up many varied top ten comics lists from all over. It will surprise no one that EXIT WOUNDS is #1, but you can see the rest of the list in the link.

BTW, speaking of 2007, we’ve been TRYING and TRYING to write up

a) our own Best Comics of 07 list
b) our big stories of 07 list
c) our big stories of 08 list

but make no progress day after day although it’s all written up in our head. Is it still worth putting out there?

While EXIT WOUNDS has been getting much well-deserved acclaim, it seems that THE ARRIVAL is the graphic novel that is picking up, as they say, awards seasons mo. This story from a local Aussie paper profiles creator Shaun Tan and lists some of the book’s kudos:

Tan said yesterday he had begun talks with a Los Angeles producer about turning The Arrival into a film, vindicating his decision to knock back a job on an American animated film six years ago to spend four years hunched over his drawing board to create the book.

The book has been a publishing hit around the world. It reached No. 7 on the New York Times children’s book bestseller list and the Mexican Government bought 30,000 copies for distribution to schools around the country.

The book was published in Australia originally, and won the WA Premier’s Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, beating out Robert Hughes and celebrated novelist Peter Carey. and now, of course, book of the year at Angoulême.

Annnnd here’s the top selling graphic novel chart. Manga has its own chart which we’ll hopefully be posting later on.

Sorry this looks funny. We’re trying to fix.

* - Combined multiple covers with same SRP.

From the New York Times:

J. K. Rowling blocked the Finnish publication of her latest Harry Potter novel on paper from Finland because it lacked the ecologically friendly certification she favors, Agence France-Presse reported. Her Finnish publisher, Tammi, said that Ms. Rowling insisted that it import paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being derived from wood grown and harvested in a way that promotes sustainable forest development. Sinikka Partanen, a spokeswoman for Tammi, said the first Potter books in Finnish were printed on recycled paper. “This time it’s a more specific demand,” she said. The Finnish-language version of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is due on March 7.

Posted by Mark Coale

We hear that DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES, the second volume of Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series, will debut at #1 on this Sunday’s NY Times Bestseller list. Wimpy Kid book 1 holds steady at the number two spot. With Hugo Cabret at #3, picture books definitely rule.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid phenomenon is one that hasn’t been overanalyzed by the comics blogosphere — the books are very text heavy and are more truly called comics/text hybrids than straight out comics. However, the series has long been labeled a webcomic, and its sales success does prove you can give something away on the internet for free for a long time and still sell loads and loads of books — as long as someone wants to read it in the first place!

YALSA, the young adult librarian society, has picked it top grahpic novels of 07:

Abadzis, Nick. Laika. First Second
Carey, Mike. Re-Gifters. DC/Minx
Fleming, Ann Marie. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. Penguin Group
Giffen, Keith. Blue Beetle: Shell-shocked. DC Comics
Blue Beetle: Road Trip. DC Comics
Iwahara, Yuji. King of Thorn, vol. 1-2. Tokyopop
Loux, Matthew. Sidescrollers. Oni Press
Mizushiro, Setona. After School Nightmare, vol. 1-5. Go Comi!
Mori, Kaoru. Emma, vol. 1-5. CMX
Sis, Peter. The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux
Tan, Shaun. The Arrival. Arthur A. Levine

Hill and Wang, the same outfit that brought you The 9/11 Report and Ronald Reagan is back with a graphic bio of J. Edgar Hoover. What’s exciting about this book is the author: Rick Geary . We’re unabashed Geary-heads here at SBM — his precise cheerful linework belies an unsettling core, and his Victorian Murder series should be the template for any “historical comics” line: painstakingly researched but with a sensibility and understanding that deepens the material.

Anyway, we’re excited about a new Geary book, and Hill & Wang was kind enough to share a preview with us. Hoover was, of course, the FBI director who made domestic spying on threats like MLK his bedtime reading. In his day he was one of the most feared men in Washington.

§ THOUGHT BALLOONISTS is a new blog of comics criticism by by Charles Hatfield and Craig Fischer.
In their inaugural post they analyze just what makes Shaun Tan’s THE ARRIVAL so great.

[Hatfield] One reason it’s more complex is because it sends mixed messages, and works to reconcile them. On the one hand, the book approaches themes of alienation, using potent graphic devices (and wordlessness) to evoke the confusion and loneliness of an immigrant in an overwhelming and cold environment. The Arrival’s abstracted urban world tends toward industrialization, massification, and anonymity, the very picture of a soulless metropolis. Yet, on the other hand, The Arrival’s world does not purely consist of these things, and that’s where the story digs deeper.

[Fischer] I don’t agree with Brunetti that stylistic devices have any sort of inherent power to bring characters to “life” or to “deaden” a page, and The Arrival reminds us that artists should be as cinematic or uncinematic as they want in their search for devices that create emotions in a reader. I trust Tan–who can draw better than just about anyone else in comics, and whose storytelling has taken a quantum leap in quality from his early picture books to The Arrival–more than I trust prescriptive rules for what makes good and bad comics. I hope Tan decides to do another graphic novel as his next project; I hope he keeps stretching our definitions of what comics can do.

§Comics Comics is rapidly becoming the go-to spot for meta discussion of what works and what doesn’t in comics, especially when Frank Santoro posts.

Comics have a similar trajectory. All the talk that comics artists today can draw BETTER than their forebears is meaningless. The point is that this common language I’m describing IS NO LONGER IN USAGE. It’s all but dead because the people who were formed by it, who passed it on, are gone. Toth was an innovator; he was more forward-thinking than Caniff, yet he was still a “Caniffer.” Darwyn Cooke can attempt to evoke Toth in some of his Batman stories, but he will never be Toth because he was not formed in the same 1950s cauldron. So subtly, step by step, each generation puts its own spin on the dominant style. Any attempt to resurrect these “house styles” is seen as retro and somewhat conservative. The bland illustration style that ruled ’50s and early ’60s comics was part Caniff, part advertising, part hackwork. The practitioners of this style, though, knew how to construct a page that read clearly, much like directors of the ’50s films knew how to stage action.

§ Finally, John Jakala is raising a super-child who will conquer the world.

The midwinter American Library Association meeting is taking place in Philadelphia this week, and yesterday’s session included an avalanche of award announcements. The PW link has all of them but we’ll skim along for those of interest to the comics world.

First off, and the big one, Brian Selznick won the 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a thick, genre-busting book that combined words, pictures and pictures with words. It’s a very significant win in that most Caldecott winners are picture books — Cabret’s win definitely opens up the category.

Sometime animator/cartoonist Mo Willems was named a Caldecott Honor Book with Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best work of translation went to Viz Media for Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe, translated by Alexander O. Smith. The Batchelder Honors book included Nicholas and the Gang by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé, translated by Anthea Bell.

Willems won again with There Is a Bird on Your Head! which took home The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books.

Occasional Iron Man scripter Orson Scott Card was presented with The Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime contribution in writing for young adults,

Finally, the Alex Awards were presented by YALSA, the Young Adult librarians group, and Jeff Lemire’s Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm, published by Top Shelf Publications was named to the list, the first graphic novel since Persepolis.

The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens.

H/T for that last item: Blog @Congrats to all the winners!

Heed our words: 2008 is going to be the year of the children’s comic as never before.

More at the First Second blog.

Many news outlets have more info on the joyous news of two Peter Jackson/Fran Walsh-led Hobbity movies, including the New York Times. It seems that Jackson is busy filming LOVELY BONES and then TINTIN (YAY!) for the next three years or so, but he and Walsh will have complete creative control over the movies. But then there is the matter of the Hobbit Sequel — what the HELL is that all about????

The untitled sequel is described as bridging the 60-year gap between the end of J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Hobbit” and the beginning of the “Rings” trilogy.

Okay, now we are Tolkien scholars of some 30+ years standing, and even we can’t quite figure what this is about. The drowning of Frodo’s parents? Aragorn’s deeds in Arnor? Balin’s failure in Moria? The torturing of Arwen’s mom by the orcs? The life of Gollum?

WHAT???

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#1: A Year in Comics and Graphic Novels by R.C. Baker sums up the year with a nicely diverse list:

Comics. They began more than a century ago as a circulation booster during Hearst and Pulitzer’s newspaper wars. But with an ever-refreshing youth demographic, they remain eternally hip and popular. How best to sort through 2007’s many offerings?

#2: A Review of Persepolis, which is expected to garner a few Oscar® nods:

Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation—though it moves fluidly enough, and its drawings have a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of the cross-promoted-to-saturation CGI-’toon juggernauts—but because it translates a sensitive, introspective, true-to-life, “adult” comic story into moving pictures. While Robert Crumb only achieved the big screen as a porno-groovy shadow of himself and Daniel Clowes decamped to live- action, Marjane Satrapi’s made the crossing; with the aide of French comic-book artist Vincent “Winshluss” Paronnaud (both making their first feature here), Satrapi’s four autobiographical Persepolis volumes have been smartly streamlined and storyboarded into 95 minutes of screen time.

NIkki Finke has all the details on New Line head Robert Shaye making up with Peter Jackson so that finally there shall come a HOBBIT movie.

The two Hobbit films – The Hobbit and its sequel – have long been stalled. Now they are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of releasing The Hobbit in 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

SEQUEL???? WTF? Is that the one where Fingon rescues Maedhros from Morgoth and has to cut off his hand? Personally, we would like to see ONE Hobbit movie! One nice tidy Hobbit movie with Thorin and Elrond and Smaug. But I guess they need to leave in Bombadil this time by including Beorn and so on and split it into two? Whatevs…Hopefully Ian McKellan will be back as Gandalf!

According to Finke, Shaye had to make nice with Jackson to keep his job after THE GOLDEN COMPASS tanked. Jackson won’t direct the Hobbit since he’s busy on TINTIN and so on. Sam Raimi’s name is still being tossed around.

Art by and copyright The Brothers Hildebrandt.

In HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, one of the most important clues to defeating Voldemort comes in the form of a book left by Dumbledore to Hermione Granger — a volume of instructional fables entitled TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD. The book has never been printed…and won’t be, but it exists — author J.K. ROwling has hand made and written seven copies. Six will be given to people closely associated with the making of the Harry Potter books. The seventh was auctioned off last night. It was expected to go for around £50,000. Instead, it went for £2,000,000. That’s like $4mil at current exchange rates.

Each of the seven copies is bound in brown Morocco leather and mounted with different semi-precious stones.

A dedication written in the front of the book says: “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years.

“This seventh copy will be auctioned, the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice.

“So to whoever now owns this book, thank you - and fair fortune be yours!”

The new owners — London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox — are pleased with their purchase, and Rowling is “ecstatic” to have raised so much money for charity.

UPDATE: The book was actually purchased by Amazon.com. They have set up a page showing the book and other neat stuff. — MLC

INCOGNEGRO is an upcoming graphic novel by novelist Mat Johnson and artist Warren Pleece, the latest in Vertigo’s line of literary yarns. It’s a noirish mystery about a light-skinned journalist who goes undercover in the South of the ’30s to unravel a murder and stop a lynching. The book went out for some blurbage, and Johnson’s fellow novelists obliged with praise.

“Mat Johnson’s thoughtful writing and the moody realism of Warren Pleece’s art make this nasty bit of tarnished Americana come alive like a prodded snake. An exciting, disturbing piece of work.”
—George Pelecanos

“A talented writer of both fiction and creative nonfiction, Johnson’s publications have established him as an important new voice in the African American tradition.”
-Walter Mosley

“Ingenious, enlightening and powerful.”— Paul Theroux

“Mat Johnson has done it again, namely written a deep story of pain and laughter that probes the complex dynamics of white supremacy in America. Don’t miss it!”
—Cornell West

“Though entertaining as hell, Incognegro transcends mere entertainment and enters the realm of relevant art. It kicks graphic ass!”—John Ridley

DC provided us with a three- page preview, so you can see what the fuss is about. The book comes out in February.

Mpre upcoming books from DC via pr:

DC Comics concludes its look at new collected editions and other titles for Summer 2008 with titles scheduled for release in July and August. These include collected editions from the DC Universe, Vertigo and WildStorm, as well as new manga from CMX and original works from Minx.

Titles from the DC Universe include THE FLASH: THE WILD WESTS HC, collecting the first of Mark Waid’s new FLASH tales, SUPERMAN AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES HC, written by Geoff Johns, and the ALL STAR SUPERMAN VOL. 2 HC.

Vertigo titles on this list include DMZ VOL. 5: THE HIDDEN WAR TP, the latest collection from Brian Wood’s hit series, and THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE DEAD BOY DETECTIVES, collecting Ed Brubaker’s classic 2001 miniseries for the first time. Highlights from WildStorm include the the WORLD OF WARCRAFT VOL. 1 HC and WILDSTORM: REVELATIONS.

Minx continues with JANES IN LOVE, the sequel to THE PLAIN JANES, and CMX features the return of KIKAIDER CODE 02.

This information may be subject to change, and should not be considered final.

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Very tragic news as best sellling novelist Terry Prachett has revealed that he is suffering from a rare case of early onset Alzheimer’s :

The 59-year-old writer made the announcement Tuesday through a web posting to fans on the website of illustrator Paul Kidby, who has worked on many of Pratchett’s Discworld titles.

Terry Pratchett…was Britain’s biggest selling contemporary author until the massive success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Pratchett’s books have sold more than 45 million copies around the globe.

“I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and, of course, the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news,” Pratchett wrote in a message titled “An Embuggerance.”

In addition to the immensely popular Discworld series, Prachett co-authored Good Omens with Neil Gaiman, and several of his novels have been adapted into comics form.

Yet another NYT #1 bestselling author is scratching that graphic novel itch; this time it’s Diana Gabaldon, author of the OUTLANDER series, which has some 15 million copies in print. She’ll pen a new yarn for Del Rey.

Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it will publish an original story set in the world of Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander series, written by Gabaldon herself and illustrated in full color by award-winning artist Hoang Nguyen. The project was acquired by Betsy Mitchell, editor in chief of Del Rey, in negotiations with Gabaldon’s literary agent Russell Galen.

The new story, starring Gabaldon’s beloved characters Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser, opens with Murtagh, Jamie’s godfather, awaiting the return of his godson to Scotland, and the fulfillment of a vow made years before. The graphic novel will be approximately 192 pages and will publish sometime in 2009. Gabaldon’s upcoming new Outlander novel, An Echo in the Bone, is expected to publish that year as well.

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We mentioned this in a comment, but thought it was worth a more prominent item — it’s pretty much a banner week for American comics on Bookscan, as American GNs take 3 of the top 10 spots, including Dark Tower at #1. And Buffy is “bubbling under” as they say, at #11. Here’s the entire top ten:

1. Dark Tower The Gunslinger Born (Marvel Comics)
2. Fruits Basket: Volume 18 (Tokyopop)
3. Heroes Volume 1 (Wildstorm)
4. Naruto: Volume 24 With Sticker (Viz Media)
5. Naruto: Volume 27 With Sticker (Viz Media)
6. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (America’s Best Comics)
7. Naruto: Volume 23 (Viz Media)
8. Naruto: Volume 25 Viz Media)
9. Naruto: Volume 26 (Viz Media)
10. Naruto: Volume 22 (Viz Media)

Of course, don’t get us wrong, it’s a spectacular showing for perennial champ Naruto, and Viz absolutely dominates the chart, as usual. However this strong showing (and ongoing strong sales for all four books we just mentioned) are a definite sign that America’s top three publishers are finally figuring out this bookstore thing, and getting the distribution and visibility that they need to make these books sell up to their potential. And remember — all but Buffy are $20+ hardcovers not $9.99 (or $7,95 in the case of Naruto) paperbacks — Dark Tower beats Fruits Basket in dollars 4 to 1.

Also in the top 50: the Don Martin collection, 52: Volumes 4 and Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness.

And now cue Dirk to complain in five, four, three………..

Here’s that manga publishing pact we were talking about yesterday, as scooped by PW’s Calvin Reid: Tor Books has signed up Seven Seas to produce a line of 6-8 manga a month:

Science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books announced plans to enter the U.S manga market by creating a new manga imprint with Seven Seas Entertainment, an independent publisher of original and licensed manga, manga-inspired prose titles and illustrated juvenile fiction based in Los Angeles. The new venture will release original manga titles, but also plans to compete for top Japanese manga licenses such as the first volume of the Takashi Okzaki’s popular Afro Samurai manga series which it will release in August 2008. The Afro Samurai manga is the basis for the popular Spike TV anime series that premiered in 2007 and features the voices of actors Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu.

Lots of connections on this deal which was put together by “Tor publisher Tom Doherty, Macmillan v-p of merchandise and sales Steve Kleckner and Seven Seas founder and president Jason DeAngelis.” Kleckner was ones the sales guy at Tokyopop so he knows manga. Macmillan (which owns Tor)also distributes Hill & Wangs non fiction GN line, and First Second; they also distribute D&Q and NBM’s ya Papercuts line — so this gives them a full range of graphic novel genres, soup to nuts.

Buzz, Balls & Hype is a book marketing blog aimed at booksellers and librarians. It’s just added Diamond Books sales manager John Shableski as a blogger every other Tuesday, and in his first outing he delivers what could be called the basic stump speech for comics advocacy:

Graphic Novels are “The New Rock and Roll.” That’s a pretty audacious line to brand onto this new entertainment format but calling graphic novels “the new rock and roll” is probably the most accurate description I can think of.

For those of you who have just begun hear or read about graphic novels, here’s some history. The term graphic novel is something that the late, great Will Eisner gets credit for and, as the legend has it, he used the term as a pitch to get his book A Contract With God published. It was a long-form comic book that he knew wouldn’t get a second thought if he told the publisher that it was indeed a comic book.

It’s sort of GNs 101, but if you have a call to go out on the road and preach it, brother, you may pick up some talking points.

Speaking of the NY Times, there were several women-in-comics related posting that went around over the last week or so that we thought worthy of their very own round-up. First, Gail Simone was profile in the New York Times, a prestigious achievement for anyone. However the phrase “She is the first woman to serve as “ongoing writer” (to use the industry’s term) in the character’s 66-year history.” did seem to be fudging it a bit, as Johanna pointed out: Both Trina Robbins and Mindy Newell wrote WW in the past.

For what it’s worth, the article istelf seems to read “…the first woman to serve as ‘ongoing writer’ (to use the industry’s term) in the character’s 66-year history.)”

Since the writer is a known comics fan, I like to think he put that parenthetical in there to perhaps acknowledge that there may be some dubiousness to the claim.

That said, if the claim is that Simone is the character’s first “ongoing” writer, that would explain why Trina Robbins isn’t being counted since her Wonder Woman contributions were a mini-series and an original graphic novel, not part of the ongoing series. So excluding Robbins makes sense on a technical, semantic point-of-view.

Less clear is why Mindy Newell should be overlooked. Perhaps it’s because her contributions were collaborative (at least on the post-Crisis Perez-era Wonder Woman; I’m not sure if she was the only writer credited on the pre-and-during-Crisis issues she wrote.) Which is still a bit unfair, but there you go.

Steven Rowe in The Beat’s own comment section, makes a case for two previous writers:

Of course both Joye Murchison (1945-1947), and Dann Thomas (1983) were ongoing Wonder Woman writers even before this. You could argue that Thomas was the less famous of a writing team, but Murchison’s stories were solo…..

None of which is a knock against Gail, who is easily one of the most successful comics writers this decade. But it does tend to point out the “There can be only one!” attitude towards female scripters in the superhero biz, as well as how easily previous milestones can be forgotten.

§ Johanna is back with a look at the first year of the Minx line .

Is the line a success? I don’t pay attention to sales figures much, so I don’t know how well the books are selling either in the direct market or in the bigger bookstore field. That they’re doing a second year says to me that they still are optimistic about the idea. I’m guessing the books are most popular among schools and libraries, since they’re classically styled stories (teenage girl learns life lesson) that are easy to justify for purchase. I have yet to hear anyone really excited about them, though, in any market.

(The comment section reveals some Minx Year Two news, as well.)
David Welsh also looks back, and examines the sales patterns between direct market and bookstore sales.

This prompts another response from Johanna:

DC, as a company, may not want Minx to be too successful, anyway, because it would put the lie to many of the pieces of received wisdom that they’ve been comforting themselves with all these years. And their strong relationship with the direct market makes it difficult to be successful in the bookstore market, because it’s seen as disloyalty to their “core customers”.

As for our own viewpoint, the Minx line would have to be called at most a modest success at this point, but one that DC clearly does have belief in for another year. We’d still like to see more actual feedback from the target audience, however.

Newsweek writes up SHOOTING WAR, the new graphic novel from Grand Central, presents a slideshow of Milton Caniff art, and looks at the graphic novel booklet:

“Shooting War” is an example of a growing industry. Over the last five years the graphic novel market has more than tripled, with sales of book-format comics growing from $100 million in 2001 to $330 million last year, numbers that are noticed in a publishing industry that has been flat over the last several years. “The market for graphic novels has exploded. There aren’t a whole lot of categories that have shown that kind of growth in decades,” says Calvin Reid, a senior news editor at Publishers Weekly who has covered the comics and graphic novel industry since the 1980s.