§ Kristy Valenti has the second part of her Gender and Reading Habits examination up, this time the girls are scrutinized, although more is known of their reading habits in general than comics reading habits specifically:

Additionally, women read more, maintained USA Today while discussing a 2007 poll: “the median figure — with half reading more, half fewer — was nine books for women and five for men [per year]. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger. […] More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer non-fiction.” (It doesn’t look like graphic novels were included as a category in that poll.)[3]
Apparently, girls don’t stop reading at a certain age in the same way that boys are said to do: empirically, many of the girls I spoke to at a 2005 manga-and-anime con said they loved to read already, and were supplementing their regular reading with manga[4]. So if women buy more stuff and read more,[5] why aren’t they buying more comics than men?

§ Jennifer de Guzman has her second column up for PW Comics Week and goes shopping at a variety of venues:

I left without buying All-Star Superman and decided to see if I could get a look inside of it at Border’s. No such luck. In the prominent graphic novel section at the local Borders were several shelves dedicated to comics, most of them manga. Scattered around on the floor were several young adolescent boys reading volumes drawn from the ample stock. (Plenty of Naruto here!) It was a bit difficult getting to the nonmanga shelves, since I had to squeeze around these boys, who seemed oblivious to their surroundings. The graphic novels were organized by title rather than author. The superhero comics were lined up neatly, but the “everything else” shelves were a jumble, the many different sizes of the graphic novels making the shelf difficult to scan. I found none of the books I was looking for, but the computer where customers can search for titles informed me that I could special order them.

§ As the “year of the Symposium” continues, PW blogger Barbara Vey reports that graphic novels were even discussed at a soap opera conference:

Next up was Graphic Novels. This was a wonderful insight into the fascinating world of graphic novels, Manga, anime and comic books. GB Tran is an artist who is developing his own graphic novel by writing the story and drawing the illustrations. Alisa Kwitney is an author, Editor, DC comics and is writing a Young Adult story that will be illustrated. [Tricia Narwani] is an associate publisher with Del Rey Books/Random House and she picks what’s to be written. She said Del Rey went from publishing 14 books a year to over 100 a year. A fast growing trend that could mean a whole different market for authors.

School Library Journal is a magazine aimed at…school librarians. It just had a big cover ppackage on graphic novels which you can read online, started with Michelle Gorman’s overview

What a difference a decade makes. After years of fighting for shelf space in libraries and classrooms, graphic novels have finally become an acceptable alternative to their prose-packed counterparts—and kids can’t seem to get enough of them. For that matter, neither can grown-ups. In 2006, U.S. consumers dropped an estimated $330 million on graphic novels and comics, with librarians accounting for about 10 percent, or $33 million, of those purchases.

She also lists 25 core graphic novels for school-age readers. Ther package also include a giant review section, with grade-appropriate ratings and a report on the Graphic Novels Core Collection, a databse which will cost you $205-225, depending on the size of one’s library.

The Big Picture Graphic Novels Core Collection features over 2,000 recommended titles with descriptions, annotations, and cover art for some of the most popular graphic novels published. Through the WilsonWeb interface, subscribers can search the database by author, title, subject, genre, and grade level.

Annotations provide users with a brief description of the content, review excerpts, and any awards that the title has won. Ratings by age appropriateness within the entry are strictly applied, which allows librarians to quickly determine placement within the collection. Additionally, cover art displayed within each search entry can also provide insight regarding suitability.

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

We knew it! Barely a week after looking at comics as teaching aids, The New York Times is back with a freaking EDITORIAL saying how great comics are as teaching aids:

The point is not to drop a comic book on a child’s desk and say: “read this.” Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to collaborate on often complex stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.

Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing, grammar and punctuation with material that students are fully invested in. And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should substitute for traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to exploit a genre that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works.

Is this some kind of new obsession at the comics-loving New York Times. See also these letters commenting on the original piece. [Last link via Kids’ Comics]

We’re always hearing about how comics are a great tool for literacy (and those among us who learned to read from comics would back this up) but how are comics being accepted in the educational field? The New York Times investigates with an article that includes many yaysayers, but also the most common objections, as it looks at two rather modest programs, including the pilot program rolled out in Baltimore by Diamond and Disney Publishing.

In Maryland, the State Education Department is expanding a new comics-based literacy curriculum, after a small pilot program yielded promising results. In New York City, a group of educators applied to open a new small high school that would be based around a comics theme and named after the creators of Superman; their application was rejected but they plan to try again next year. And the Comic Book Project, a program run out of Teachers College at Columbia University that has children create their own comic strips as an “alternative pathway to literacy,” is catching on. Six years after it started in one Queens elementary school, it has expanded to 860 schools across the country.

BUT SEE ALSO: a recent issue of the New Yorker includes a modestly titled piece called “Twilight of the Books” which discusses the changes to thinking that take place in societies that no longer read:

There’s no reason to think that reading and writing are about to become extinct, but some sociologists speculate that reading books for pleasure will one day be the province of a special “reading class,” much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy, in the second half of the nineteenth century. They warn that it probably won’t regain the prestige of exclusivity; it may just become “an increasingly arcane hobby.” Such a shift would change the texture of society. If one person decides to watch “The Sopranos” rather than to read Leonardo Sciascia’s novella “To Each His Own,” the culture goes on largely as before—both viewer and reader are entertaining themselves while learning something about the Mafia in the bargain. But if, over time, many people choose television over books, then a nation’s conversation with itself is likely to change. A reader learns about the world and imagines it differently from the way a viewer does; according to some experimental psychologists, a reader and a viewer even think differently. If the eclipse of reading continues, the alteration is likely to matter in ways that aren’t foreseeable.

Expect the discussion of literacy, post-literacy and where words and pictures fit in to become even more of a topic of discussion in 2008.

Karen Green, Columbia University’s Ancient/Medieval Studies Librarian and Graphic Novel selector starts a blog at Comixology explains how an Ivy league university starts collecting graphic novels:

University libraries tend to get their books from large vendors according to a subject outline known as an approval plan, and let’s just say that Columbia’s approval plans didn’t include material from DC Comics, Fantagraphics, or First Second—these publishers simply weren’t on our radar. If a professor requested a graphic novel for a course, it would be bought—otherwise? Not a chance.

The final nominations for YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens list is up.
Via David Welsh, who has analysis, as does Blog@.

Tokypop and DC Comics lead the final nominations for the Young Adult Library Services Association’s annual list of Great Graphic Novels For Teens with 23 nods each.

DC’s nominations include titles from its CMX, Minx and Vertigo imprints.

Tokyopop and DC are followed by Del Rey with 11 nominations, Viz Media with 10, Go! Comi with eight, and First Second and Marvel with seven each.

Nate Fisher, the teacher in Eightball-Gate, has posted in our comment section, and in the interest of giving his comments equal prominence, here’s a link.

While I’m well on my way in my effort to move on and I have mixed feelings about generating MORE press, I’d like to send out a note of thanks to the blogosphere for all the passionate and reasoned posts I’ve been reading over the past few months. While I am tempted to address the numerous factual errors and outright affronts to my character that have been made public (at times anonymously) concerning this incident, I’ll instead address a larger outcome that I see as tragic and one better suited to the audience here: This has been bad for comics in education.

More in link.

Lots of literate stuff going on in LA, this weekend, including the West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, but on Saturday, there’s another worthy event taking place, with Mark Waid, Kazu Kibuishi and many more:

September 29th the Los Angeles Public Library’s Art Department is proud to present The Future of Graphic Literature at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. Hosted by Joshua Hale Fialkov (Elk’s Run, Punks, Vampirella), the panel will be a meeting of the minds amongst some of L.A.’s most diverse talent. Acclaimed comics scribe Mark Waid will join the group, including Kazu Kibuishi (Flight), Christos Gage (Stormwatch:PHD, World War Hulk:X-Men, Law and Order:SVU), Ross Richie (Boom! Studios), and Tony Fleecs (In My Lifetime, Postcards).

The discussion will be Q+A style, discussing how comics have changed and evolved over the past decade from specialty shop niche product to something that’s being widely embraced by Librarians, Book Publishers, and Hollywood.

The event will be held at the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library, in the Mark Taper Auditorium on Saturday September 29th at 2:00 pm. There will be a meet and greet style book signing after the program. There is convenient $1 parking with validation on Saturdays underneath the Library, entrance at 524 South Flower.

For more information on the event, please visit the events page of the LAPL’s website, here: http://events.lapl.org/viewEvent.cfm?eventID=9694.

The Future of Graphic Literature
September 29th, 2:00pm
Mark Taper Auditorium
Central Library
630 W. 5th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 228-7000

ForeWord Magazine writes up a recent graphic novel event for librarians.
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It may have been the first all-day event for librarians devoted exclusively to the graphic novel. Graphic novel consultant John Shableski and librarians from the Harborfields Public Library, headed by Director Carol Albino, assembled a mesmerizing series of panels and speakers early this month, sponsored by the Suffolk (NY) Cooperative Library System, and coordinated by librarian Barbara Moon.

Shableski set the stage by pointing out that virtually “every major publisher now has a graphic novel imprint and now they’re trying to figure out what works.” He noted that the graphic novel (GN) is to publishing today very much as rock and roll was when it first entered the music industry mainstream: a strange format already familiar to the popular culture but not yet understood by the established distribution channels.

If you happen to be up really early and going to the Harborfields public library, you can attend this great event with Mark Siegel, Raina Telgemeier, Jommy Gownlet, John Gallagher, and a ton of librarians.

Seriously: A Graphic Novel Symposium
Thursday September 6
Harborfields Public Library

Click above link for info.

Of all the panels at San Diego the one we most wanted to see podcast or transcribed or whatever was COMICS ARE NOT LITERATURE and now Newsarama has a report by Zack Smith, although two of the participants have already said it isn’t entirely accurate. Dammit, we should have been there.

Wolk criticized comics written by Joss Whedon, saying that, “the artists can’t create great actors on the page,” that is, people who bring extra layers to the characters the way a flesh-and-blood actor could. “You’re just reading a script with a bunch of crappy pictures on it – but it’s a great script,” Wolk said.

Wolk asked Grossman, who had brought some prepared statements, about whether there was anything in the definition of “sophistication” that could be useful to comics.

“One of the downsides of thinking of comics as a ‘low art,’ is that it makes you lazy,” Grossman said. “Let’s raise the game.”

Castellucci and Ryan agreed. “It’s about having a set of critical tools, and what you use the tools on is wherever people are making good stories,” Ryan said.

“Why don’t we just call it art?” Nadel said. “Sometimes cinema is art, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes a Bjork record is art, sometimes it’s not…” Castellucci and Ryan interjected that a Bjork album is always art.

Nadel went on to propose that he didn’t consider comics reading. “Why is that a big deal?” he asked. “Comics is about looking and reading. It’s not just about reading – it’s a dual process. It’s different from reading a novel, and it’s different from watching a movie.”

Douglas tells us he didn’t mention Joss Whedon specifically, and Cecil has her own footnotes.

BONUS: DO NOT MISS COMMENTS AFTER REPORT!

§ Dave Astor has several reports from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists’s 50th Anniversary convention:
Can editorial cartoons survive?

Before audience members came up with the suggestions, the problem was described by editorial cartoonist Paul Fell — one of the session leaders. “Part of the reason the AAEC was founded was a concern about the dimimishing number of editorial cartoon positions in the U.S.,” said Fell, a Nebraska-based creator syndicated by Artizans. “Here we are 50 years later and we’re facing the same problem — only now there’s roughly 25% of the staff positions [about 80]compared to 1957.”

Plus: Tooners on blogging
• Comments from Beat hero Helen Thomas.
• 3 cartoonists honored
• Various issues regarding the Mohammed Cartoons.

§ Phil Yeh talks literacy: as always.

Troubled by the fact that so many Americans were functionally illiterate, he organized a group called Cartoonists Across America to encourage kids to dive into books. Beginning with a cross country tour to 34 states and two Canadian provinces, Yeh (pronounced, “Yay”) and his cohorts appeared at schools, shopping malls, and other public spots to paint murals, enlist literacy tutors, and give away original comic books with a reading-is-fun theme.

§ Minnie Driver is the new Lara Croft in Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider, a new animated series from GameTap, Turner Broadcasting’s video-game-themed broadband network.

§ Jack Black, ‘tooner.

“I’ve been a big fan of cartoons, and I actually got in there and did some animating when I was in high school,” he says. “I won a prize. I won a Rocky & Bullwinkle for my don’t-drink-and-drive cartoon.”

ICv2 goes to the American LIbrary Association show and reports findings to base:

The two hour “Teen Graphic Novels: Maintaining Your Collection for Maximum Impact!” panel on Saturday was the primary programming event on graphic novels. Teen librarian panelists Brenner, Pawuk, Angela Reynolds (Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia), and Todd Krueger (Baltimore County), along with moderator Anne Leon (Broward County) spoke to a packed room of 200 librarians, with over a dozen seated on the floor.

The range of sizes and interest in graphic novels on the panels was instructive, with the smallest graphic novel collection (Nova Scotia) only a few hundred books, and the largest (Baltimore) over 16,000 in teen graphic novel volumes alone.

Much more of great interest in the link.

First it was the actors; then it was the directors and musicians and TV show staff writers. Now it’s the famous novelists who think comics are the bees knees, as the AP reports. Clues as to state of the loooonnnnggg brewing OMEGA THE UNKNOWN by Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple (left) are also dropped:

“It was an interesting challenge,” Lethem said. “One of the things I concluded very quickly was that it’s not a written form. My primary task was to provide amazing things for artists to draw.”

The first six issues are in the can, and the series will have a total of 10, like the original, which debuted in 1976. No official release date has been given.

Greg Rucka, Brad Meltzer, Jodi Picoult, Stephen King and Michael Chabon. Meltzer sums up the trend:

Meltzer and his publishers also put excerpts of “Justice League” into the paperback edition of “Book of Fate,” the first time a comic book has appeared in a novel, he says.

He believes the medium shouldn’t matter, as long as the story is good.

“There has just been so much snobbery that has existed with comic books,” he said. “We’ve got to prove that these things are equal.”

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We found this press release to be of some interest: more info on Marvel’s new line of “Classic Comics.” including The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island and The Man in the Iron Mask. Marvel has been beefing up their bookstore offering with stuff like pacting with Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Larell K. Hamilton and George R. R. Martin, but this initiative is clearly aimed at the book market as well. The books will be released initially as 6-issue pamphlet mini-series. (Click for larger images of the covers, above.)

Because you demanded it! Retailers and fans have demanded that Marvel bring some of the most timeless, enduring novels to life in comic book form and we’re happy to oblige with Marvel Illustrated, the House of Idea’s new line featuring the best of classic literature as adapted by industry legend Roy Thomas & a slew of talented artists. Over the summer, fans of all ages will be able to thrill to such tales as The Last Of The Mohicans, Treasure Island, Man In The Iron Mask and more, as Marvel provides the most in depth graphic literature adaptations of these stories to date. Adapted in six full length issues, each limited series re-telling of these renowned tales will stay true to the source material while presenting each story in our unique mighty Marvel style.

Beginning with May’s Marvel Illustrated: The Last Of The Mohicans, featuring the lush art of Marvel newcomer Steve Kurth and Denis Medri, James Fennimore Cooper’s 1826 novel is considered by many to be one of the great American novels. Exploring one of the most crucial periods in United States history, The Last Of The Mohicans explores the tensions between British colonists and the dwindling Native American population, all in the wild wilderness of the “New World.” Each issue will also feature special backup tales about series protagonist Hawkeye, an American who remains the mold for the definition of the word “hero.”

(more…)

§ The LA Times looks at the rising sales for novels based on manga. Already a huge category in Japan, the novels are catching on the US as well.

The practice of adapting stories from manga and animation to prose has been growing in Japan. As Roland Kelts, the author of “Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.,” put it, “What’s happening in Japan is that the shift from novelists to manga writers has gone backwards. Now you have established manga writers writing novels and publishing imprints capitalizing on this trend.”

§ the Detroit Free Press profiles Erin D. Russell who recently won the 2006 Charles M. Schulz Award for college cartooning, which comes with a $10,000 grant. Russell’s strip JADED JOY ran for two years in her college paper.

“When I was in high school, I worked for my high school paper, and I asked if they were interested in me drawing and they said yes. I did editorial cartoons. That’s how I started my career.”

She has studied art, cartooning, anime, metalsmithing and Japanese art, and toyed with the idea of becoming a video game designer because she loves gaming. Her current favorite is “Super Smash Bros.”

§ Literacy News looks at Phil Yeh’s latest literary tour , which will bring him to the BEA from June 1-3.

At this year’s BookExpoAmerica, booth #101, the two cartoonists Phil Yeh and Phil Ortiz will debut the 14th issue of Yeh’s Winged Tiger magazine which also features brand-new character creations from Ortiz, and an interview with Academy Award winning animator John Canemaker about Winsor McCay, the genius behind Little Nemo in Slumberland. The magazine is filled with new cartoon features and articles about their global tour. Phil Yeh, Phil Ortiz, and Alex Niño were invited as special guests for for the 3rd annual China Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou, China, held April 28 through May 4, 2007 and have great plans to expand their work throughout Asia in the coming years.

We missed this story last week about complaints in a New Zealand library over shelving CHOBITS (as identified by Dirk) in the kids section, but it appears things are being worked out with a plan to relocate the teen and graphic novel sections to a different art of the Wanganui library where children won’t have easy access to the materials:

Last week library borrower and part-time teacher Julie Gordon told the Wanganui Chronicle of her concerns that young people could access graphic containing sexually graphic material at the library.

Over the last two years Mrs Gordon had submitted four of the library’s novels to the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

Three of these had received R13 ratings and one had been rated R16.

In a report to the WDC Ms Patrick said she had made a request to the Davis library to relocate its teenage area and the graphic novel collection to an place which was clearly separated from the children’s area in order to “eliminate” future confusion.

In her recommendation to council she said that councillors should agree that the matter would be resolved once the teen area and graphic novels were moved.

Via PR

Even the U.S. Government can appreciate the classic political artwork of frequent New Yorker cover artist Eric Drooker. The Library of Congress has just purchased the original artwork of Drooker’s political masterwork, Flood! to rest in their public prints and photos collection. These pages have found a permanent home alongside graphic novel pioneer Lynd Ward’s 1930s originals, and the work of comics legend, Will Eisner.

“At first I was amazed that the U.S. Government would invest in a set of images so overtly critical of itself,” says Drooker, “but the Library of Congress represents a progressive wing of the government. Over the years, various collectors have tried to purchase original art from the book, but I never wanted to break up the cycle of engravings. I think it’s fantastic that now, scholars of future generations will be able to examine the original work in its entirety.”

To celebrate, Dark Horse Comics is proud to announce a new edition of this powerful graphic novel, with an additional chapter. An American Book Award winner and an Editor’s Choice of The New York Times, Flood! is a modern novel written in the timeless language of pictures, with an expressionist, film noir edge. Flood! explores all the joys and sadness of big city life, while prophetically gazing into the not-so-distant future.

In The New York Times Book Review, Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman (Maus) best described Flood! as “a complex, dream-charged vision of alienation in the wet, mean streets of New York City, where primal natural urges are suppressed in the lonely isolation of crowds. It’s a picture of a soulless civilization headed toward the apocalypse. It’s a poetic and lyrical novel—told virtually without words.”

He goes on to praise Drooker’s artistic storytelling. “Since images are usually open to broader interpretation than prose, each drawing in the sequence must work not only as a self–centered composition but also as a kind of hieroglyphic picture-writing. The page acts as a curtain to be raised, each page offering up new visual surprises. Mr. Drooker has discovered the magic of pulling light and life out of an inky sea of darkness.”

Drooker adds “Since Flood! was first published, the ‘graphic novel’ has emerged as a serious literary form. A number of sequential artists have created powerful dramas in words and pictures. My aim was slightly different: I was dispensing with the words—allowing the pictures alone to tell the story. The challenge to me, as a visual artist, was to explore how far I could communicate without resorting to words, to create a more powerful, universal tale.”
This special edition of Flood!: A Novel in Pictures features a bonus chapter, “After the Flood,” which includes thirty-two pages of new graphics, preliminary art, and an in-depth interview with the author. This definitive edition of Flood! is a unique record of our country’s turbulent past—and corporate present—and a must-read for students of graphic storytelling. This third edition also features a new cover by Drooker and a complete re-design. Flood!: A Novel in Pictures, was followed by Drooker’s acclaimed book, Blood Song: A Silent Ballad.

Flood!: A Novel in Pictures features art and story by Eric Drooker. This third edition arrives on sale April 25, carrying a retail price of $14.95.

For more information on the artist and his other works, please visit www.drooker.com.

A distinguished panel of librarian experts puts together a top ten list for the ALA:

1. Kampung Boy
2. The Legend of Hong Kil Dong : The Robin Hood of Korea
3. Missouri Boy
4. Girl Stories
5. Kristy’s Great Idea
6. Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain
7. To Dance : A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel
8. Castle Waiting
9. American Born Chinese
10. Oddly Normal : v.1

Commentary in link.

In case you missed it, here is the full story from the Marshall Democrat-News on the new Marshall, MO library policy and the fate of FUN HOME and BLANKETS which were removed from shelves following complaints over adult content. The books have been returned to circulation but will be shelved in the Adult section instead of the YA section.

And just like that, democracy and intelligence reign.

More in the link.

The comics blogosphere and press has been closely following the situation in Marshall, MO, where complaints over content led to FUN HOME and BLANKETS being removed from library shelves. The library began a long, thoughtful process of public hearings to decide on a new policy, one of which was held on Tuesday.

Now, a comment on a Beat posting on the matter from Amy Crump, the chief librarian at the Marshall Public Library states simply:

The Marshall Public Library Board of Trustees voted to return both ‘’Fun Home’’ and ‘’Blankets’’ to the library’s shelves on Wednesday, March 14, 2007.

We imagine a fuller story in the Marshall Democrat-Newws, which has covered this story extensively, will be along, but if true, this sounds like a triumph of the democratic process to us. Of course, we’re biased.

Meanwhile, back in Marshall, MOthe new library policy has its first reading and two citizen-democrats showed up to have their say.

Hird was wearing a button that said, “I read banned books.” He brought up the fact that several books that are vital to education have been challenged. They include “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “1984″ by George Orwell and others.

“There is nothing wrong in challenging books,” Hird said. He said he read the two books that have been pulled from the library’s shelves.

The other fellow felt different.

Blakely also applied the proposed policy to the banned books. According to Blakely, “Blankets” and “Fun Home” only meet one of the general criteria for selection — the timeliness of the subject matter.

The books go along with the timeliness of the gay/lesbian movement and you would find these types of trash along I-70, Blakely said.

YALSA’s complete list of 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens is up.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced its 2007 recommended list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens. The list, to be prepared annually, was released for the first time during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington, held January 19-23, 2007.

In beautiful downtown Seattle the 11-member committee worked hard to narrow its 141 official nominations down to the final list of 67 excellent adult and young adult graphic novel titles. The books, recommended for ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and reading appeal for teens.

The inaugural committee was dedicated to making a strong list that showcases a wide range of quality materials. The list includes everything from serious non-fiction to high fantasy, romantic manga to superhero parodies.

You should definitely go to the link for the names of the librarians who voted and more info, but we’ve also put the complete list in a sidebar listing. Congrats to everyone — this is a truly wide ranging list.

The Final YALSA list of top books for teens for 2007 is up, and there are several graphic novels in the list. We’ll let you click and find yourself. We will note that AMERICAN BORN CHINESE made the Top Ten list. Congrats again, Gene Yang and First Second!