The Graphic Novels Guy

I'd like to introduce everyone to a new guest blogger. Starting today and then appearing every other Tuesday John Shableski will be writing a for BB&H. His column will be called The Graphic Novels Guy and he'll be reporting on this fascinating aspect of publishing.

John has spent 20 years doing marketing and promotion for radio,cable television, retail and real estate. 
"I learned the most from my days in Top Forty radio as a morning show host and as program director where you were only as good as your next great promotion.   I joined the publishing and distribution world when I was hired by Brodart Co. where I developed the graphic novel program for libraries," he said. 

John now  works for Diamond Book Distributors as a sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries.   (Diamond is the largest distributor of graphic novels in the world.)

He's been a panelist at BEA, a moderator for graphic novel panels at the New York Comic Con (where he also created four GN programs for librarians), a guest speaker at library events, for the Great American Bargain Book Show, and a symposium coordinator.  He's  currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums across the country: Las Vegas, Seattle, and New York for the NY Center for Independent Press.

 

 

So with no further ado: Ladies and Gentlemen,  The Graphic Novels Guy.

Welcome to The New Rock And Roll

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. 

I should also point out that graphic novels are a format and not a genre.  Genres are what you will find within the format. Looking over the past couple of decades there were some hints that graphic novels were growing in popularity though they had not yet achieved any real recognition from the publishing industry.  There was Eisner’s aforementioned first project, which was followed by books from other creators with titles like Blankets by Craig Thompson, Persepolis and collected efforts like Alan Moore's Watchmen, and Sandman by Niel Gaiman. 

One title that pushed the door open a little further for the industry though was Maus by Art Spiegelman.  Not only did Maus win a special Pulitzer 1992, but it drew an ever greater focus on the format due to Spiegelman’s subject matter --- a depiction of the Holocaust using animal caricatures. Some critics were outright disgusted, but teachers and librarians (who play a very important role in this) soon discovered a great tool they could use to reach new readers. 

While the special Pulitzer did bring a general level of awareness to the format it didn’t propel sales for the publishers as some were hoping it would.   That event would have to wait a few years as new writers, creators and artists entered the field with new stories to tell.  From the sublime and wordless Owly by Andy Runton to a young girl’s memoir in Persepolis from Marjane Satrapi, the graphic novel began to find an identity that took it well beyond the world of comic book superheroes that so many had mistakenly assumed it belonged.

Recently there have been some great books that elevated the format to newer heights: Writers/creators such as Neil Gaiman and Brad Meltzer have enjoyed success as prose and graphic novel authors.   Then we have Fun Home by Alison Bechdel which Time Magazine called Book Of The Year.   Gene Luen Yang won major recognition and was nominated for a National Book Award for American Born Chinese.   Most recently has been the amazing collaboration of Stephen King and a team of Marvel geniuses’ to create a stunning prequel to his Dark Tower series called The Dark Tower: A Gunslinger Born.  With an initial print run of 350,000 copies this book marks new territory for the graphic novel. 

Were any of these titles the “tipping point” for graphic novel publishing?   It’s no doubt that they all contribute to the momentum but what really gave it a really good kick were dollar signs-as if that were any real surprise. According to Milton Griepp from www.ICV2.com graphic novels sales have been climbing at an alarming rate since anyone began tracking the data back in 2001.  For that year sales were approximately 43 million dollars and they rose to 330 million in 2006.   

Certainly there are some traditional publishing houses who earn more than that with their own efforts but when a format performs at this pace for five consecutive years it tends to make folks sit up and take notice. There have been other watershed moments in the history of American publishing that date back to Mark Twain.  When Twain received a great review from Atlantic Monthly for Innocents Abroad it coincided with the moment that literacy became commonplace in America and his writing style reflected the voice of the common citizen. 

The next major evolution beyond the Beat Writers was Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.  He created a new style of journalism –True Crime-- that spread like wild fire. 

How does this all relate to rock and roll?  When you look back to the birth of rock  music there were some interesting changes taking place in the entertainment industry and it had everything to do with a new medium: television. 

Traditional radio was losing its audience to television and the movie studios were also losing that same audience for the very same reason. The movie studios were first to capture the new audience when they began to create pictures that teens wanted to see.  Rebel Without a Cause may have captured the teen angst and restlessness of the time but the movie that helped to launch rock and roll was Blackboard Jungle. Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets played under the credits and the kids were dancing in the aisles until the lights came up.

Radio stations who had lost their bread and butter audiences grabbed onto this new music with both hands and quickly realized that rock was what the kids wanted and they also had money to spend on it.  Teen idols were born and a new industry exploded.  Tiny music studios became giants on the talents of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. 

What was this stuff? This racket?  This ‘race music’?   It was rock and roll.  It saved radio, and it saved the music publishing industry at the same time. If you take a closer look, Elvis wasn’t playing anything new and neither were the Beatles.  They were only echoing the old blues music that was born in the Deep South or on the streets of Chicago.

Much like today’s graphic novel creators can look back to the likes of Will Eisner, Stan Lee or even Norman Rockwell as influences to help them tell their stories. Manga and the Japanese Invasion So what is manga, where does it come from and why is it such a hit with kids? 

Manga (pronounced mon-gah) is the Japanese version of comics and it sells for the very same reason that the British Invasion worked: It was very different from the traditional American superhero look.

The books read backwards and the art can be so overwhelming that some adult brains can’t absorb it but, given a little time, anyone can figure it out. The grandfather of manga was a genius named Osamu Tezuka who grew up watching Disney films and the characters he created for his books all have that ’big eyed’ feature that you see in Uncle Walt’s early works.  You can still this influence today in stories like Fruits Basket and Naruto.

If you remember anything about the British Invasion groups like the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones, they all proudly pointed to the old rhythm and  blues artists from ’The States’ as their influences.  Like wise, manga creators can trace their influences to iconic figures in American pop art.   Call it a cultural echo.

Now we have reached the point where there is no denying the arrival of graphic novels.  All the major publishing houses have picked up an imprint or are developing their own lines.  The movie studios see an instant storyboard when they look at a great book like Frank Miller’s epic book, 300.  There are multiple channels of revenue based on the graphic novel, collectible statues, video games, television rights, role playing games, etc…which often do not present themselves in the traditional prose market. It’s a billion dollar industry that is standing right in front of us.

What's on the horizon? Just look around you and think globally.  You can look west to Japan, eastward to Europe or India and back here at home where tomorrow's new creators are still in high school.  New imprints are finding their way to the spotlight in the form of Virgin Comics, a recent partnership with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra or Toon Books from Françoise Mouly, whom you may already know from her work on The New Yorker.

Then, there are those college students working in a basement somewhere, daring to prove to anyone that they have the next best stories.   It's anybody's game. Interestingly enough, graphic novels are coming into their own just as the Internet reaches critical mass. 

Does this sound familiar? Welcome to the New Rock And Roll!

In the next issue:  How graphic novels can save the independent bookseller.

Comments

[Kat Kan]

John, great summary of what you've been saying at many conferences. Just one niggling little correction - it's Gene Luen Yang, not Lang. Probably a slip of the finger on the keyboard.
John's right about so much else in his entry, though. Graphic novels have grown rapidly in the market, not just the comics direct market (all those specialty stores around the country and maybe in your town), but also in bookstores and in libraries. Schools are increasingly getting graphic novels into their collections, and even using them in their curricula. And not just here in the US - a teacher in Great Britain posted in his column at silverbulletcomicbooks.com that his system has him teaching with comics in their equivalent of our high schools. It's an exciting time to be working with graphic novels in libraries.
And one more thing - the Eisner Awards, the Oscars of the comics industry, has just announced the judges' panel to select the nominations for the 2008 Eisners, and a librarian (Eva Volin from Alameda, CA) is on the panel. This is the third time in very recent years that a librarian has served as a judge; I was the first one, for the 2005 Eisners.

* editors note: Thanks for spotting that Kat, the spelling has been corrected.

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