Kids Can Press has been publishing children's books since 1973 and launched its first graphic novels in 2008: Claire and the Bakery Thief, a fantasy tale, and No Girls Allowed, an anthology of true stories about women who disguised themselves as men. Since then, they have built up a diverse line of graphic novels offering everything from historically based works to fantasy, adventure and mysteries.

While the Canadian house’s initial comics works were black-and-white, Kids Can Press graphic novels are now all full-color and the house is looking to attract new artists and new writers. The two-year mark seemed like a good time to talk to editors Tara Walker and Karen Li, as well as institutional marketing manager Naseem Hrab, about what they have learned about the graphic novel category and where they are heading.

PW Comics Week: Why did you start publishing graphic novels?

Karen Li: We saw an interesting place in the market for graphic novels for younger readers, and I think other publishers saw this as well because Toon Books started publishing around that time. Our strength is picture books, so it was no great leap for us to go from that [form] of visual storytelling to another.

PWCW: How does editing graphic novels differ from editing picture books?

Tara Walker: One of the challenges is the huge scope of the graphic novel. Binky the Space Cat is 64 pages, but Ashley Spires, the creator, and I likened it to three picture books in terms of the amount of work that was required. Sustaining a narrative over a really long number of pages is one challenge.

PWCW: Because the book is so long?

TW: Yes, we publish graphic novels that are 64 pages, 80, 96, I think even a couple are 112, so we are definitely telling longer, more complicated stories. They are different from a technical perspective as well. Usually, with picture books, the illustrator does the illustrations, and the designer sets the text and does the design. What we found with graphic novels was we had to approach them differently, and it made a lot of sense for the illustrator—in some cases the author-illustrator—to take on the design work, and it was more efficient than doing it in-house

KL: Also, there is more of a visual consistency to the storytelling when the artist is the one who does the lettering

TW: Most creators who come from the comic book world are used to working on their own without a lot of feedback, and we definitely approach the graphic novels, as we do all of our other genres, with a lot of editorial rigor, a lot of comments on the book, the text, the art, and the development of the story. So that's a challenge.

PWCW: Do you have creators who like being edited?

KL: I got very good feedback about it being a pleasure to work with an editor to solidify the storytelling and being good to have a sounding board, someone to talk to, someone to bounce ideas off of.

PWCW: Where do you find creators?

TW: All sorts of places. One place where we have found some creators is at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I have had the experience of having books that were submitted as picture books that we suggested would work better in graphic novel format. That' s the case with Binky. We have also had traditional picture book artists who have been working on their comic book for years and have really wanted to publish a comic.

KL: It's a mixed bag. Some come from Comic Cons. Willow Dawson's work came to us through a Comic Con. Claudia Davila came to us through her webcomic group, Transmission X. We had people referred to us—Scott Chantler was referred to us through [consultant and writer] Scott Robins.

TW: Once people found out we did comics we had people coming to us from all corners.

PWCW: How has your graphic novel line evolved?

KL: From a technical perspective, I think we certainly got more sophisticated. The original graphic novels we came out with, the Claire books and the Sam and Friends mysteries, were beautifully bound but in black and white. Now all of our graphic novels are in color.

TW: We are also doing a much wider range in terms of the kind of books we are doing. We have some really strong character-based graphic novels; we also have some more historical based [stories], some fantasy, adventure, mysteries, so I think that there is a much wider variety.

PWCW: Is there one that has been particularly popular?

TW: Binky. We have two Binky books, and we have a couple more under contract. We are also seeing really good success with Scott Chantler's Tower of Treasure.

PWCW: Is there a sleeper you wish would get more attention?

KL: I would like to see more attention to Willow Dawson's book [No Girls Allowed]. It was picked up on Boing Boing, so it had some buzz that way. Her second book, Lila and Ecco's Do It Yourself Comics Club, is not a glib look at how comics are made—she gets down to the nuts and bolts of it. Someone mentioned in a review it was the next step up from Adventures in Cartooning. It bridges the gap between Adventures in Cartooning and Understanding Comics.

PWCW: Where do people generally buy your graphic novels?

Naseem Hrab: We tend to do most of our marketing for teachers and librarians, whether it's during trade shows or print advertising. For example, Binky is very popular with librarians. Recently several of our books have been picked up by Diamond, so we are trying to get into more of the comic book store market too.

PWCW: What about chain bookstores?

NH: I think our books are all sold there, but most of our marketing tends to be for the teacher and library market.

PWCW: What are your plans for the future?

KL: A lot. If you're fan of the Tower of Treasure series, book two is coming out, and we have a third and a fourth Binky book under contract. Claudia Davila's book Luz Sees the Light is coming out. It's the story of a 12 year-old girl, set in the near future, when all sorts of environmental things are happening. It's how she and her community react to the changing world. It's coming out in fall 2011.

TW: Also in fall 2011, we have the first series by one of Canada's well known illustrators, Bill Slavin. He's the illustrator of the Stanley series, which is a very popular picture book series in Canada. His book is a series called Elephants Never Forget, and it's about the misadventures of Otto, a very naïve but sensitive elephant, who leaves the jungles of Africa in search of a childhood friend, a chimp called Georgie. He goes to a big city in the first book—it's a comical road caper. In the second book we see him in small-town America, and the third is in Hollywood.