The Year of the Graphic Novel
This has been a year of fundamental change for comics publishers. The industry managed to weather a potentially disastrous distributor bankruptcy, while the stunning sales growth of Japanese comics (manga) and a powerful sales boost from several hit movies has led to new ways of doing business with general trade bookstores.
Asian Comics Delight U.S. Readers
American graphic novels are registering healthy sales growth, but the surge in popularity of English-language manga--licensed editions of Japanese graphic novels re-released in the U.S.--has been even more phenomenal over the past year.
Hands Off at Oni Press
Back in 1997, Joe Nozemack and Bob Schreck decided to launch an alternative comic book press where artists and writers would have full creative control of their ideas. A place where mainstream comics would be shunned, and where creative visions could be realized.
Slave Labor Graphics Blows Up
A homicidal maniac who obeys a wall of blood; a dead little girl with a ghoulish sense of humor; a living cheese wedge and carton of milk ("dairy products gone bad") who take out their aggression on an unsuspecting world--these are the star characters at Slave Labor Graphics, a pop culture explosion masquerading as a comic book company.
D&Q Heads BISAC, Bookseller Efforts
Despite the steady sales of growth of graphic novels and book-format comics, many book retailers remain ignorant of the category, mistakenly treating it as a single genre, or are confused about where to shelve the books.
D.C.'s Vertigo Marks 10 Years
Beginning in the late 1980s, DC Comics, the world's largest publisher of heroic fantasy--otherwise known as superhero comics--began to publish a very different kind of comic book.
