Bestselling prose authors continue to migrate to the comics medium, writing original works in collaboration with cartoonists and overseeing the adaptation of their own prose works into graphic novels. Dark Horse’s upcoming publication of Janet and Alex Evanovich’s Troublemaker, the bestselling novelist’s first foray into comics and the big graphic novel at BEA, is only the latest example.
At the panel, “Big Name Authors with Graphic Novels: How Will This Change the Market?,” PWCW co-editors Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald, GraphicNovelReporter.com publisher Carol Fitzgerald, Dark Horse v-p of development Michael Martens and literary agent Judith Hansen discussed the trend and examined the success, failure and potential of prose authors coming over to comics publishing.
The panel was moderated by former Yen Press publishing director Rich Johnson, who asked the panel why this seems to happening. “These authors often turn out to be big comics fans themselves,” Reid replied, “these authors often love comics and its an opportunity to get involved in something new.” He also added that graphic novels are often seen as a way for prose writers to “expand their readership,” and to offer longtime fans new stories based on scenarios and characters that they already know well. Indeed, Michael Martens jumped to say, Evanovich’s Troublemaker “is not an adaptation,” but instead is a continuation of the Alex Barnaby prose series in the comics format. Indeed more publishers are finding that fans tend be more excited about original stories set in the broad universe of bestselling prose novels and Martens claimed Dark Horse “never would have done Troublemaker as a straight adaptation.” Macdonald also pointed out that “the nature of adaptations is changing; a story set in an expanded universe [offers the chance to] create new storylines and prequels.”
Who is the reader for a work like Troublemaker? Martens said, “we’re looking for Evanovich’s readers, we’ll put [Troublemaker] in the crime section with her books and bring in new readers.” The panel discussed the issue of shelving: where will comics with a popular prose author reach the widest audience, in the graphic novel section or with their respective genre?
“Are Evanovich’s readers going to be in the graphic novel section or the mystery section,” questioned Hanson. “There’s no research that tells what will be an easy seque,” responded Martens, “[very often the books] can’t be shelved in more than one place in traditional bookstores, where shelving can be restrictive. It can be hard to find new readers [and] figure out how to move people over from the comics ghetto.” Hansen then pointed to her client, cartoonist Gene Yang, author of the NBA nominated graphic novel, American Born Chinese. Hansen said that in general bookstores the book was often shelved in both the graphic novel and children’s section. Hansen also represents R. Crumb and questioned how well Crumb’s Book of Genesis would have sold if placed in both the religion and graphic novels section. “In the religion market [Genesis] received favorable reviews. [It could] draw future readers to the comics format.”
Reid chimed in that shelving comics in general bookstores is an “evolving issue, chains have some flexibility to cross promote titles because they have the manpower; less so in a small store.” But cross promotion in stores is not always feasible. Reid pointed to Powell’s Books in Portland Oregon, an independent bookstore with a serious commitment to selling graphic novels. The Book of Genesis Illustrated was offered to the religion section, “but according to Powell’s graphic novel buyer, they didn’t want it. Viz Media’s food manga, Oshinbo, was offered to the food section at Powell’s, Reid said, which also declined to carry the series.
Fitzgerald asserted, regardless of where comics are shelved in the store, publishers need to be sure they understand the comics medium and what it takes to produce and deliver a quality product. “If you’re going to ask someone to try a new format, it has to deliver on many levels,” Fitzgerald said, “the art and quality of the story need to meld.” Hansen said that “Del Rey did well on the artist selection for the Dean Koontz books to appeal to a younger market,” and Martens said, “Joelle Jones’s breezy style art in Troublemaker matches the style [of the prose] to reach her readers. It’s a great experiment.”
For traditional book publishers learning to sell through direct market comics shops can be a hurdle. Unlike traditional bookstores, the comics shop market is generally a non-returnable wholesale market—unlike general bookstores which can return unsold books to the publisher. While direct market stores are changing, offering a wider variety of comics, the channel still specializes in superhero comics and it can be difficult to sell more mainstream genres to the typical comics shop consumer.
“It’s a voyage of discovery,” said MacDonald, “there are distribution issues” since prose publishes “do not have a direct conduit to comic book stores.” Responding from the audience, a comics shop retailer claimed that books like Stephen King’s Dark Tower adaptation, published by Marvel, are “not that great in the direct market. Stephen King comics did bring fans to direct market stores [but then sales] settled down.” He explained that the first Dark Tower series sold well, but sales of the second series “stalled.” Martens said, “It’s hard to get [a prose reader] to pick up a floppy [traditional comic book].
In the past year, Del Rey ventured into the monthly periodical comics market with their adaptation of Stephan King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman, an unusual venture for a traditional book publisher. “It was a good experiment,” said Del Rey editor Betsy Mitchell, who was in the audience, “but we would need a staff 5 times as big to concentrate on it.” Bestselling prose authors also can have “great expectations of large print runs” and it can be difficult for them to adjust to the notion that their comics may “not sell at the levels of their prose books,” as MacDonald put it.
But traditional book publishers, comics publishers can be much more skilled at promoting books direct to consumers. The panelists agreed, as Fitzgerald claimed, that “the comic shop market builds anticipation for a book better than the prose market,” offering fans such things as collectors editions and other fan-oriented volumes available in limited editions. Hansen added that comics publishers know how to market “direct to consumers, to see what sells well and what doesn’t. Prose publishers don’t know how to market directly to consumers.” Reid emphasized that traditional book publishers “are used to marketing to retailers and having to deal directly with fans and consumers can be seen as a distraction.” BEA, MacDonald said, is “set up to push product to a middle man,” who in turn will sell to the consumer.
Nevertheless, bestselling authors like Evanovich, Jim Butcher, Sherilynn Kenyon and Dean Koontz, who is overseeing the creation of graphic novels based on his Odd Thomas novels, continue to turn enthusiastically to the comics market. These authors also have devoted fans and an elaborate promotional infrastructure that can be used for promoting the books. Mitchell said Del Rey makes use of “the author’s websites and email lists,” and she pointed to the Odd Thomas Facebook numbers increasing, “bringing in teen readers.” Martens also mentioned using Evanovich’s website and mailing lists to reach out to existing fans and “delivering to personal digital devices, the iPad, the Kindle, [and using] social networking.” Indeed the biggest advantage in the comics market, Reid said, is that in the conventional comics industry everyone is “massively online: fans, artists, publishers; there’s no disconnect.”
What’s better for attracting readers, literal adaptations of prose works or original graphic novels based in an expanded literary universe? As these kind of projects increase, Fitzgerald worried about a possible loss of originality in the comics based on bestselling novels. And she invoked concern about how traditional book publishers will react when high profile comics adaptations fail to generated expected sales. Will they walk away from the category?
“I used to hate [adaptations],” Reid said, noting that it seemed a waste of the powerful storytelling potential of comics to rehash prose works. “But over time I have seen how these books can help publishers’ bottom line, artists’ careers and often bring in new readers,” Reid said. “ I don’t think it has negatively impacted original material, adaptations have taken their place as part of the comics publishing market.”
