The Creator Panel offered an open look into the inspirations and histories of five great comics creators:
Dave Roman, Stan Sakai, Chris Schweizer, Gail Simone, and Raina Telgemeier. Here are some industry-related points that were covered in the discussion:
What is the difference between working freelance and working with a large publisher?
It's easier to acquire an audience when you're writing for a publisher using a title or characters which have already been established, but you're stuck without the creative control you'd have on your own. Most creators seem to be happier with a project in which they retain the bulk of the creative control or create totally on their own. When collaborating, it's best when the writer and the artist know each others' styles a bit before starting so that they can work with each others' strengths.
What audience do you write for?
Stan Sakai started writing Usago Yojimbo for a readership of one: himself. But he gets letters from five year olds to grandparents. Chris Schweizer said he writes for all ages, but is conscious that kids read his work. He said, “there needs to be enough to show that the villain is actually villainous and the protagonist is in peril. I try to make it appropriate for all ages, but I don't feel it's necessary to shy away from those things.” Gail Simone finds that approaching difficult topics in work aimed at kids is a benefit of the medium, “I don't believe in talking down to kids. I think this is one reason why kids went over to manga, because they don't do that.”
Dave Roman talked about the difficulty of appealing to kids when creating a kids magazine, like Nickelodeon Magazine. “When I self-publish I can do whatever I want and write for myself, but the more you meet readers, the more conscious you become of the readers.”
Raina Telgemeier started writing about her own experiences aimed at younger readers but quickly found that some topics, like her having her teeth knocked out when she was eleven, have a universal appeal that a lot of readers can relate to.
How does one get into the system if you can't draw?
The most important part is to write a lot and get yourself noticed. Gail Simone began with a weekly column which developed into a greater project, which led to her being asked to write Simpsons comics.
The process is hard work, but the important thing is to persevere.
Have you ever read a novel and thought “this would make a kick-ass comic book?”
The consensus was that the transition from comic book to a different art form can be good, but the same doesn't really go for moving towards a comic book medium.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Showing posts with label graphic novels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graphic novels. Show all posts
Saturday, May 9, 2009
State of the Industry Panel
This panel, moderated by Robin Brenner, consisted of a diverse set of experts in the comics and graphic novel industry including innovative publishers, national distributors and expert bloggers discussing what's going on in the market and what's happening in the comics scene:
Dave Roman: Associate Editor, Nickelodeon Magazine
John Shableski: Diamond Book Distributors
Ali T. Kokmen: marketing Manager, Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey manga
Calista Brill: Editor, First Second.
Brigid Alverson: Freelance journalist, blogger for mangaBlog, editor-in-chief of Good Comics For Kids (School Library Journal) and Digital Strips
I've transcribed the panel as best I could below:
What do you see thats coming up or new things you've noticed in terms of who's reading, what they're looking for and whats exciting? What should we be looking for for our various artists?
Ali: One that just came to me, we are seeing a whole bunch more of webcomics being done created for the “interwebs” which is great. Theres an increasing numbers of publishers being approached for webcomics and that's an interesting phenomenon that started in a void and is coming back to the publishing industry.
Dave: a lot of that content is content that was already published for free on the internet and people have already been exposed to it on the internet so by the time the artist comes out, the readers have already been introduced to it.
John: When you come in with a million viewers per month, your audience is already there when you publish.
Brigid: While webcomics are free, what's not free is comics on other platforms like the iPod. Supposedly apple is coming out with a “kindle-killer” tablet which will make comics easier to access.
How would we advocate for something to be put in a format that could be put on our shelves?
John: Make publishers aware of the need.
Calista: I'd love an email from a librarian saying “we have X number of patrons interested in this certain thing...”
Ali: At Del Ray and Random House, we've experimented with prose novels and gave away the first volumes for free to see how it went. Whats pretty clear ISN”T happening is that it's stifling sales. Giving it away for free encourages people to pursue it further.
John: Dave's with Nick and he and Chris did a survey online about graphic novels, but kids don't recognize that term. But when you talk about the titles, they're interested and want to talk about it. They just see it as a normal book.
It feels like publishers hear a lot from fans and booksellers, but where do librarians fit in and how do we make sure we're heard in a useful way that isn't overwhelming?
Calista: At First Second, librarians in the market are an enormous part of our business focus. We attend a lot of cons, we try to involve ourselves in the library world as much as we'd like libraries to involve themselves in our world. But an easy way to get your voice heard is to start a blog. There are a lot of blogs in several industries that present themselves as a representative of their community. It's also useful to have this outreach from the libraries at conferences.
Ali: in terms of “where do librarians fall in grand scheme of things” As such a tiny part of the huge company that is Random House, I can't really speak for everything, but often the Del Rey manga website, there are forms through which anyone can send feedback, and I read them all. All is taken under advisement. Librarians have been so important to us for graphic novels and manga.
Dave: Comics always been a small manageable industry. It's always been easy to reach out or go to cons and meet people. In other publishing industries, there's a wall of staff keeping people from the powers that be, but most comics organizations are just a few people and it's easy to reach them.
John: We wouldn't be here without librarians. When graphic novels were first coming out, it was thought that comic stores would be the first place they'd be sold, but Librarians came forward and were so passionate about what was being done...
Dave: Libraries really made the difference in expanding the genre. When I first started publishing, comics were mostly sold in comic shops. The bookstores weren't carrying them yet and it was before graphic novels. If a publisher wanted to put out a book but you couldn't get it into a comic shop, that was a deal breaker. Librarians helped expand that. Books that weren't being sold in comic shops were being picked up by librarians and marketed to a different audience. Now girls and kids are reading them more and we're able to sell enough copies to make more things worth publishing.
How do we say what we want? It feels like we've been trying to communicate for a long time and it's taken a while for a response. What do we need to know about how the system works?
Ali: If someone gives you a perfect graphic novel today, how long does it take to run?
Calista: Something like 16 months for color, 8 months for black and white... If there's something that we decide that people need to be reading RIGHT NOW, what “right now” means is that we decide in January and it's out in September. That said, trends don't move that fast either and we're not in the business of picking up on every trend out there. One thing I have observed is the gap in the market for 5-7 year olds. There are submissions for terrific middle grade tween and YA books and the world could not be fuller of richness for them, but anything from 5-7 there's silence. I'm grateful for teen books, but there's so much less for this age group.
Dave: There's no market for it. There seems to be no publishers who want to make books for that age. In the comics industry, saying you want to make comics for kids is like saying “I don't want to sell the book.” You have to say it's for “all ages” because if you say it's for kids, bookstores won't buy it.
Calista: in the world of children's publishing, saying “all ages” is an anathema, it's poison for the book. It's much harder to sell books for all ages in the traditional publishing market.
Dave: cartoonists have a hard time working around that. What makes it hard is that the biggest success stories buck that. Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) REFUSES to say that he made the book for kids. John: This generation of the comics industry thought that comics should be sold in comic shops, of which there's only 3500, but once they started selling to libraries they realized the greater potential; there's over a million of them.
Brigid: There's almost two different cultures here; traditional comic book culture and the book culture. Comics are small and disposable and you buy them certain places and they're floppy, but I'm thinking of Tiny Titans and it's not that at all.
Dave: The comics thing is huge. We did comics for kids and we found that we had to choose titles that were already there. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the few that were successful without a TV show. Pokemon, Naruto, they're popular because they have a TV show. It was hard to make a kids comic that's an original story that nobody's heard of; you might only sell 500 copies.
Is there any possibility for large print graphic novels?:
Calista: On a practical level, there's an issue of efficiency. Comics aren't necessarily the most efficient way of telling a story, just in terms of the space they take up. There has to be some compromise to tell the story and not take 400 pages to do it. Its something we think about on the production end...
Librarians don't like to withhold anything and there's a lot of debate between which ratings are useful and which are not. What do you think of age ratings?
Ali: If publishers agreed on some form of self-censorship with someone to submit our material, that would be terrifying. It would take so much time and so long to process.
John: There doesn't need to be a label on the book because you will discourage kids, if it says 5-8 and there's a boy who's 12, he won't read it. It's hard for retailers and catalogers when buying them though, to determine who the target is for the books. The publishers need to help librarians figure out where the book belongs on the shelf so they don't get hurt later. It's important to be able to defend the book's place in its particular section at the library.
Calista: I think it's funny that publishers think they have any idea who the intended audience is. We put “adult” in the catalog but not on the books... With graphic novels, the things that are put out for teens, there's no way could be put on a screen. There's content issues in what you can show, they're very different from print publishers...
Ali: There are quantifiable measures you could take for a prose novel. Those are useful tools, but there's not an analogous tool for graphic novels. I just think that the way of taking in that information is different.
Brigid: My daughters are 14-16 and they started reading manga when they were 9, and when I saw it I thought “Manga! that's porn!” and I snatched it away. I read a lot of comics growing up, and when I started reading their manga I realized that it's the same sort of story type.
Ali: Check out http://www.mangablog.net !
Brigid: Other parents come to me about it. Other things about the ratings, kids always rate up. My kids watched PG13 when they were 10 and now they're on to R rated movies. Manga ratings are incredibly conservative and that's fine, but there's nothing there that they're not already seeing on TV. But if you take a book like Fruits Basket and one like Peach Girl and they look alike. As much as everyone hates ratings and they do have flaws in them, they're useful for parents.
Dave: Prose books have the advantage of being hard to read as opposed to comics. You can describe horrific violent illegal activity in prose, but you actually have to read it. With GN its like “There's nipples! There's a panty shot on that page!”
John: The editor is becoming more and more important. You don't want the creator to be chained to the story; the editor might ask “Is that gratuitous?” and unless they can explain why it's important, they might go back and take something out. The great thing about this format is that you can see if its dishonest or disingenuous in any way. It's more important for this format than it is for typical prose.
Calista: Eediting these books is important, especially for younger readers. There's some stuff you would imagine being an issue but things like lettering, text, how hard you want the reader to have to work to read it. It's a skill set you have to learn by screwing up again and again, which is when feedback is useful.
Dave: I don't think ratings are something the comics world is ready to deal with. Nick is coming out with an Iron Man cartoon and they wanted me to put it in the Nickelodeon magazine. Google Iron Man comic and the first thing that comes up is IM surrounded by strippers and he's doing blow in Vegas. I think SuperHero comics are drug dealers. They lure you in with Tiny Titans but they really want you to be reading Dark Knight. It's hard for kids to understand “this is YOUR Iron Man and this is OUR Iron Man. Your Batman, OUR batman.”
With age range, you said that people read up. Some pub will intentionally market things for teens or kids won't read them.
Calista: when I was at Disney, the worst thing you could do is try to do a younger version of something at the same time as an older cause you kill the older audience.
Ali: A huge factor for publishers is the great divide for age buyers. Kids readers used to want regular comics so publishers are highly motivated to make something not look like a kids book... Now there's more stuff that might straddle the line.
Dave: It's not only a censorship thing, it's a marketing thing. If comics sell 5,000 it's huge. Anything you did to cut off the audience is potentially alienating people.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Dave Roman: Associate Editor, Nickelodeon Magazine
John Shableski: Diamond Book Distributors
Ali T. Kokmen: marketing Manager, Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey manga
Calista Brill: Editor, First Second.
Brigid Alverson: Freelance journalist, blogger for mangaBlog, editor-in-chief of Good Comics For Kids (School Library Journal) and Digital Strips
I've transcribed the panel as best I could below:
What do you see thats coming up or new things you've noticed in terms of who's reading, what they're looking for and whats exciting? What should we be looking for for our various artists?
Ali: One that just came to me, we are seeing a whole bunch more of webcomics being done created for the “interwebs” which is great. Theres an increasing numbers of publishers being approached for webcomics and that's an interesting phenomenon that started in a void and is coming back to the publishing industry.
Dave: a lot of that content is content that was already published for free on the internet and people have already been exposed to it on the internet so by the time the artist comes out, the readers have already been introduced to it.
John: When you come in with a million viewers per month, your audience is already there when you publish.
Brigid: While webcomics are free, what's not free is comics on other platforms like the iPod. Supposedly apple is coming out with a “kindle-killer” tablet which will make comics easier to access.
How would we advocate for something to be put in a format that could be put on our shelves?
John: Make publishers aware of the need.
Calista: I'd love an email from a librarian saying “we have X number of patrons interested in this certain thing...”
Ali: At Del Ray and Random House, we've experimented with prose novels and gave away the first volumes for free to see how it went. Whats pretty clear ISN”T happening is that it's stifling sales. Giving it away for free encourages people to pursue it further.
John: Dave's with Nick and he and Chris did a survey online about graphic novels, but kids don't recognize that term. But when you talk about the titles, they're interested and want to talk about it. They just see it as a normal book.
It feels like publishers hear a lot from fans and booksellers, but where do librarians fit in and how do we make sure we're heard in a useful way that isn't overwhelming?
Calista: At First Second, librarians in the market are an enormous part of our business focus. We attend a lot of cons, we try to involve ourselves in the library world as much as we'd like libraries to involve themselves in our world. But an easy way to get your voice heard is to start a blog. There are a lot of blogs in several industries that present themselves as a representative of their community. It's also useful to have this outreach from the libraries at conferences.
Ali: in terms of “where do librarians fall in grand scheme of things” As such a tiny part of the huge company that is Random House, I can't really speak for everything, but often the Del Rey manga website, there are forms through which anyone can send feedback, and I read them all. All is taken under advisement. Librarians have been so important to us for graphic novels and manga.
Dave: Comics always been a small manageable industry. It's always been easy to reach out or go to cons and meet people. In other publishing industries, there's a wall of staff keeping people from the powers that be, but most comics organizations are just a few people and it's easy to reach them.
John: We wouldn't be here without librarians. When graphic novels were first coming out, it was thought that comic stores would be the first place they'd be sold, but Librarians came forward and were so passionate about what was being done...
Dave: Libraries really made the difference in expanding the genre. When I first started publishing, comics were mostly sold in comic shops. The bookstores weren't carrying them yet and it was before graphic novels. If a publisher wanted to put out a book but you couldn't get it into a comic shop, that was a deal breaker. Librarians helped expand that. Books that weren't being sold in comic shops were being picked up by librarians and marketed to a different audience. Now girls and kids are reading them more and we're able to sell enough copies to make more things worth publishing.
How do we say what we want? It feels like we've been trying to communicate for a long time and it's taken a while for a response. What do we need to know about how the system works?
Ali: If someone gives you a perfect graphic novel today, how long does it take to run?
Calista: Something like 16 months for color, 8 months for black and white... If there's something that we decide that people need to be reading RIGHT NOW, what “right now” means is that we decide in January and it's out in September. That said, trends don't move that fast either and we're not in the business of picking up on every trend out there. One thing I have observed is the gap in the market for 5-7 year olds. There are submissions for terrific middle grade tween and YA books and the world could not be fuller of richness for them, but anything from 5-7 there's silence. I'm grateful for teen books, but there's so much less for this age group.
Dave: There's no market for it. There seems to be no publishers who want to make books for that age. In the comics industry, saying you want to make comics for kids is like saying “I don't want to sell the book.” You have to say it's for “all ages” because if you say it's for kids, bookstores won't buy it.
Calista: in the world of children's publishing, saying “all ages” is an anathema, it's poison for the book. It's much harder to sell books for all ages in the traditional publishing market.
Dave: cartoonists have a hard time working around that. What makes it hard is that the biggest success stories buck that. Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) REFUSES to say that he made the book for kids. John: This generation of the comics industry thought that comics should be sold in comic shops, of which there's only 3500, but once they started selling to libraries they realized the greater potential; there's over a million of them.
Brigid: There's almost two different cultures here; traditional comic book culture and the book culture. Comics are small and disposable and you buy them certain places and they're floppy, but I'm thinking of Tiny Titans and it's not that at all.
Dave: The comics thing is huge. We did comics for kids and we found that we had to choose titles that were already there. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the few that were successful without a TV show. Pokemon, Naruto, they're popular because they have a TV show. It was hard to make a kids comic that's an original story that nobody's heard of; you might only sell 500 copies.
Is there any possibility for large print graphic novels?:
Calista: On a practical level, there's an issue of efficiency. Comics aren't necessarily the most efficient way of telling a story, just in terms of the space they take up. There has to be some compromise to tell the story and not take 400 pages to do it. Its something we think about on the production end...
Librarians don't like to withhold anything and there's a lot of debate between which ratings are useful and which are not. What do you think of age ratings?
Ali: If publishers agreed on some form of self-censorship with someone to submit our material, that would be terrifying. It would take so much time and so long to process.
John: There doesn't need to be a label on the book because you will discourage kids, if it says 5-8 and there's a boy who's 12, he won't read it. It's hard for retailers and catalogers when buying them though, to determine who the target is for the books. The publishers need to help librarians figure out where the book belongs on the shelf so they don't get hurt later. It's important to be able to defend the book's place in its particular section at the library.
Calista: I think it's funny that publishers think they have any idea who the intended audience is. We put “adult” in the catalog but not on the books... With graphic novels, the things that are put out for teens, there's no way could be put on a screen. There's content issues in what you can show, they're very different from print publishers...
Ali: There are quantifiable measures you could take for a prose novel. Those are useful tools, but there's not an analogous tool for graphic novels. I just think that the way of taking in that information is different.
Brigid: My daughters are 14-16 and they started reading manga when they were 9, and when I saw it I thought “Manga! that's porn!” and I snatched it away. I read a lot of comics growing up, and when I started reading their manga I realized that it's the same sort of story type.
Ali: Check out http://www.mangablog.net !
Brigid: Other parents come to me about it. Other things about the ratings, kids always rate up. My kids watched PG13 when they were 10 and now they're on to R rated movies. Manga ratings are incredibly conservative and that's fine, but there's nothing there that they're not already seeing on TV. But if you take a book like Fruits Basket and one like Peach Girl and they look alike. As much as everyone hates ratings and they do have flaws in them, they're useful for parents.
Dave: Prose books have the advantage of being hard to read as opposed to comics. You can describe horrific violent illegal activity in prose, but you actually have to read it. With GN its like “There's nipples! There's a panty shot on that page!”
John: The editor is becoming more and more important. You don't want the creator to be chained to the story; the editor might ask “Is that gratuitous?” and unless they can explain why it's important, they might go back and take something out. The great thing about this format is that you can see if its dishonest or disingenuous in any way. It's more important for this format than it is for typical prose.
Calista: Eediting these books is important, especially for younger readers. There's some stuff you would imagine being an issue but things like lettering, text, how hard you want the reader to have to work to read it. It's a skill set you have to learn by screwing up again and again, which is when feedback is useful.
Dave: I don't think ratings are something the comics world is ready to deal with. Nick is coming out with an Iron Man cartoon and they wanted me to put it in the Nickelodeon magazine. Google Iron Man comic and the first thing that comes up is IM surrounded by strippers and he's doing blow in Vegas. I think SuperHero comics are drug dealers. They lure you in with Tiny Titans but they really want you to be reading Dark Knight. It's hard for kids to understand “this is YOUR Iron Man and this is OUR Iron Man. Your Batman, OUR batman.”
With age range, you said that people read up. Some pub will intentionally market things for teens or kids won't read them.
Calista: when I was at Disney, the worst thing you could do is try to do a younger version of something at the same time as an older cause you kill the older audience.
Ali: A huge factor for publishers is the great divide for age buyers. Kids readers used to want regular comics so publishers are highly motivated to make something not look like a kids book... Now there's more stuff that might straddle the line.
Dave: It's not only a censorship thing, it's a marketing thing. If comics sell 5,000 it's huge. Anything you did to cut off the audience is potentially alienating people.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Friday, May 8, 2009
State of the Comics Industry 2009
Panelists: Calista Brill (acquisitions from First Second), Brigid Alverson (Editor for Good Comics for Kids), Ali T. Kokmen (marketing manager for Random House Publishing Group), Dave Roman (associate editor at Nickelodeon Magazine), John Shableski (sales manager for Diamond Book Distributors)
What are some trends?
Web comics. Originally published for free on the web but republished in print. When titles come out in print, they have a built-in fan base. Pre-existing comics are going on the web for free. Comics formated for Kindle or Apple device (like Kindle) will charge.
How can librarians help publishers of graphic novels?
Publishers would love to get feedback from librarians on what to publish (like which web comics should go to print). Publishers are trying different models – like giving some titles for free first to get fan base.
How do librarians fit into this industry?
Librarians are part of the business focus. Calista suggests librarians create a blog for publishers to notice them. Network with publishers via trade shows and conferences. Go to comics convention. Librarians have been important to manga category. Publishers rely on independent book sellers and librarians as their “boots on the ground”. Relationships with librarians have been very close. Librarians were first to act upon opportunity to introduce the graphic novel format. Librarians understand the genre. Roman claims that the graphic novel industry is hard to break in. New audiences do not necessarily go to comics shops but rather get their comics in the library.
There is a huge demand from kids. How do publishers meet demand?
The production and planning process is slow (many years to turn out novels). Calista sees submissions for tween and YA but not for 5-7 or 6-8 year olds (huge gap). Roman claims comics shops won’t order if comics target younger set even though billed as for all ages. Calista claims publishers cannot sell graphic novels classified for all ages but rather prefers classifying by age groupings.
Roman claims that comics for younger kids will likely sell more if associated with licensed package. Pre-existing franchises sell well (like Disney). Cartoon Network is doing the groundwork. Difficult to sell a comic with original story geared to the younger set with out the licensing pre-work all ready done.
Kokmen claims that publishers take a great deal of time to classify books by age range. For kids, age rating can discourage them from picking certain books. The rating system works well for cataloguers, and acquisitions librarians. There is always the dilemma of where to place graphic novels on the shelf. Sometimes all of the novels are grouped together even though age range varies. Calista believes that publishers are doing their best relating to age grouping. Sometimes, novels are inaccuarately categorized because of images of brief sensuality or violence.
Brigid claimed that initially manga got a bad reputation as pornography because at the very beginning these types were of the first to come out of Japan. The graphics in adult titles at first glance look very similar to titles geared for a younger audience so there might be confusion.
Publishers need feedback from users – do they prefer small type or do they prefer oversized books? Roman stated that your favorite character as a kid might not be the same as the current iteration (many versions of Batman, Superman). Calista recounts that the industry has had success for graphic novels for younger readers from other countries (like from France – Tiny Titans).
Millie Gonzalez, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian, Framingham State College
What are some trends?
Web comics. Originally published for free on the web but republished in print. When titles come out in print, they have a built-in fan base. Pre-existing comics are going on the web for free. Comics formated for Kindle or Apple device (like Kindle) will charge.
How can librarians help publishers of graphic novels?
Publishers would love to get feedback from librarians on what to publish (like which web comics should go to print). Publishers are trying different models – like giving some titles for free first to get fan base.
How do librarians fit into this industry?
Librarians are part of the business focus. Calista suggests librarians create a blog for publishers to notice them. Network with publishers via trade shows and conferences. Go to comics convention. Librarians have been important to manga category. Publishers rely on independent book sellers and librarians as their “boots on the ground”. Relationships with librarians have been very close. Librarians were first to act upon opportunity to introduce the graphic novel format. Librarians understand the genre. Roman claims that the graphic novel industry is hard to break in. New audiences do not necessarily go to comics shops but rather get their comics in the library.
There is a huge demand from kids. How do publishers meet demand?
The production and planning process is slow (many years to turn out novels). Calista sees submissions for tween and YA but not for 5-7 or 6-8 year olds (huge gap). Roman claims comics shops won’t order if comics target younger set even though billed as for all ages. Calista claims publishers cannot sell graphic novels classified for all ages but rather prefers classifying by age groupings.
Roman claims that comics for younger kids will likely sell more if associated with licensed package. Pre-existing franchises sell well (like Disney). Cartoon Network is doing the groundwork. Difficult to sell a comic with original story geared to the younger set with out the licensing pre-work all ready done.
Kokmen claims that publishers take a great deal of time to classify books by age range. For kids, age rating can discourage them from picking certain books. The rating system works well for cataloguers, and acquisitions librarians. There is always the dilemma of where to place graphic novels on the shelf. Sometimes all of the novels are grouped together even though age range varies. Calista believes that publishers are doing their best relating to age grouping. Sometimes, novels are inaccuarately categorized because of images of brief sensuality or violence.
Brigid claimed that initially manga got a bad reputation as pornography because at the very beginning these types were of the first to come out of Japan. The graphics in adult titles at first glance look very similar to titles geared for a younger audience so there might be confusion.
Publishers need feedback from users – do they prefer small type or do they prefer oversized books? Roman stated that your favorite character as a kid might not be the same as the current iteration (many versions of Batman, Superman). Calista recounts that the industry has had success for graphic novels for younger readers from other countries (like from France – Tiny Titans).
Millie Gonzalez, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian, Framingham State College
Graphic Novels 101
Presentation by John Shableski, Sales Manager for Diamond Book Distributors and Robin Brenner, teen librarian – Brookline Public Library
John Shableski, who became misty-eyed when talking about how libraries have helped the comic book industry, provided a brief history of comic books and graphic novels. Robin Brenner gave him cat ears to wear for the presentation because apparently cat ears are popular in conferences and in manga culture.
Colonial Era. Ben Franklin communicates through pictures and words (i.e. “Join or Die.”)
Late 1800s Literacy in America. Mark Twain publishes: The Innocents Abroad
1895 Yellow Journalism and New Kind of Literacy. “Yellow Kid” character wore a t-shirt that featured social commentary
1920-1930 Comic Books and Superheroes. Comic strips and comic books took off; Dick Tracy emerged.
1938 Action Comics. Birth of Superman.
1940 The Cold War, Manga and the Library Bill of Rights. Sci-fi and horror comics gain momemtum while superhero comics become not as popular. Manga emerges with elements of Disney and western influence. In 1948, the Library Bill of Rights was written.
1950s The Seduction of the Innocent and the CCA. Dr. Federic Werham, who wrote the book The Seduction of the Innocent, is credited for the comic book industry’s decline. He blamed the industry as a contributing factor to juvenile delinquency. The industry counteredwith the Comics Code Authority in 1957. DC and Marvel Comics wrote the code which advocated for less violence and gore. Self serving because they were promoting their comics (i.e. superheroes rather than vampire storylines).
1960 Mad Gets Even. Stan Lee (creator of many comics like X-Men ) wrote comics when he was 19. Mad Magazine was created. Other comic emerge outside of the Marvel stable and go underground. These alternative comics sold at head shops.
1980s Great expectations. The industry rebounds with critically acclaimed Watchmen, Sandman, Maus, The Dark Knight Returns.
1990s A Collectors Paradise, Bone, Emerging Voices and the Arrival of Manga. More of an industry for collectors emerged where limited edition runs of comics with sophisticated artwork and high glossy paper dominated the landscape. Superman got killed. Manga got traction with the Internet withPokemon and Naruto helping.
2000 New Age and the Library Market. Not quite a mature industry. Comic book industry is evolving with support from libraries, popular culture. It’s finding a new audience. Web comics become popular.
Robin Brenner, teen librarian, took over the second half of the session. She wore a beautiful kimono and said that it is a customary to dress up in costumes when attending mango conferences. Her half of the session was to address basic issues concerning graphic novels encountered by librarians. Brenner organized the graphic novel track - kudos!
Graphic novels are a type of format not a genre. Within that format are various genres. In her library, graphic novels represent 45% of circulating titles within her teen collection.
To understand the relevance of comics books and graphic novels, Brenner advocates reading manga. She acknowledges that reading manga takes some time to understand the format.
Fortunately there are many venues for librarians to read reviews of graphic novels: Booklist, Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, LJ Graphic Novel Xpress Online, Good Comics for Kids (blog) on School Library Journal, and Graphic Novel Reporter. She also also reads many Internet sites because some don’t have word count restricion and also provide value.
Age ratings/age range assigned by publishers areproblematic. No standards and consistency to the way publishers assign age ranges. Contrary to western publishers, manga publishers do a better job of rating.
Brenner advocates working with cataloguers to make it easier for patrons to find books. She recommends grouping by titles and by style (i.e. manga, western). These titles you need to generally reinforce binding. These titles you can label by color to group via age range. Brenner organizes non-fiction graphic novels by Dewey call numbers.
Millie Gonzalez, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian, Framingham State College
John Shableski, who became misty-eyed when talking about how libraries have helped the comic book industry, provided a brief history of comic books and graphic novels. Robin Brenner gave him cat ears to wear for the presentation because apparently cat ears are popular in conferences and in manga culture.
Colonial Era. Ben Franklin communicates through pictures and words (i.e. “Join or Die.”)
Late 1800s Literacy in America. Mark Twain publishes: The Innocents Abroad
1895 Yellow Journalism and New Kind of Literacy. “Yellow Kid” character wore a t-shirt that featured social commentary
1920-1930 Comic Books and Superheroes. Comic strips and comic books took off; Dick Tracy emerged.
1938 Action Comics. Birth of Superman.
1940 The Cold War, Manga and the Library Bill of Rights. Sci-fi and horror comics gain momemtum while superhero comics become not as popular. Manga emerges with elements of Disney and western influence. In 1948, the Library Bill of Rights was written.
1950s The Seduction of the Innocent and the CCA. Dr. Federic Werham, who wrote the book The Seduction of the Innocent, is credited for the comic book industry’s decline. He blamed the industry as a contributing factor to juvenile delinquency. The industry counteredwith the Comics Code Authority in 1957. DC and Marvel Comics wrote the code which advocated for less violence and gore. Self serving because they were promoting their comics (i.e. superheroes rather than vampire storylines).
1960 Mad Gets Even. Stan Lee (creator of many comics like X-Men ) wrote comics when he was 19. Mad Magazine was created. Other comic emerge outside of the Marvel stable and go underground. These alternative comics sold at head shops.
1980s Great expectations. The industry rebounds with critically acclaimed Watchmen, Sandman, Maus, The Dark Knight Returns.
1990s A Collectors Paradise, Bone, Emerging Voices and the Arrival of Manga. More of an industry for collectors emerged where limited edition runs of comics with sophisticated artwork and high glossy paper dominated the landscape. Superman got killed. Manga got traction with the Internet withPokemon and Naruto helping.
2000 New Age and the Library Market. Not quite a mature industry. Comic book industry is evolving with support from libraries, popular culture. It’s finding a new audience. Web comics become popular.
Robin Brenner, teen librarian, took over the second half of the session. She wore a beautiful kimono and said that it is a customary to dress up in costumes when attending mango conferences. Her half of the session was to address basic issues concerning graphic novels encountered by librarians. Brenner organized the graphic novel track - kudos!
Graphic novels are a type of format not a genre. Within that format are various genres. In her library, graphic novels represent 45% of circulating titles within her teen collection.
To understand the relevance of comics books and graphic novels, Brenner advocates reading manga. She acknowledges that reading manga takes some time to understand the format.
Fortunately there are many venues for librarians to read reviews of graphic novels: Booklist, Library Journal, Voice of Youth Advocates, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, LJ Graphic Novel Xpress Online, Good Comics for Kids (blog) on School Library Journal, and Graphic Novel Reporter. She also also reads many Internet sites because some don’t have word count restricion and also provide value.
Age ratings/age range assigned by publishers areproblematic. No standards and consistency to the way publishers assign age ranges. Contrary to western publishers, manga publishers do a better job of rating.
Brenner advocates working with cataloguers to make it easier for patrons to find books. She recommends grouping by titles and by style (i.e. manga, western). These titles you need to generally reinforce binding. These titles you can label by color to group via age range. Brenner organizes non-fiction graphic novels by Dewey call numbers.
Millie Gonzalez, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian, Framingham State College
Get With the Program! Teaching, Programs and Hands-On Demonstrations Using Comics
Both Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) and Chris Schweizer (Crogan's Vengeance) create comics based on events in history and tell the story of the time from the point of view of a unique character; Schweizer's is a young boy and Sakai's is a samurai rabbit. Both say that they don't write for a kids market; Schweizer says he writes for an adult market and Sakai says he writes for himself. Despite this, both create comics with strong youth appeal.
The panel started with Chris Schweizer explaining how comics can help build vocabulary and reading comprehension for young readers. There is something inviting about comics that make them more attractive to kids than traditional prose. Even complex comics can be more interesting for kids to read and are less difficult to comprehend than their prose cousins, despite the advanced vocabulary and plot complexities.
On the surface, comics seem more fun, but it's a strong mode of storytelling defined by forcible exercises in logical deduction. Between two comic panels, the reader must logically conclude the events that are not seen. It's a classic example of Occam's Razor: the reader assumes the least complex and most likely explanation for things not visually presented in the story.
Schweizer noted, “I don't try to age down my vocabulary or sentence structure; I'm confident that readers will be able to discern the clues from the context.” He made the point that through the juxtaposition of words and pictures, comics have the potential to make unfamiliar words accessible due to the contest in which they are read.
Classic adventure books of 19th and 20th century, which were devoured by young boys, are shockingly complex reads today. As pleasure reads, they take a lot of conscious effort. Those same stories in the form of comic adaptations can be a staple for understanding canonical literature classics.
Schweizer's own comics highlight historical facts and showcase how various time periods relate to each other. He noted that kids often look at history as having very clear specific rights and wrongs, so his goal is to show multiple sides of different historical issues.
The best part Chris's presentation was hearing him read several pages of his comic in full voice actor mode. I think he managed to create a different voice with unique accenting for about ten different pirate characters in addition to sound effects.
In the second half of the program, Stan Sakai discussed the process of bringing historic fact into the creation of unique characters.
Sakai's early interest in comics and samurai movies led to creating his comic Usagi Yojimbo. Comics gave him a love for reading and he wanted to incorporate the two into a single art form and thus became a freelance cartoonist.
Usagi's adventures take place in 17th century Japan which is a time of turmoil in Japan and a very turbulent time in history. Sakai explained that Usagi is a character run story. One strong female character in Usagi Yojimbo, a body guard to a young lord in Japan, was based on the wife of a real historical character who, while her samurai husband was dying at her side, jumped on her horse, charged forward, and cut off the opposing general's head. Another character was inspired by a character in Japanese pop culture: a blind swordsman whose amazing sense of hearing led him to be very precise with a sword. The character in the comic is a Samurai whose strength comes from his strong sense of smell.
Stan finished his discussion with a quick comic sketch of what one attendee did on the way to the MLA conference. In the span of a few minutes, Sakai created a full paneled comic page that was clever and detailed.
Chris Schweizer's next book, Crogan's March, based on the French Foreign Legion, will be out in October. Stan Sakai's full color graphic novel, Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai will be out in November.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
The panel started with Chris Schweizer explaining how comics can help build vocabulary and reading comprehension for young readers. There is something inviting about comics that make them more attractive to kids than traditional prose. Even complex comics can be more interesting for kids to read and are less difficult to comprehend than their prose cousins, despite the advanced vocabulary and plot complexities.
On the surface, comics seem more fun, but it's a strong mode of storytelling defined by forcible exercises in logical deduction. Between two comic panels, the reader must logically conclude the events that are not seen. It's a classic example of Occam's Razor: the reader assumes the least complex and most likely explanation for things not visually presented in the story.
Schweizer noted, “I don't try to age down my vocabulary or sentence structure; I'm confident that readers will be able to discern the clues from the context.” He made the point that through the juxtaposition of words and pictures, comics have the potential to make unfamiliar words accessible due to the contest in which they are read.
Classic adventure books of 19th and 20th century, which were devoured by young boys, are shockingly complex reads today. As pleasure reads, they take a lot of conscious effort. Those same stories in the form of comic adaptations can be a staple for understanding canonical literature classics.
Schweizer's own comics highlight historical facts and showcase how various time periods relate to each other. He noted that kids often look at history as having very clear specific rights and wrongs, so his goal is to show multiple sides of different historical issues.
The best part Chris's presentation was hearing him read several pages of his comic in full voice actor mode. I think he managed to create a different voice with unique accenting for about ten different pirate characters in addition to sound effects.
In the second half of the program, Stan Sakai discussed the process of bringing historic fact into the creation of unique characters.
Sakai's early interest in comics and samurai movies led to creating his comic Usagi Yojimbo. Comics gave him a love for reading and he wanted to incorporate the two into a single art form and thus became a freelance cartoonist.
Usagi's adventures take place in 17th century Japan which is a time of turmoil in Japan and a very turbulent time in history. Sakai explained that Usagi is a character run story. One strong female character in Usagi Yojimbo, a body guard to a young lord in Japan, was based on the wife of a real historical character who, while her samurai husband was dying at her side, jumped on her horse, charged forward, and cut off the opposing general's head. Another character was inspired by a character in Japanese pop culture: a blind swordsman whose amazing sense of hearing led him to be very precise with a sword. The character in the comic is a Samurai whose strength comes from his strong sense of smell.
Stan finished his discussion with a quick comic sketch of what one attendee did on the way to the MLA conference. In the span of a few minutes, Sakai created a full paneled comic page that was clever and detailed.
Chris Schweizer's next book, Crogan's March, based on the French Foreign Legion, will be out in October. Stan Sakai's full color graphic novel, Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai will be out in November.
Rebecca Krznarich, Reference and Adult Services Librarian, Whitman Public Library
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
YSS Meeting
The meeting opened with coffee and snacks. I knew it was going to be a good one, as the brownies were excellent. It’s my experience no workshop with good food can be a bust.
The meeting started with a review of the March 10 minutes, and then went to voting for new officers. Maureen Ambrosino became vice chair. Bonnie Pierce became secretary.
A Ma teen book award and the committee is in its beginning stages and looking for public and school librarians to be on the board.
The outgoing chair, Cathy Livingstone, spoke
The incoming Chair, Sue Ellen Szymanski, spoke then. She talked about the opportunity to network and share with other youth services librarians. She spoke about school librarians and how public and school librarians have begun to formally work together and archived a lot. She spoke on the rewarding experience with being able to work with Youth Services Librarians at MLA and seen how creative the leaders in the field are. Youth Services has moved on from where it was a few years ago, and that the importance of looking to the future and being productive with kids and teens. Overall circulation in public libraries has grown, but especially in children’s areas and programming. She talked about collaborative learning and information sharing between libraries, and how to improve on that sharing. It’s all about the users, not about us after all. People are using our services in new ways, and we need to be there for them.
Gretchen Hunsberger spoke then on Reach Out and Read: Library Initiatives. This program brings new books to kids, and teaches parents the importance of reading. Listening and being read to helps language development and later on, advances skills in school. Doctors involved because it helps kids be happier and therefore healthier. The program was started 20 years ago at
The doctors also introduce families to libraries by giving books with library themes to kids. “Curious George visits the Library” by Margret and H.A Reys is one, and “Lola at the Library” by Anna McQuinn is the other. I give the Curious George one to all the small children in my life, so that’s a great choice to get kids into a library, in my not-so-humble opinion. (And George goes on a spree through a library on a book truck. Not suggested for any library, but lets be honest…how many of us have secretly wanted to book cart surf. Hands? Yeah, me too. It’s a really fun book, and it makes libraries look fun)
Many studies show a disadvantage of lower income families and learning. Professional families have children that generally learn more words and end up with higher IQ’s and lower income families have a strong disadvantage that is offset when children are read to at a young age.
The program also offers many books in bilingual languages including Vietnamese, Spanish, and many others.
They have a website at http://www.reachoutandread.org/, and much of the information on these exact statistics and the program itself can be found there.
Gareth Hinds was the keynote speaker. He is the artist of many graphic novels such as “Beowulf” and “King Lear”.
He’s going to be publishing “Merchant of Venice” very soon. This is something I’m very excited about, being a comics geek and a Shakespeare buff all in one. Two great tastes that taste great together.
He’s been drawing since childhood. He did a comic strip in the school paper in high school ( Same high school as Frank Miller of “
His first book was “Bearskin” based on a Grimms Fairy Tale. He enjoys working with fairy tales, but also wanted to work with something more familiar than some fairy tales, and more meat to it.
(Fairytales have plenty of meat if you ask me, but beside the point…..)
He printed his first Graphic novel with a Xeric Grant, the comics grant founded by Peter Laird of Ninja Turtles fame.
“Beowulf” book two, was all painted on wood for a very ancient look. I’m personally a huge fan of folks that use weird mediums for graphic novels. The look is ancient, as if we just dug this book out of the ruins of a stone fortress on the Norse shores.
He has several pieces in graphic anthologies as well, What I found most interesting about the pieces he showed us was his art, while you can see that its done by the same person, is all different in the way it feels. Some is warm and welcoming, some is awe-inspiring, and some is cold and ancient like stone. He seems very drawn to classic stories, which is a hot thing in comics right now, and a wonderful idea to bring these tales to a more visually oriented generation.
Gareth gave a nice demo on how the drawing programs he uses works, and how he sends sketches of each page to his editors to show them what he’s thinking of as he creates. He uses adobe Photoshop and several other programs for his work.
His next project is an adaptation of Jason and the Argonauts. The art is very active, and exciting. I’m looking forward to it.
He used to work on video games, working on games like “System Shock” and many Pixar game titles. He did artwork for characters and backgrounds for the games.
Some of the books he admires are “Robot Dreams”, “Maus”, “The Tale of One Bad Rat” and “Satchel Page: Striking Out Jim Crow”. He also suggested anything by Scott McCloud for kids interested in creating comics.
In answer to an audience question, he talked about comics being in print, but also web comics coming into their own and being taken more seriously. In part he notes, this is a result in part of the diversity of comics coming out, which is helping to push comics as a popular medium.
He talked about using not only “educational” graphic novels, but also any graphic Novel in a classroom/library setting for an educational purpose. He’s seen them used in many different ways.
He doesn’t see himself as a kid’s comic artist, or an adult one, but a storyteller.
His website is at www.garethhinds.com . I highly recommend anyone looking to bring more variety of graphic novels to check him out.
Getting kids to read and comics, two of my favorite things…..I have to say, the brownies were a good omen.
-Sarah "The Dyslexic Librarian" Hodge-Wetherbe, Springfield City Library
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
MLA Speaker Interviewed
Over on MangaBlog, comic book writer/illustrator Bettina Kurkoski is interviewed. You can also find a great article on Ms. Kurkoski here at Newsarama.) Why am I bringing this seemingly random bit of information up here, you might ask? Ms. Kurkoski, creator of the series My Cat Loki, is one of three comic book writers appearing on a panel on Girls + Comix on Thursday, May 3 at the Massachusetts Library Association's Annual Conference. This program on comics, "Girls + Comix: How Comics are Gaining Popularity with Women and How Librarians Can Better Serve their Audience," is one of the truly remarkable events taking place at the MLA Conference, and anyone with even a passing interest in comics needs to be there. Here is the blurb from the conference brochure:
"For decades the comics industry was seen as a "boys club," but more and more women and girls are reading, writing and creating comics. The most visible splash has been made by manga, and Tokyopop's teen audience is 75% female. There have always been women creating and behind the scenes in comics, but only recently have girls and women shown their power as readers. Join an all-star panel of comic creators, moderated by graphic novel advocate and teen librarian Robin Brenner, that will focus on connecting librarians with comics while highlighting the diverse and increasingly vital contributions of women to the industry as writers, artists, three-dimensional characters, and reader."
And who is this all-star panel of comic creators? Well, the afore-mentioned Bettina Kurkoski has become known for her Tokyopo-published series My Cat Loki. Appearing with her is Terry Moore, who began writing and drawing his award-winning comic book series, Strangers in Paradise in 1993. Since then he has produced over ninety issues of the larger than life saga of friends in Houston, Texas. It is one of the most succesful independently published books in the comics industry. Find out how Moore has become known as one of the best writers of three-dimensional female characters in comics. Rounding out the panel is one of the superstars of DC Comics. Gail Simone is a former hairdresser who has in the last five years become arguably the busiest and highest-profile female writers in comics. She has written comics exclusively for DC Comics, with such high-level titles as Justice League, Birds of Prey, Teen Titans, and their flagship titleAction Comics featuring Superman. Next up for Gail is an open-ended run on Wonder Woman.
Mark my words, this is an important panel, as anyone who reads comics will tell you. Best of all, these three panelists will be moderated by Massachusetts's own graphic novel guru, Robin Brenner. It's sure to be a fun and lively high point of the conference.
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