NBM: Wary Book Trade Optimist

Graphic novel publishing house NBM has been in business since 1976, and its publisher, Terry Nantier, is guardedly optimistic about the current boom in graphic novel sales.

NBM sells some 200,000 books a year across its whole list and has six employees. Nantier credits the creation of graphic novel sections in bookstores as being the major factor in the current upswing. Over the years, Nantier and NBM have thrived by offering a diverse line in all genres, in particular offering English translations of the best European comic artists to American audiences, very often for the first time.

There's more to come. This month brings the release of French sensation Christophe Blain's Isaac the Pirate, a literary seafaring story, and there are plans afoot to bring more work by another acclaimed French comics author, Lewis Trondheim (including graphic novel versions of Dungeon in 2004), to these shores as well.

With an eye on the enormous popularity of manga, NBM will begin publishing Lea Hernandez, who Nantier credits both as a rare American manga artist and one of the very first to publish her work in the now explosively popular 5"×7" manga format. Her upcoming December release, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie, is the first of a continuing manga series designed for ages 16 and up.

Hernandez's work is known for its sharp characterization and intricate plots, which Nantier hopes will help separate it from the rest of the burgeoning genre. NBM is shipping more than 6,000 copies initially, and it's a substantial departure for the publisher in terms of its market and audience.

Also successful and occupying its own niche in the market is Richard Moore's Boneyard series of graphic novels, now on its second volume. A deadpan spoof of horror comics, Boneyard has a cult following of devoted fans and does extremely well in comics shops, with over 6,000 copies of the first volume in print. And NBM also continues its relationship with critically acclaimed comics artist P. Craig Russell, whose second volume of literate adaptations of famous opera stories is about to be published, Nantier notes.

Nantier plans to keep looking to expand NBM's audience: "Comics are a mass medium. We need to return to that."

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