PW Comics Week


Strong Showing for Comics at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Comics had a significant presence at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, the premier international marketplace for book rights and licensing, with reports of strong international demand for both Japanese and non-Japanese manga, as well as for American-style graphic novels. Some of the strongest demand for U.S. comics material came from Portugal, Germany, India, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Malaysia and the U.K.

Kuo-yu Liang, sales and marketing director at Diamond Book Distribution, says DBD held nearly 100 meetings with wholesalers and retailers from around the world. "The demand for English-language manga is very strong, and the demand for American titles like Blankets and Flight is rising," says Liang.

DBD, he says, inked deals with Libris, the German distributor, that will get Diamond's publishers into Germany's Hugendubel and Thalia book chains as well as into the French Chain Fnac, and the Swiss Book Center. "In Thailand, Singapore, India and Hong Kong, retailers like Kinokuniya, Asia Books, Landmark and Page One are building or expanding lavish new English bookstores," says Liang, "and they are all devoting large amounts of space to graphic novels."

Stephen King Leads Literary
Movement at Marvel
Stephen King, Eric Jerome Dickey and David Morrell are the latest prose authors to move into writing comics. King is leading the way with a new six-issue mini-series set in his popular Dark Tower fantasy world.

U.S. Manga Publisher Go! Comi gets goin'
Go! Comi, an American manga publishing house launched earlier this year, premiered last month with four licensed shojo (girl's) comic titles; an exclusive retail deal with Borders for one series; and plans for original English-language manga.

Latest Xeric winners announced
Four winners were announced for the fall Xeric Grants, joining an illustrious list of past winners.
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A panel from You Higuri's Cantarella, a manga version of
the life of Cesare Borgia.
See all Panel Mania


Portrait of a
Kick-Ass Lady
In Quentin Tarantino's films, comic book tributes—and there are many—generally involve riffing on superheroes. In Kill Bill, David Carradine waxes analytical, lengthily, about Superman. In Reservoir Dogs, Tim Roth cites the Fantastic Four and decorates his pad with a Jack Kirby Silver Surfer poster. Tarantino even managed to squeeze in a bit of fanboyish Surfer debate in doing uncredited script doctoring on Crimson Tide.

Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years Volume 1
JOE KUBERT. Dark Horse Books, $49.95
(200p) ISBN 1-59307-404-2

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan of the Apes first appeared in prose form in 1912, launching a publishing and film empire. Tarzan comics have been published since 1929, and while the jungle lord’s adventures have been illustrated by several legendary artists, perhaps none resonates as powerfully with comics readers as Kubert (Yossel, Sgt. Rock). Long a Tarzan fan himself, Kubert leapt at the chance to delineate the series in 1972 while working at DC Comics, and the results are simply stunning. Based on Burroughs’s first Tarzan novel and a subsequent collection of short stories, this vibrantly colorful edition thrusts readers headfirst into a lush jungle setting in which danger lurks behind each tree, and the only law is that of the wild. Tarzan’s world is a violent and unforgiving one, a point savagely driven home on every page as the narrative retells the hero’s origins and rise to power as the uncontested master of his domain. This is grandly entertaining stuff for both old and new readers alike; a cornucopia of excitement that has not aged a day, collected in an edition that can be reread and savored for years to come. (Nov.)

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A Literary Hawaiian Punch
R. Kikuo Johnson is the art-comics rookie of the year. His debut graphic novel, Night Fisher, (Fantagraphics) is a semiautobiographical coming-of-age story about a teenage boy in Maui falling in with small-time crooks and trying to figure out his future. Johnson, who is trained as a landscape painter, worked on the novel for years, and he's already trying to grow beyond its style.


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November 2, 2005
  • 676 Apparitions Of Killoffer (Typocrat)
  • Bobobo Bo Bo-Bo (Viz)
  • Smax SC (DC/ABC)
  • 99 Ways To Tell A Story: Exercises In Style (Penguin)
  • Amazing Adventures from Zooms Academy (Random House)
  • Angel Diary Vol 1 (Ice Kunion)
  • Chosen (Dark Horse)
  • Day of Vengeance (DC)
  • Earthian Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
  • Jet Pack Pets (Amaze Ink/SLG)
  • Marvel Nemesis Imperfects (Marvel)
  • The OMAC Project (DC)
  • Young Avengers Vol 1 Sidekicks (Marvel)






"You know you are really famous the day you discover you have become a comic character."



—Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, on the release of his comic book biography.

PW Comics Week
Editor: Calvin Reid
Contributing Editors: Heidi MacDonald and Douglas Wolk
     pwcomicsweek@reedbusiness.com
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