Graphic novel sales are booming to the tune of $330 million in 2006, a 12% increase over 2005, according to Milton Griepp, who presented his annual white paper on the state of the graphic novel market to kick off the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference yesterday.
The market has quadrupled since 2001, according to Griepp, driven by the continuing manga explosion and also the strength of the backlist in American genre comics, as well as new material with wide appeal such as Fun Home and the comics adaptation of The 9/11 Commission Report. The number of graphic novels released in 2006 was up from the previous year, with some 2,785 titles released, compared to 2,477 in 2005. Sales are growing fastest in large bookstore chains, with comics periodicals remaining the dominant format in comics specialty shops. However, Griepp said he thought that in 2005 graphic novel sales passed periodicals as "the most popular format for experiencing comics entertainment."
Sales of comics periodicals in 2006 was about $310 million. Including both formats, Griepp estimated the size of the graphic novel market at $640 million, up from $565 million in 2005.
One of the drivers for the category's growth continues to be the increase in female readers, both through such exotic genres as yaoi and more traditional subjects with proven female appeal now available in comics, including memoirs such as Persepolis, Cancer Vixen and Mom's Cancer. Critical acclaim and awards are also growing the audience, Griepp said.
Griepp said he foresees continuing growth for the category in 2007, with bestselling prose authors such as Stephen King and Laurell K. Hamilton entering the field, and film, TV and video game tie-ins also making a mark.
Later in the day a panel of buyers from various channels provided another snapshot of a healthy and growing industry, including comics retailers Chris Butcher and Chris Powell, Diamond's Bill Schanes, B&N's Jim Killen, Baker and Taylor's Regina Kanicki, and Ed Masessa, a buyer for the Scholastic Book Fairs, which reach some 57 million children a year via 110,000 book fairs held in schools.
Overall trends included strong sales for yaoi in specialty bookstores, where retailers can handle the rather delicate nature of selling what is essentially gay romance/porn to younger female readers. While Butcher reported great success for the genre in Toronto's liberal store The Beguiling, Powell's store, which serves a more conservative consumer base, and Killen have to approach the category more gingerly.
Killen confirmed that nonfiction and memoirs sold well in 2006, with the usual suspects like Persepolis mentioned. "These books have a huge resonance for females. In the same way there was an explosion in manga six or seven years ago, fueled by Sailor Moon and shojo titles, we're seeing this category spread into the mainstream."
The panel noted that "all-ages" comics that are truly aimed at younger readers have the greatest potential for growth. Nevertheless, Masessa said, from his vantage point, selling the books to younger readers wasn't always practical because of the price point. "At that age parents don't want to spend $10 on a 'comic book,' " he said. Jeff Smith's Bone from Scholastic and Disney's W.I.T.C.H. and Kingdom Hearts were repeatedly mentioned as the stars in this category.
