Back in 2005—when young Gen Z readers were in elementary school—Scholastic inaugurated its Graphix imprint. Twenty years later, shelves for tweens and teens are brimming with comics by creators such as Dog Man author Dav Pilkey, whose longtime editor is Graphix VP and publisher-at-large Ken Geist; Amulet author Kazu Kibuishi; and Heartstopper author Alice Oseman. Plenty of comics imprints at other houses have gotten in on the action, from First Second to Random House Graphic and Abrams Fanfare.
“Graphix wasn’t a shoo-in” two decades ago, says VP and publisher David Saylor, who cofounded the imprint with editorial colleagues Janna Morishima and Sheila Keenan. They placed their faith in the crossover appeal of Jeff Smith’s fantasy adventure series Bone and rolled out a nine-book set of full-color comics. “There was no space for middle grade graphic novels in the children’s book section, and people thought, Should we put this with the Peanuts collections? It was a pivotal moment when Barnes & Noble put Bone with the middle grade books, so kids could find it there.”
Morishima and Keenan left the company for other industry roles, and editorial director Cassandra Pelham Fulton and VP, creative director Phil Falco joined Saylor for the long haul. They found an attention-getter in Raina Telgemeier’s Smile (2010), which dispelled prejudices against girls as comics readers and creators. Telgemeier has become a powerhouse at Graphix; her latest book, The Cartoonists Club, co-created with Scott McCloud, is out now.
Another middle grade revolution got under way in 2006 when Graphix adapted Ann M. Martin’s wildly popular 1980s and ’90s Baby-Sitters Club series as graphic novels for a new generation. In 2019, Graphix launched another series, this time adapting Martin’s Baby-Sitters Little Sister books; the 10th and newest BSLS book is Karen’s Prize, illustrated by Shauna Grant (out now). These successful reboots inspired prose-to-comics adaptations of K.A. Applegate’s Animorphs and Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire, as well as Alan Gratz’s Refugee: The Graphic Novel, illustrated by Syd Fini (Oct.).
Seamless collaborations and secret codes
Graphix titles are a mix of solo-authored “creator-driven” work and team efforts, Saylor says. “When someone is writing and drawing their own book, it’s their own world, a singular vision,” as in Gale Galligan’s Fresh Start or Zachary Sterling’s Filipino family story Mabuhay! But Graphix also welcomes collaborations like Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter’s Winging It (Oct.) or Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza’s Pizza Face (out now). “We’re hoping all our books feel like seamless collaborations,” Saylor adds.
Considering the size and scope of the Graphix list, the editorial and design team remains pretty lean. In addition to Saylor, Fulton, and Falco, the inner circle comprises four editors and three senior designers, and they’re always looking for the next big thing.
Executive editor Emily Clement is spearheading Graphix’s manga program, pitching traditional and Western-style manga to middle readers. The imprint tested the waters with Unico: Awakening and is betting on Unico: Hunted (July), based on Osamu Tezuka’s unicorn manga, written by Samuel Sattin and illustrated by Gurihiru. This spring, Graphix published Mai Matsuda’s Hikaru in the Light! and Yoshino Koyoka and TriF’s Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms, two series from Japan.
While the Unico books read Western style, as Tezuka intended, Hikaru and Mecha-Ude follow Japanese reading conventions, with panels from right to left and back to front. “When you’re reading traditional manga, it’s like a secret code” for an English speaker, Saylor says. “One reason I think kids gravitate to it is that their parents aren’t reading it. Educators haven’t found the style to be a barrier—kids figure it out quickly.”
He foresees adventurous readers creating comics too. “So many creators grew up reading Bone and Smile and the Amulet books,” Saylor explains. That didn’t happen by chance: “It took time and effort and marketing. And now there’s a robust area of graphic novels for kids that didn’t exist 20 years ago.”
