The founder and creative and editorial director of First Second talked with PW about his graphic novel house's new adult imprint, touching on everything from its early beginnings to its exciting first list.
What is the origin of 23rd Street Books? Why did you decide you needed an imprint for adult graphic novels?
You could say the origin of 23rd Street Books is First Second Books.
First Second set out in 2006 to create a home for new voices in graphic novels. Our offices back then were in Manhattan's beloved Flatiron Building, the point of which is on 23rd Street, right where Broadway and Fifth Avenue cross. The added beauty of the name is that it complements and extends First Second—the visual for First Second is :01, so naturally what comes next? 23! I do love numbers. They're words and images all at once—like comics.
As for why we needed an imprint for adult graphic novels: so we could dedicate a team and resources to publishing for adult audiences, having learned that the adult markets are quite different from those for children and young readers.
When First Second originally launched, it published adult graphic novels. How were they received and how did your adult GN program evolve over time?
Yes! We've been publishing adult since the beginning! Our very first year in stores ranged from young readers (Sardine in Outer Space) to teen (American Born Chinese) and adult (Fate of the Artist) . . . and with only a few titles to show, it seemed almost too eclectic and a bit all over the map. But we kept going, and over time it became clear that First Second explored a huge range, but it all hangs in certain broad avenues. Some of our adult titles were hits. Early on, Emmanuel Guibert's The Photographer popped in the media. He was even a guest on Rachel Maddow at the time. One of First Second's biggest adult hits is the runaway success The Adventure Zone series, by the brilliant McElroys and artist Carey Pietsch. But we also found that some of our adult titles would get excellent reviews but struggle to reach the kind of sales we came to expect in kids and YA. So over the years, successfully publishing adult graphic novels became a challenge: how do we crack that nut?
Comics for kids, MG, and YA have become a huge part of the market. Why do you think adult GNs have had more challenges finding an audience?
When we started in the mid-2000s, those young readers markets for graphic novels were almost nonexistent. The manga explosion was hitting one of its peaks, and that helped usher in a great gender balance in comics readers. That certainly contributed to making First Second possible.
Alongside Graphix and other houses, First Second helped shape this new landscape, which would not have been possible without the support of librarians—especially the teen librarians, the great champions of comics literacy. So you see where we are now, with a thriving creative explosion and a whole generation of readers raised on amazing graphic novels no one could have foreseen. So the libraries, and also the high level of children's publishing, and the added accessibility of manga and visual reading of all kinds, plus other factors—let's not forget, first of all the creators, whose inspired creativity actually propels this whole industry—all that made a perfect storm for a new kind of young readers graphic novel to claim its place as part of a well-rounded reading diet.
So what about adult? Well, there are successful adult graphic novels, to be sure. Many of them came before this renaissance of comics for kids. But the advocates are different. The selling channels are different. The awards, the reviews, the media coverage are all different. It's a different game. There are existing markets of course, but I believe, like for young GNs in the 2000s, it's largely waiting to be shaped. To be only thinking of grabbing market share is shortsighted. Market creation is part of this.
The World Citizen line of nonfiction graphic novels covered a lot of very complex topics like free speech and democracy itself. Why do you think comics have been so successful at approaching these topics, and how will 23rd Street approach nonfiction?
The World Citizen Comics as a line is a very deliberate use of comics as a tool. There's actually a long history of graphic nonfiction, and for good reason. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, one of the genius groundbreakers in this area, unpacked the mechanics for conveying dense information in a genuinely delightful reading experience, thereby enhancing retention, perception, and engagement.
So you look at First Second's Science Comics series, and the History Comics series: they are truly jam-packed with advanced content—in many cases, more advanced than MG prose equivalents—and a wide range of ages is happily absorbing and integrating that content. I know of teachers using these from young middle school to upper high school. Because, for all our talk of kids and teens and adults, comics blur age categories more than almost any other format.
We eventually took this idea to civics, with the World Citizen Comics project. How to publish—as fast as we can, given the rise of autocracy in our world—a bookshelf of core civics foundations in a way that makes the best use of the graphic novel form, unapologetically aimed at empowering citizens of today and tomorrow. Some of these are very U.S. centric, like Born in the USA about immigration; some are more global in scope, like Re-Constitutions, about nations' constitutions worldwide; some are focused on a very specific amendment, such as the First, in Free Speech Handbook; while others tackle key skills in the citizen toolkit—stay tuned for a fantastic entry coming soon, called For the Sake of Argument, a hilarious and brilliant GN on debating and public speaking. And many others, when put together, can be the bookshelf to save democracy or, barring that, to build it anew someday.
23rd Street will include World Citizen in its catalog, but we also have several truly astonishing new nonfiction projects, right out the gate. The Giant by Youssef Daoudi is a monumental graphic novel about Orson Welles. The artistry and the deep dive not just into the life and works but into the mind of this giant is on the scale of its subject. From unparalleled success to spectacular failure, Orson Welles is a story of genius and madness and art and business.
Soon after that, in a very different style and approach, Lucas Wars is a biography of George Lucas during the making of the original 1977 Star Wars, by Laurent Hopman and Renaud Roche. It's juicy and fascinating, and it's a glorious underdog story worthy of Rocky! Also, the comics artistry here is a delight. Where sometimes biopics tend toward a kind of wooden realism, Roche manages to capture the likenesses of all these famous players in a kinetic, dynamic, super-expressive style. It's a joy to read.
There are plenty more in the works, all different and innovative. The great Kasia Babis delivers a superb memoir in Breadcrumbs, about her growing up in post-Soviet Poland. It's deeply relatable, revealing, and real, and Kasia's first solo graphic novel will cement her as one of the great voices of this generation.
Okay, I'm stopping here, or I'm going to write pages about what comes after these, like Ben Hatke's genius travelogue or Sander Funneman's revelatory research of electro-magnetism in Electric Life... Must. Stop. Here.
Who are some of the authors you are most excited to be working with for this line?
See previous paragraphs! But also: Jesse Lonergan. Gene Yang. Olivie Blake. Paul Pope. Mia Jay Boulton and Laurel Boulton. Damon Wayans Jr.
Some of the First Second backlist will be moving to 23rd Street. What are some of the highlights from those older titles?
The aforementioned Adventure Zone series will migrate to 23rd Street, just in time for a highly awaited new volume on the horizon! There are many others, like Jim Ottaviani's essential 20th Century physicists trilogy Feynman/Einstein/Hawking. And also some recent adult titles like Jordan Mechner's Replay, E.M. Carroll's A Guest in the House, and Accidental Czar by Andrew Weiss and Brian Brown.
How will you approach marketing 23rd Street books?
The short answer: afresh. It's a whole new project. Luckily, we have a new and essential member of our team: Aliya Burke. Aliya is our new brand and PR manager, already working hand-in-glove with our existing marketing and publicity team. She brings dazzling creativity to promoting :01 and 23rd Street as twin brands, in different avenues. Watch this space—all spaces—for news.
Why do you think readers are ready now for 23rd Street Books?
Readers are ready for 23rd Street because creators are excited to share fresh, compelling stories, young readers have grown up and are seeking new narratives, and the world is craving uplifting, thought-provoking content—you won’t want to miss what’s coming next!
