Tuesday, February 27, 2007  
Graphic Novels Outsell Traditional Comics Pamphlets

:: Posted by Bryan @ 2/27/2007 12:05:00 AM

At the Graphic Novel Conference held at the 2007 New York Comicon this past weekend, industry analyst and owner of the ICv2 website Milton Griepp announced that for the first time ever, graphic novel sales in the U.S and Canada have surpassed sales of the stapled comic book "pamphlet" format.

According to Griepp, sales of GNs, including manga, amounted to US$330 million in 2006, up 12% over 2005. By contrast comic book sales were US$310 million. These numbers are based on data from general bookstores as well as comics specialty shops and distributors like Diamond.

Other interesting announcements:
1. manga accounts for approximately 2/3 of GN sales dollars (US$170-200 million)
2. of the 2800 new GNs published in 2006, only about 267 (or 635, depending on how you do the math) are non-genre, non-manga books

Griepp's White Paper talk was captured as a podcast by Mangacast and Dirk Deppey has some commentary and rounds up the coverage for the Comics Journal's Journalista! blog.

While the news may not come as much of a surprise to readers of Sequential, tending to reinforce my own biases, observations and buying habits as it does, it is nontheless one of those international seismic shifts that is nice to have qualitative information about (and which we rarely report on here, alas). In Canadian terms, I suspect a goodly portion of the 267 GNs for grown-ups that sold in 2006 were published by Drawn and Quarterly (who ironically are one of the few remaining GN publishers who still dabble in periodical pamphlets). Otherwise, the only evidence I have is what I see in my rare trips away from my computer (I buy at least 1/3 of my comics online): a trip to your local bookstore or comic shoppe will probably substantiate Griepp's assertions, at least in terms of what's on offer. In my own small town, the big chain Chapters superstore has two separate 5-feet-high shelves of manga plus a Tokyopop or VIZ spinner rack, as well as about a dozen of the better-reviewed "literary" graphic novels and classic strip collections and about 30 trade paperbacks from DC and Marvel. My local independant bookstore has a 7-feet-high wall of mostly adult GNs with a dozen-or-so superhero and Neil Gaiman books (but only a few volumes of Naruto). My local tiny comics vendor has a large, packed-to-the-rafters mix but I suspect sales may be almost be equally split between manga and monthly comics floppies --who can say?
(that's a picture from the comics store, above)

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