Canadian Comix News & Culture

   Saturday, October 11, 2008  
comicbookbin : Should Canada Have a Comic Book Industry Policy?

:: Posted by max @ 10/11/2008 08:26:00 AM
Winding down a late night I noticed Herve has entered another post on the topic of the Comics Industry here in Canada. One I agree with in general sentiment!

I'm a little surprised, as some things he's said about grant funding in his last post seemed to run kind of counter to this one politically.

I'm also a bit put off by the idea he ends on, which suggests possilby a degree of editorial influence from the state via funding that I'd have to object to fundamentally...

If we agree that Canada should have a distinctive policy for its comic book industry, then the next question is what strategy to must use to enact its policy. Should the Canadian Government and provinces be actively supporting the comic book industry through grants, loans, tax credits, or help for representation abroad? Should for example, a special push be made to create comic books for special groups like children and aboriginal Canadians? In the book world, most type of literature is supported, but material such as cookbooks and travel material are not supported to the same extent as fiction. In the film world, the government does not support pornography, reality television, and game shows. In animation, because most of the contents is geared towards children, there are stricter guidelines and requests for clear overt Canadian contents in the works. In video games, there doesn't seem to be any oversight over the contents of the products, probably because the job creation aspect is the ultimate objective of the government as opposed to the promotion of Canadian culture.

There are many genres of comic books touching very different target markets, not sound support strategy can be generated without first understanding what it is one seeks to promote. In hindsight, perhaps Canadian comic book readers should take their local industry more seriously and start asking themselves what kind of comic books they would like their fellow Canadians to create.
Hmmm, now that last bit is a bit problematic. I know where he's coming from - it's an audience oriented argument - but i think he's failing maybe to see the implications of making that kind of thinking federal policy.

But, It's hard to argue with the feeling it be nice to be taken a bit more seriously on some levels by the government. On this i can relate to what he's saying.

I think to some degree things are moving in the direction wished for already, in a very short time really comics by any name have been getting a lot more attention and credit for what they have to offer.

I'd point out that in all the National, Provincial and City level Grants [none of which were available to comics about just 5 years ago] all to at least some degree - I'm not clear just on how much - have various priority categories already. For example it won't win you a grant on it's own - the work has to be up to it competitive standards still - but for some time now in any class of Canadian Council Grant for anything; if you present work that is intended to address Native, Visible Minority, Children's and Women's issues or concerns, then that wins you points in the Judging. If you present a credible voice on the subject you fit the profile of one of the Councils' Mandates to make an efort to give special attention to those groups.

So to some degree we already live in the world he describes, though as far as I know it's not a Comics Policy per say but merely the mandate.

No argument, depending on the content of it, I'd love to see Ottawa acknowledge comics with an official independent policy.

I have to say I doubt it'll happen until we make a lot more money than we do - The culture argument he makes is good, I'd say that's a great angel and I can think of at least one creator who already is doing that for his own work - we do need to do things like that more. But as an industry I suspect we'll need to show a bit more green to carry it to the heights of a policy.

Personally my own expectations and hopes for more are tempered by reminding myself that there's a long list of other pressing issues I'd like my government to spend it's energy on before they get around to trying to pay some formal lip service to my favorite form of story telling and show they talked to the right geeks by making all the right references - So for now I'm ok to settle for counting ourselves lucky we survived the last round of cuts and shuffles at the Council, and gently remind them how much we rock by rocking. And making shure they get the memo of cource.

It would be nice to be taken as seriously as those other mediums. But having my ass kissed is not how I was taught to be a man, if you'll pardon the macho sentiment. And to some degree it's in our advantage to be underestimated at times, one of the things that's made us a powerful subversive form. I can see the lights of a strong argument along that line too.

Also frankly I'd be a bit afraid to see what kind of messages THIS government would ask us to promote abroad in exchange for it's favor. Think i'll wait till after the races, to see who it is i'd be writing my letters too.

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   Thursday, October 09, 2008  
Supposedly The State of the Canadian Comic Book Industry

:: Posted by max @ 10/09/2008 10:49:00 AM
Herve at the Bin is at it again. He's posted an OP ED style piece on 'The State of the Canadian Comic Book Industry' which merits linking to, but I feel I should post a buyer beware notice.

"I've been covering the comic book industry for years and have always found the level of professionalism and maturity of players involved lacking. Many times, I have written and said that what passes for public discourse in this industry would get all participants fired from their respective jobs, were they in any other mature industry." - Herve St-Louis
This to me this is ironic as it's not how i've found MOST of the people in the business in my 18 or so years in it, just an annoying minority.

The piece seems to be a little light on facts for the strong opinions it presents, and is rather dubious as a National Overview given it spends 939 of the 2727 word article raging on one small part of the huge loose collection of comics communities based in Toronto and attacks the city in a very predictable conservative mid west way for essentially being big and both commercially and culturally vibrant. Meanwhile he talks about not even half the other cities in the country.

Why is it that people spend so much time bitching about Toronto, while in the same stroke so often talking about no one else very much anyway? Thus themselves only talking about Toronto for so much of their time. Herve does not even tell us anything about what is happening in his own City of Calgary other than to say "...the majority of comic book readers supported American products rather than Canadian ones".

Me thinks he has something a little narrower to grind than the National state of anything, but I'm not going to waist my time speculating. I will however add a few facts and my own opinions to you perspective

One small definite mistake I'm sure of is that Montreal does not actually have a regular 'Anglo' comic jam. Rupert still hosts events from time to time, but he's bilingual, if not trilingual. I'm not sure which was his first tongue, but today he's more Alophone than Anglo if you want to get all uptight about it and put everyone in boxes or schools. Bottenberg is the son of a nice pair of German/American immigrants from out east. And while i'm sure he speaks with an accent to my near uni lingual clod hopper ears he's pretty damn comfortable chatting fast and furious in French and is thoroughly integrated into his corrner of Montreals' bilingual culture.

But then this also gets to why i find that aspect of the conversation annoying - the constant need to categorize and separate people by language - and specifically which one they spoke first, not what they speak now - seems even more subjective and discriminatory than to do so by race! [to be clear i'm not advocating for the latter but stating something about the former] And yet it's done often by politicized francophonie wanting to claim oppression or discrimination in this country - again pretty ironic if you think about it.

Some years ago when I hosted the Monthly Montreal Comix Jams what Herve wrote would have been partly true, about it being organized by an Anglo, though the events themselves were very bilingual in attendance.

But after I stopped hosting, over time the Monthly Jams shrank and are now run and attended largely by a small group of mostly francophone cartoonists who used to always sit at a table together in my day and call themselves 'the French Table'. They run the only regular comic jam in town today that I'm aware of. They seem to have fun still and the shrinking mostly has to do with the current core groups lack of interest in promoting the event beyond sending out usually a very short reminder of the event. Posting no posters or fliers that I'm aware of around any of the campuses or other locations in town that would bring in the new blood. Seems like since they stated a facebook group that's been changing a little maybe but this is very recent and remains to be seen what will come of it.

The Anglo community, along with the rest of the folks in town these days do however have many 'Drink n' Draw' get togethers, vernissages and signings. They seldom reflect linguistic community boundaries so much as genre and style, and are plentiful! I frankly cant keep up with it all.

There is the grand canard that the Doug Wrights Awards are discriminatory against Francophones. Not to mention he's writing about them and in the same breath saying the site does not recognize them, quite a trick. You have to ignore them if your going to do that i think but who am i to say. I've said all i care to about all that here already.

Another point I'd challenge him on is the degree to which comics are supported by grants in this country, which I suspect is pretty minimal. Much of it is funding for smaller publishers that are NOT economically viable without support which includes most of the French indy press here in Montreal last time I heard.

Sidebar: In the 2006 Statscan numbers, nation wide there are 109,415 who define themselves as bilingual. After that there are 6,860,990 French speakers and 18,122,780 English speakers. That's the entire national potential market in a nutshell. Anyone who knows much about marketing, publishing and the percentages involved, and how much more US and International product floods the small Canadian market, can see why so many of our cultural institutions need to be subsidized.
The Canadian publishing industry as a whole gets help from grants in this country out of market driven necessity! Without it we'd not have a Canadian publishing industry in the shadow of the US and would only be able to put out the most commercial and mainstream content exclusively.

For a few years now the council has funded graphic novels under the writing program but were talking about 4 or 5 grants at the most a year and it's reasonable to assume not all are totally successful projects in the end. Many of those works would not have been possible without the support either. As a former recipient and later juror, i think i can vouch for the fact that most of what gets funded is work generally felt to need it - in other words to merits creators who want to do something they can't just get a publisher to fund with advances or find an easy market for.

That being said it would be totally misleading to suggest our comics publishing industry is substantially supported by such funding - most of it makes it or breaks it based on the efforts and sacrifices of a few small publishing outfits and the proximity of the huge US market, for whatever that's worth these days.

On the other hand, not sure he meant to sound reductionist or just lacks the info readily found here on this site, but local Montreal Comic community - which is huge and decentralized - gets support and acknowledgment from many of the summer festivals and book fairs, not just Just for Laughs.

Pop Montreal, Fantasia, the Fringe Festival, the Jazz fest, the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival and Montreal's Salon du Livre all have hosted Comics and BD related events and activities.

I'd love to see better, more imaginative stuff going on, but that's more pie in the sky than dire need. Personally i've always thought we are perfectly located to set up an international event here, our own Angouleme one day maybe.

We are also quite aware of the Gatineau scene here, with a lot of new kids coming out of UQO each graduating year. Not the day to day blow by blow but there was quite a bit of excitement in Montreal when the programs at the university there started up. And the Rendez-vous international de la BD de Gatineau, which I'm attending this year as a guest, has been doing nicely as well.

I'm sure there's some friction between Quebec city and Montreal, but i've not heard much about it in some time - mostly that's between individuals, not the communities. And i kind of doubt it has much to do with any lack of involvement here in the Gatineau scene.

And the Toronto community - which is also huge, very diverse and decentralized - seems to me to be, from the conversation i have there, very aware of what goes on in the country that's good and worth paying attention to as well. Just as in other large cities with thriving scenes, not so many feel the need to track mediocre work when there is so much great stuff going in your own neck of the woods. But on the whole they get as excited as anyone over the things people else where are up to and have long standing romantic fascination with the Montreal scene.

Not to mention how very much movement there is here in Montreal between Halifax, Quebec City, Gatineau, Toronto and Vancouver and other points. Each city has at least some comic's community bleed over with the others. Which reminds me I owe Marc Bell a visit; he's living in Montreal again now, after spending a long stint in BC. He also used to reside in Toronto, and hails from London Ontario originally. The man is an archetypical indy Canadian cartoonist! :)

Also found it kind of funny Herve would choose of all people to present Canadian advertising guru, Terry O'Reilly as likely to argue "awards are nothing but attempts to make the public care about a product instead of using traditional advertising means" - take the nothing out and you'd be right, but O'Reilly would himself I bet point out it's a bit more multi faceted than that. They do that job, but they also help support the creators, raise the prestige of a community and the medium they celebrate, and raise awareness of specific books that the public may not even know about, let alone care about. The more elite and prestigious the Judges and selection process for the books, the more effective they are at that job. {see: I believe he implied something like this argument in it's broadest terms in Season 3, episode 16 of 'O'Reilly and the Age of Persuasion: In Defence of Advertising' 2008-04-26 }

And since when was any of that bad for the state of the comics industry?

Once more Harvey is casting things in a much more exclusively balkanized light than they really are. I feel in truth it's a much more fluid and vibrant national collection of communities and scenes, that has it's spats and chatty cathys, but on the whole tends to mind it's own business most of the time really.

That given, here's the link again, feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

I will say the closing sentiment is positive, in a way at least. I certainly hope he finds more time to cover local stuff, though i hope he'll learn to differentiate his own balkanized opinions from those of the community at large.

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   Thursday, August 14, 2008  
The Doug Wright Awards' so called 'Canadian' language controversy

:: Posted by max @ 8/14/2008 06:00:00 PM
With a charged OP ed piece by Herve St-Louis, the publisher and editor for comicbookbin.com has kicked off a pretty intense conversation over the question of whether or not The Doug Wright Awards has the "right" to call itself a Canadian award.

Tom Spurgeon has started to act as something of a neutral presenter of the issue, posting several responses to the first posting from St-Louis on The Comics Reporter. And there's alot of back and forth in the comments of PW The Beat. So far i've found the debate very interesting.

I have a problem with the tone taken at the start by St-Louis myself; I feel he was pretty wildly hyperbolic in his analogies, and presents a basically false premise. And he seems upon a little asking around, to be speculating a lot about the intentions of the DWA organizers without information. There was a small amount of communication with our own Bryan Munn informally as a DWA representative on the subject, but it seems St-Louis cut that short and ran with his story.

But from a purely rhetorical point of view, many have made some very good points on the broader subject.

Bryan, who is responsible for most of the posting here on Sequential now, is bowing out of commenting on the debate on our site as he's closely involved with the Doug Wright Awards, so I'm going to try to keep on top of this for Sequential, work schedule permitting.

I will be thinking on it and perhaps posting my own perspective more in the future but at this time a few things seem clear to me.


First I think that it's clear the DWA's present themselves as A Canadian award, not THE Canadian awards. A point made by Brad MacKay but also consistent with my impression of their promotion of the awards. St-Louis's argument seems to be build a lot on the idea that something other than this is true.

The About page's first short opening paragraph from the DWA site.

About The Doug Wright Awards

The Doug Wright Awards were established in 2005 to cast a spotlight on the range of cartoonists and comic artists working in Canada.

And, the very relevant last one...

Language of work
[SeqEd:accepted for submissions]
For the first year at least, The Wrights will only consider works that are available in English or are wordless. (French-language works that are translated into English will be eligible.)

And if testimony is required, going back to the first year of the awards, I can confirm from my own discussions with the organizers, that what Brad MacKay says in his official statement as true; That there has all along been very active discussion of how eventually to address the question of, at some point, bringing in a french language category. But that for now they lack the resources to do so. There has been no active discrimination against french creators in anyway, or a flat refusal to address the issue. Only a recognition that they are unequipped to review french language submissions at this time in a manor suited to the standards they set out for the DWA.

And far from being presented as THE Canadian comics award, they are more like A Literary Canadian Comics Award in affect. And yes we could be really precise and call them The Doug Wrights, A Literary English Language Canadian Comics Award, but frankly as precise as that would be, it would be a terrible, terrible name!

OK yes I'm being a little dramatic, but The Doug Wright English Canadian Comics Awards is truly not too much better. So it's the The Doug Wright Awards, period.

As Hervé points out; hyphenation, and over qualification is a pain in the arse.

The idea is to make the awards appealing, and interesting. Not boring and didactic.


Now It's all very fine and well to say they could make the contacts here in Quebec, associate with a local award or start a parallel operation.

But it takes two to tango, and speaking as an Anglo, living in Montreal, I have to say the French community here at least, when not too busy with their own things to be bothered, is seldom very welcoming or enthusiastic of this kind of collaboration over all. Nor do they reach out often themselves in a collaborative manner to make such things happen. It's like herding cats here on both sides of the language divide.

Maybe in Alberta where Hervé lives now, he's unaware of this. He started out here so he should know. It was true more so when he lived here!

It's true that in their own language sphere many people have done amazing things to promote local French work to an international French audience. But making the effort to promote their work to an audience that overwhelmingly won't be able to read it is never appealing to any publisher. Frankly I for one can't fault them for that.

And far from generally being ignored by English Canada, I and many Anglo's have come to Montreal thinking we would be able to connect and build bridges with the french community, only to find a wall of often disinterested backs turned on us because we speak French as poorly as many of the Quebecois speak English.

For those who are more engaged and welcoming - and there are many now - it's shrugs and a lack of interest in general. Not to say it's always cold, but I have not experienced a culture in a hurry to be embraced by it's English neighbors. They want more than not to be admired in their own language in their own region or in the EU. For those few desiring more English attention, they look south, like a lot of us here, were there are many many millions more in the audience than here. A practical issues more than not.

I would put it to Herve that this often kind of insular approach, and a love of confrontation and conflict expressed to me by many of my Francophone Montreal peers, and as exemplified by the rather inflammatory examples in his post - Is as much if not more a problem than any active bigotry in the English community...

"If the Harvey Awards, were to refuse all comic books by blacks or women, until they bleached their skin white or undergo hormone therapy to change their gender, it would be clear to everybody that their policy and the support of those awards was morally wrong"

Really? Comparing asking for translations to bleaching skin, AND forced gender reassignment. Was one over the top inaccurate analogy not enough? Hmmmmm.


Numerous times have I inquired locally in Montreal, as to why more effort is not made by French creators and publishers to translate the huge amounts of work produced here into English for the larger North American market. Or why there are so few sites promoting the Quebec community outside of the Francophone sphere.

Coverage and effort has improved, yes, far more of both things happen now than just 5 years ago. But it's been very, very slow.

And my said inquiries are more often than not responded to with shrugs and the refrain that they rather someone else do the work. They are too busy, it's as simple as that. No bigotry, no conspiracy, no surprising undercurrent of hate.

I've done my own best when I've had the time to do so to promote local work, regardless of language, as has Bryan who is I'll repeat an active member of the DWA organization.

I have tried at some length to recruit contributors for this very site to help cover the Quebec scene, as well as trying to find people on the coasts and in the mid west.

I have constantly failed to find interested parties on all counts.

Even Herve's own site spends most of it's time reporting on American, English comics. On the site's menu there is not even a way to filter the posts to view QC or Montreal stories. Just Cunuck. And I invite you to look for yourself to see how many are for French Language books....

It seems to me Herve is asking, demanding, others to confer praise for work he seldom promotes himself. No he does not call himself THE Canadian comic news site anymore than the DWA call them selves THE Canadian comic awards, but then this only furthers my point.

I can understand that there are a lot of bruised egos, as I'm always reminded when I talk to my peers here in Montreal about this sort of thing. It does not come up nearly as often as Herve's article would suggest but sure, some feel a little left out.

But I have a hard time giving too much credit to said egos, when they do so little to change the situation themselves through constructive positive actions. But rather it seems - when bothered to do anything - prefer to rant at supposed arms length about it. In this case at Provincial length, and without foundation or information speculating in an overwhelmingly demonizing way about the intentions of the 'Others' they think someone may perceive themselves slighted or ignored by.


So what do I think they should do instead?

How about this; I've not talked to anyone about this so I don't know if the will or means can be mustered, but say they do and could be. Say someone in QC, or the french community outside of QC cares about this all that much, and wants to do something.

Say maybe the Prix Bedelys have any interest in this, that they take the initiative to put together a jury and reading list for a French language award to spotlight Original French books to the rest of Canada and the English comics reading world and any French readers who may be paying attention, to be presented at The Doug Wright Awards.

They can also help raise funds locally for the prize and to pay for the trophy, and The Doug Wright Awards in turn give them the additional press and attention. The DWA orginization have the current problem of a lack of resources and means on their side addressed in this way.

Maybe as a way to make this a mutual trade - not to besmirch anyone's best intentions; but the Bédélys trophy is not, well, all that impressive. Perhaps they also might be able to persuade the Doug Wright Awards rather famous trophy builder to help them out as well?

Call it a trade for mutual benefit, and fix the problem by doing something about it, rather than making over the top and inaccurate analogies to civil rights abuses and the intentions of others you don't actually talk with before speculating on publicly.

But in the mean time, until the French Comics community is willing or wants to be bothered to take on the task of promoting their own work to the rest of the world regardless if it's Francophone or not, I think it's a little disingenuous for someone in the to cry discrimination in this manor.

A lack of means does not equate a intentional bigoted refusal.


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   Friday, April 04, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: April 3

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/04/2008 11:26:00 AM


The Top 50 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list is available here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores. Sales through comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists. This list has two parts, the top 50 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. I've added last week's ranking in parentheses, with a (-) indicating an absence from the top 50 last week --although books that were not in the top 50 last week were most likely in the top 100, with the possible exception of a few newly published hits

Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (2) Naruto 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (1) Fruits Basket 19, Natsuki Takay (Tokyopop)
3. (-) Vampire Knight 4, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
4. (3) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
5. (15) Naruto 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (4) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Toshifumi/Hiroe (Random House)
7. (30) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
8. (11) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
9. (5) Death Note 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
10. (14) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
11. (7) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
12. (6) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
13. (9) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
14. (31) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
15. (8) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
16. (13) Naruto 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
17. (10) Naruto 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (12) Death Note 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
19. (-) Dark Wraith of Shannara, Terry Brooks et al (Random House)
20. (24) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
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21. (17) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
22. (16) Fruits Basket 1, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
23. (21) Bleach, Vol. 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
24. (-) Naruto 20, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
25. (-) Naruto 19, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
26. (32) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
27. (19) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
28. (-) Yozakura Quartet , Suzuhito Yasuda/Satsuki Yamashita (Random House)
29. (18) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
30. (-) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
31. (20) Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born, Peter David (Marvel)
32. (38) Naruto 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
33. (22) Persepolis 1, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
34. (45) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
35. (27) Black Cat 13, Kentaro Yabuk (VIZ)
36. (25) Naruto 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
37. (43) Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
38. (-) Naruto 22, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
39. (-) Naruto 4, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
40. (26) Death Note 6, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
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41. (-) Naruto 23, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
42. (-) Asterix and the Falling Sky,, Uderzo (Orion)
43. (-) Bleach 2, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
44. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
45. (41) Hell Girl 1, Miyuki Eto (Random House)
46. (-) Naruto 5, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
47. (-) Essential Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
48. (-) Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
49. (39) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
50. (23) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)

The graphic version of Terry Brooks' Shannara fantasy novels, Dark Wraith of Shannara makes an impressive debut at #19. Likewise a high debut for a Canadian book that has been creeping up the All-Canadian list, Skim, at #30. See here for last week's list. The pattern that emerges from looking at these lists over a period of weeks is that certain books, especially manga series, continuously jostle with each other, sliding up and down the longer list on the strength of a new volume or a spate of purchases for the kiddies.

The BookManager List is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Todd Hignite to Charles Schulz to Dan DeCarlo to Oor Willie to Avril Lavigne duke it out and where one sale in one tiny bookstore can move a book from #999 to #200. This is also the place where you find books by Canadian creators and where our Canadian Top 25 comes from:

Sequential's All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager


1. (2) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (1) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
3. (5) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
4. (3) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
5. (25) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
6. (7) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
7. (-) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
8. (4) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
9. (-) Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe, John Bell (Dundurn)
10. (12) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Tessier/Dubois (Cumulous)
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11. (6) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
12. (8) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
13. (13) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
14. (14) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (19) Keep the Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
16. (22) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
17. (21) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (NMK/IDW)
18. (28) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
19. (-) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (-) Northwest Passage, Scott Chantler (Oni)
-----
21. (-) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
22. (-) Zombies Calling!, Faith Erins Hicks (Slave Labor)
23. (-) Middle Aged Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (9) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)
25. (10) Last Straw (1985), Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
26. (16) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
27. (17) Albert and the Others, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
28. (15) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
29. (18) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
30. (20) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)


I think Zombies Calling! is the only new new book on the list. Everything else has been off and on the list for some time. The top 4 on the All-Canadian list rank in the top 60 overall. #5 ranks at 125 overall. #8 is 360 overall. #14 is 560 overall. #22 is 800 overall. Etc.

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   Wednesday, March 26, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: March 26

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/26/2008 06:00:00 AM


The Top 50 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list is available here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores. Sales through comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists. This list has two parts, the top 50 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. I've added last week's ranking in parentheses, with a (-) indicating an absence from the top 50 last week --although books that were not in the top 50 last week were most likely in the top 100, with the possible exception of a few newly published hits

Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (-) Fruits Basket 19, Natsuki Takay (Tokyopop)
2. (1) Naruto 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
3. (21) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
4. (2) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Ken Akamatsu Toshifumi Yoshida Ikoi Hiroe (Random House)
5. (4) Death Note 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
6. (8) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
7. (17) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
8. (50) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
9. (11) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
10. (-) Naruto 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
11. (16) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
12. (-) Death Note 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
13. (5) Naruto 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
14. (10) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
15. (3) Naruto 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
16. (-) Fruits Basket 1, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
17. (28) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
18. (31) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
19. (35) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
20. (34) Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born, Peter David (Marvel)
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21. (9) Bleach, Vol. 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
22. (7) Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
23. (33) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
24. (-) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
25. (6) Naruto Vol. 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
26. (18) Death Note 6, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
27. (32) Black Cat, Vol. 13, Kentaro Yabuk (VIZ)
28. (13) Chibi Vampire 7, Kagesaki Yuna (Tokyopop)
29. (37) Death Note 8, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
30. (29) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
31. (22) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
32. (14) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
33. (19) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
34. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 1, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
35. (20) xxxHOLiC 11, Clamp (Random House)
36. (-) Death Note 9, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
37. (39) Fruits Basket 2, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
38. (15) Naruto Vol. 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
39. (38) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
40. (-) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red:Red, Hidenori Kusaka Mato (VIZ)
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41. (27) Hell Girl 1, Miyuki Eto (Random House)
42. (44) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
43. (30) Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
44. (46) Hack Gu 1, Hamazaki Tatsuya (Tokyopop)
45. (-) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
46. (-) Persepolis 2, Marjane Satrapi (Knopf)
47. (24) Wild Ones 2, Kiyo Fujiwara (VIZ)
48. (25) Maus I, Art Spiegelman (Knopf)
49. (23) Tsubasa 16: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp (Random House)
50. (43) Mamotte! Lollipop 5, Michiyo Kikuta (Random House)

Naruto and Death Note seem to be having a friendly competition for most books in the top 50.

See here for last week's list. . The pattern that emerges from looking at these lists over a period of weeks is that certain books, especially manga series, continuously jostle with each other, sliding up and down the longer list on the strength of a new volume or a spate of purchases for the kiddies.

The BookManager List is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Todd Hignite to Charles Schulz to Dan DeCarlo to Oor Willie to Avril Lavigne duke it out and where one sale in one tiny bookstore can move a book from #999 to #200. This is also the place where you find books by Canadian creators and where our Canadian Top 25 comes from:

Sequential's All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager


1. (1) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
2. (2) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
3. (3) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
4. (4) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
5. (10) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
6. (5) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
7. (15) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
8. (16) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
9. (6) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)
10. (7) Last Straw (1985), Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
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11. (17) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al (DC/Minx)
12. (-) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Tessier/Dubois (Cumulous)
13. (-) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
14. (24) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (8) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
16. (25) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
17. (27) Albert and the Others, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
18. (9) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
19. (-) Keep the Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (23) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
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21. (11) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (NMK/IDW)
22. (12) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
23. (13) Degrassi Extra Credit 3: Missing You, J Torres/Eric Kim (Pocket)
24. (14) There Goes My Baby, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. (19) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
26. (20) Degrassi Extra Credit 4, J Torres Steve Rolston (Pocket)
27. (21) What, Me Pregnant? (1991) Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
28. (18) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
29. (22) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
30. (-) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)

Multiple books in the top 30 for Chester Brown, Lynn Johnston, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Svetlana Chmakova, Darwyn Cooke, J. Torres, and Jeff Lemire!

Although a perennial favourite, Brown's I Never Liked You is the only new entry to the list that hasn't been seen there in the last 5 months. Forgivable, since it was originally published in 2004. The New Frontier franchise continues its resurgence, spurred by dvd and comic book sales, perhaps? Of the most recently published, Skim seems to be showing the fastest growth outside the #1 spot.

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   Thursday, March 20, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: March 20

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/20/2008 12:01:00 AM


The Top 50 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list is available here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores. Sales through comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists. This list has two parts, the top 50 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. I've added last week's ranking in parentheses, with a (-) indicating an absence from the top 50 last week --although books that were not in the top 50 last week were most likely in the top 100, with the possible exception of a few newly published hits

Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (1) Naruto, Vol. 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (2) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Ken Akamatsu Toshifumi Yoshida Ikoi Hiroe (Random House)
3. (4) Naruto Vol. 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
4. (3) Death Note, Vol. 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
5. (6) Naruto Vol. 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (9) Naruto Vol. 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
7. (16) Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
8. (14) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
9. (5) Bleach, Vol. 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
10. (7) Naruto Vol. 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
11. (17) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
12. (8) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
13. (18) Chibi Vampire 7, Kagesaki Yuna (Tokyopop)
14. (15) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
15. (11) Naruto Vol. 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
16. (10) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
17. (12) Naruto, Vol. 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (21) Death Note 6, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
19. (33) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
20. (-) xxxHOLiC 11, Clamp (Random House)
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21. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
22. (40) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
23. (13) Tsubasa 16: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp (Random House)
24. (23) Wild Ones 2, Kiyo Fujiwara (VIZ)
25. (-) Maus I, Art Spiegelman (Knopf)
26. (22) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
27. (-) Hell Girl 1, Miyuki Eto (Random House)
28. (19) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
29. (20) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (45) Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes, Bill Watterson (Andrews McMeel)
31. (48) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
32. (24) Black Cat, Vol. 13, Kentaro Yabuk (VIZ)
33. (31) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
34. (50) Dark Tower:The Gunslinger Born, Peter David (Marvel)
35. (-) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
36. (25) Naruto 23, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
37. (-) Death Note 8, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
38. (35) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
39. (-) Fruits Basket 2, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
40. (-) Fruits Basket 4, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
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41. (-) Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures 1, Haden Blackman, et al (Dark Horse)
42. (-) My Heavenly Hockey Club 4, Ai Morinaga (Random House)
43. (-) Mamotte! Lollipop 5, Michiyo Kikuta (Random House)
44. (39) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
45. (26) Fruits Basket 18, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
46. (28) Hack Gu 1, Hamazaki Tatsuya (Tokyopop)
47. (29) Bleach 20, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
48. (27) Naruto, Official Fanbook, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
49. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
50. (30) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)

I believe these numbers reflect part of March Break and an increase in youngsters buying more Naruto (Volume 28 has certainly spurred sales of closer volumes in the series) as well as Death Note (everyone's favourite manga about a highschool-aged mass murderer). A couple newly-published manga at 42 & 43, as well.

See here for last week's list. . The pattern that emerges from looking at these lists over a period of weeks is that certain books, especially manga series, continuously jostle with each other, sliding up and down the longer list on the strength of a new volume or a spate of purchases for the kiddies.

The BookManager List is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from Todd Hignite to Charles Schulz to Dan DeCarlo to Oor Willie to Avril Lavigne duke it out and where one sale in one tiny bookstore can move a book from #999 to #200. This is also the place where you find books by Canadian creators and where our Canadian Top 25 comes from:

Sequential's All-Canadian Top 30
from BookManager

1. (3) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
2. (1) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
3. (2) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
4. (4) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
5. (11) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
6. (24) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)
7. (23) Last Straw (1985), Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
8. (5) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
9. (6) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
10. (7) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
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11. (8) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (insomniac/IDW)
12. (-) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
13. (21) Degrassi Extra Credit 3: Missing You, J Torres/Eric Kim (Pocket)
14. (-) There Goes My Baby, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (-) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
16. (25) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
17. (10) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al (DC/Minx)
18. (9) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
19. (30) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
20. (-) Degrassi Extra Credit 4, J Torres Steve Rolston (Pocket)
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21. (-) What, Me Pregnant? (1991) Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
22. (12) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
23. (13) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
24. (14) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. (15) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
26. (16) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
27. (17) Albert and the Others, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
28. (19) Family Business, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (18) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (20) Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, ed. George A Walker (Firefly)

Canadian cartoonists, do not despair! It is the case with this list that on oany given week, a 17-year-old collection of For Better or For Worse comic strips will outsell your graphic novel. It is just a fact of the universe.

I feel safe in saying that Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier (inexplicably still available in multilpe volumes and formats) got a boost this week from the release of the dvd animated adaptation.

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   Wednesday, March 05, 2008  
2006 Canadian Census: Arts Occupations

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/05/2008 01:00:00 AM

How Many Cartoonists in Canada?

Most of the major news outlets picked up on the latest bunch of releases by Statistics Canada concerning the 2006 census. Here is a sample article, focusing on how Canada continues to be a resource-based economy and how Canadians continue to labour in service industries. I think Northrop Frye was the first to apply the biblical phrase "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to Canadians, and this census report doesn't change that designation. Whereas truck drivers used to be the largest group of working men, retail workers is now #1. Ditto for women, the largest group of whom are now cashiers. Instead of toting bales and tilling the soil, we are hefting graphic novels like Chris Butcher in the National Post photo seen here.

But, since this is a blog about comics, and not just comics retail, I thought I'd look into the actual numbers and see if there is anything else to be found about Canadians who work in what we at Sequential laughably (but lovably) call "The Comics Industry":

This StatsCan page lists all the occupations and occupation categories collected for the 2006 census (the most recent data available). Among other things, we learn that, out of 17 million working Canadians, there are 30,000 filing clerks, 29,320 mail carriers, 1,140 meteorologists, 20, 550 Web designers and developers, 279,725 nurses, 2,640 judges, 75,110 lawyers, 18,885 bricklayers, 667,990 teachers and professors, 465 grain elevator operators, and 67,310 cops!

Cartoonists aren't listed (maybe under "Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related occupations"?), but here is a rough grouping of graphic arts and related occupations:

Creative:

Authors and writers 25,020
Editors 16,210
Journalists 13,320
Translators 16,230
Painters, sculptors and other visual artists 18,340
Graphic arts technicians 7,570 in film/theatre (does this include animation?)
Graphic designers and illustrators 51,890

Related:

Desktop publishing operators and related occupations
Librarians 11,970
Conservators and curators 1,900
Archivists 2,350

(Bloggers aren't listed either.)

From my own experience, out of the 148,580 creative workers above, I estimate 1000 cartoonists and comic book artists living in Canada, of which maybe 5% make their living primarily as cartoonists (including t-shirt sales). That's about 100 per province. No idea about comics writers (that is, writers who don't draw --known as scenarists in Quebec). 50? 75?

In a related article, StasCan reports on the film post-production industry, including animation --where I expect a significant number of cartoonists labour. Revenue in the Canadian animation industry grew 14% in 2006 over 2005.

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   Wednesday, February 13, 2008  
Quebec Comics 2007

:: Posted by Bryan @ 2/13/2008 12:01:00 AM
BDQ 2006



Comics journalist and scholar Michel Viau has released his annual assessment of comics production in Quebec. Viau's Bilan BDQ 2007 (Google translation) is a summary of all comics production in Quebec, including both English and French books. The major conclusion of the report is that overall comics production, measured in books published, was down when compared to the 2006 numbers, although the trend of the last three years is one of gradual growth in the number of published titles.

Viau lists every album published (excluding zines and magazines) and includes a general discussion about genre, target audience, trends, etc. with tons of statistics.

My own rough translation of the first part of Viau's excellent overview:

In 2007, 22 Quebec publishers have issued 67 Comic books, French and English, representing a fairly marked decline compared to the year 2006, but still an increase compared to the production of the year 2005.

It must be noted that 2006 was exceptional, with the release of 86 titles, or 28% more than in 2007. However, the production of 2005, with 44 albums released, was 34% lower than that of this year. For example, if we except 2006 and its phenomenal production, the year 2007 is part of a continued 8 year increase in comics production.

Some publishers that emerged last year have been quiet this year: Fichtre! published only an autobiographical essay by Marc Tessier, while Arion (which seems to have completely ceased its activities) and Du Quebecois have no forthcoming albums scheduled. After an absence of several years, Michel D'Amours returned to comics publishing comics with a new house, Valour, which is unfortunately not very well distributed. As well, Line Arsenault continues her self-publishing.

Children's publishers (Boomerang, Quebec Amerique, Lauzier, Bayard, FouLire, Le Raton laveur and Les Intouchables) still have a finger in the BD pie. However, none of these has published a collection exclusively devoted to comics. Published albums are therefore AWOL from their catalogues.

Again this year, the bulk of production is divided between four publishers. Drawn & Quarterly, La Pasteque, mecanique generale et Presses aventure, on their own, have published 42 books, more than 62% of annual production. Of other publishers moderately active in 2007, we note Conundrum Press (5 titles) and L'Oie de Cravan (3 titles).

In 2007, 70% of comics albums published in Quebec were in French, a decline compared to previous years (75.5% in 2006 and 77% in 2005). Whereas in 2000, 83% of the albums were published in French. Although, it must be said that both Montreal Anglophone publishers, Drawn & Quarterly and Conundrum Press, have been particularly active this year with 28% of the production together. Several Francophone authors (Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet, Richard Suicide, Pascal Blanchet, and Line Gamache) have seen their works translated into English by these publishers.


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see here for last year's report

related: cbc reviews some kids' BD

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   Monday, February 04, 2008  
Canadian Book Retail Too Concentrated, Sales Level

:: Posted by Bryan @ 2/04/2008 12:05:00 AM

"Long Tail" Helps Niche Publishing, Online Sales
by Bryan Munn

The $1.59 billion Canadian book retail industry is dominated by a small number of large chains and has been experiencing flat sales, according to a new study released by Heritage Canada last week. The report, "The Book Retail Sector in Canada," is based on a study conducted between April and June, 2007. The key findings of the report can be broken down into four categories and include the concentration of book retailing into a small number of companies (most notably Chapters-Indigo, the only national bookstore chain, which owns 44% of the Canadian market); the growth of non-traditional retail outlets (online sales and Costco); the high dollar has resulted in increased book imports ("Canadian retailers can now source some books outside of Canada at lower cost"); book publishing is outstripping sales by a factor of roughly four-to-one.

These conclusions were arrived at by some dedicated number crunching, based on accessible data from publishers, Statistics Canada, and sales-tracking services like BookNet, which monitors 70% of the retail book trade.

The report, prepared by marketing company Turner-Riggs (Kiley Turner and Craig Riggs), provides detailed pictures of the book market in Canada and of consumer habits, breaking trends down by retail channel and including a look at the book market in Quebec, where two regional chains, Renaud-Bray and Quebecor's Archambault, play the same role that Chapters-Indigo does in the rest of Canada and where the Quebec government is strongly involved in funding both publishers and retailers.

In general, the report is a positive one from the point of view of the Canadian book buyer. From one perspective, Canadians are currently enjoying something of a "golden age" in terms of price, availability, and variety of books being published. Prices are more in line with those in the U.S., a variety of distribution methods and retailers vie for the opportunity to sell books, and more books in a greater number of categories are being published each year (16,000 new titles in 2006).

But these trends mask some serious underlying problems and structural dangers for both consumers and the book industry. On the one hand, the growth in online outlets and sales (Indigo's online sales increased 9% between 2006 and 2007) means an increase in price and stock transparency for both consumers and retailers, with the general result of lower prices. On the other hand, according to the report, "deep price discounts at retail tend to create pressure for additional trade discounts from publishers, which further constrain the profit margins and profitability of publishing firms." Further, online discounting "exerts pricing pressure on all retail channels; lowers the customers' perceived value of the products, especially bestsellers and new releases; results in narrower margins for suppliers, which in turn restricts their ability to invest in product development or marketing."

As well, the dominance of Chapters-Indigo in the marketplace has disturbing implications for book sales and the industry as a whole. Not only does the continued growth of Chapters continue to erode traditional retailers with specialized knowledge and a dedication to promoting Canadian authors and publishers, but the big-box trend towards deep discounting and greater economies of scale have the added effect of squeezing smaller players out of the market, reducing competition and further concentrating market share into one company. While the report does include some refutations of the standard industry wisdom on these issues, the idea that bigger stores ironically mean smaller or more homogeneous selections is a hard one to shake and the report provides an informative graph (scroll down) illustrating the decline in sales of Canadian "literary" titles through chain stores.

It is worth quoting from the report at length on the added danger inherent in the continuing price wars, especially between online vendors (Chapters, Amazon.ca and abebooks):

"Consumers quickly become conditioned to locate retail sources for discounts, and to identify what type of books discounts usually apply to—and they make their shopping decisions accordingly. There is a concern that this undermines the perceived value of books, making it less likely for consumers to buy a book, particularly a new release, at the established list price.

In the extreme sense, this concern describes a process where consumer purchases are more informed by price and less by the unique aspects of the individual book, including its literary or artistic merit. As consumer behaviour becomes more weighted by price, so does the supply chain and in particular the selection of books that are featured, or even available, within a given sales channel.

Concentration means more sales for fewer books. This discounting practice also has the effect of concentrating sales at a couple of levels—both by title and by channel. It concentrates sales by title, in that discounted bestsellers prominently featured will sell in large numbers. In contrast, books not featured in this way will be left on the shelf or simply not be available in store."

These trends, combined with the traditional hazards of book publishing in Canada (economies of scale, U.S. competition, large numbers of returns), help to paint a considerably less rosy picture of Canadian book retail. However, the report also makes reference to Chris Anderson's conception of The Long Tail, the idea that niche markets are made increasingly accessible and viable by technological growth and changes in supply-chain management. The report indicates that falling costs in these aspects of book retail may result in greater opportunities for a larger number of publishers and authors.

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see the report's Table of Contents

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   Thursday, January 24, 2008  
The "Canadianness" of Cerebus

:: Posted by Bryan @ 1/24/2008 01:26:00 AM
An interesting essay about Dave Sim by David Fiore, quoting Sim's ex-wife Deni Loubert:


So Cerebus must be clever, not powerful, in order to come out even, let alone ahead. Which is also very Canadian. A Canadian is someone who is running, just to stay where he is and feels accomplishment when he does so. He is a survivor. If he comes out ahead, it’s never for very long. This issue is is a good example of the survivor who knows all the tricks, never misses a beat or loses an opportunity. This, of course, is all hypothesis on my part. I’m not saying Dave is saying all this in Cerebus. I’m not saying he isn’t either.

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   Wednesday, January 09, 2008  
2007 in Review

:: Posted by Bryan @ 1/09/2008 12:01:00 AM
2007 in Review
by Bryan Munn

2007 was a great year to be following the world of comics and comic art. It was also frustrating. Great because there was so much going on: edition after edition of beautiful comics from young cartoonists and re-issues of classic material from the best cartoonists of days gone by. Frustrating for almost exactly the same reason: it is very hard to keep up with all that is going on in the world that can be classified as "comics" --be it comic strips, magazine and editorial cartooning, European comics, manga, graphic novels, memoirs and reportage, and everything else. I find the entire world of cartooning and the culture of comics readers and fans fascinating and some days it is all I can do to absorb a few panels and snippets of news, let alone keep up with all the comics reading I want to do. At Sequential, we try to stay on top of the Canadian dimension of comics by monitoring how comics stories are reported in the mainstream Canadian media (newspapers, tv and magazines), as well as how comics are covered in the specialized niche world of fan media, including zines, podcasts, comics news sites and blogs. By linking to these stories, and by passing along news and announcements about upcoming projects and events from individual cartoonists and publishers, we hope to help create an overall picture of the vibrant culture of comics in this country.

The picture that emerged this past year is a large and sprawling composite panorama, with very few details accurately sketched-in. Many of the 2007 entries at Sequential resemble long checklists or snapshots rather than full reports --an indication of the great variety and number of comics news stories that find their way to the net in some form or another these days. So, to help get a handle on some of the major threads, Sequential presents "The Year in Review."


Top Trends and Newsmakers

There were several major stories that were tracked at Sequential in 2007. What follows is a list if the people and trends that had the greatest impact on comics culture in Canada. Stories not included in this list, but nevertheless worth revisiting, include the trial to decide ownership of a collection of original art created by the late Ben Wicks; the evolution of fan culture in Canada, from the growth in cosplay to the big changes in the Toronto convention scene; the continued growth of the graphic novel market to the point where it seems impossible to keep up with the new GNs being published (or even to read all the reviews in the newspapers! --there were hundreds of blog posts at Sequential tagged with the graphic novel label).

One story that affected me personally was the closing of Now and Then Books, the long-running comic book shop that was an early champion of comic art and the source of a large number of my own favourite comics experiences. An important story, but not the most important.

Here are the top 6 trends and newsmakers:


1. Lynn Johnston

Lynn Johnston was the biggest cartoonist newsmaker of 2007. Other cartoonists cut big deals, published books, and had great reviews, but Johnston remained the most financially successful and popular comics artist in the country. Besides riding the top of the bestseller lists with her book collections and being among the most widely syndicated comic strip cartoonists in the WORLD, the news of the radical changes Johnston planned to implement in her strip For Better or For Worse had a thunderous impact on the world of comics. When after 26 years of producing one of the most popular international comics strips, Johnston announced her semi-retirement and the re-formatting of the strip into a "greatest hits" with new framing devices, the her fans and even general readers were alternately baffled, amazed, and saddened. In addition, her decision to wrap-up the various story threads of the strip, freezing the characters in time, had the same effect. Most notoriously, Johnston wound up the long courtship of Elizabeth and Anthony, provoking much internet discussion and criticism. Everyone had something to say about Johnston in 2007, and her professional decisions and personal life gave us much to talk about (Johnston and her husband Rod Johnston announced their separation in September). Even Dave Sim couldn't hold back the love, blessing us with a blog post on the similarities between For Better or for Worse and Cerebus.



2. Manga, or Japanese Cultural Imperialism in Canada

2007 was the year translated Japanese comics continued to rule the graphic novel bestseller charts in Canada. Spearheaded by VIZ's Naruto campaign and aided by the broadcast of several key anime series by kid-centric channels like YTV and Teletoon, manga had a huge presence in chain bookstores and comic shops. According to some sources, manga accounts for roughly two-thirds of graphic novel sales in the U.S. and Canada. The industry seems to be dominated by VIZ (distributed in Canada by Simon & Schuster), but several other publishers, most notably Tokyopop, own large chunks of the manga sales pie. Canadian publishers also joined the fray in 2007. Drawn and Quarterly had continued success with the work of Yoshihiro Tatsumi: Abandon the Old in Tokyo won a Harvey Award and more volumes are planned (D+Q also plans to publish the work of Seiichi Hayashi in 2008). As well, UDON continued to publish successful versions of several anime and video game properties in addition to launching a new line of Manwha/translated Korean comics. Demented Dragon, a relatively young start-up, has also entered the manga publishing waters.

The trend of publishing Japanese-style comics by Western cartoonists, known as "Original English Language" manga (OEL) continued to grow. Besides the manga-influenced stylings of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, Kitchener, Ontario's Svetlana Chmakova lead the pack with several new publishing deals and the continued success of her Dramacon series of graphic novels. Dramacon chronicles the romantic experiences of a group of con-goers and it is perhaps at the convention level where manga's influence in Canada is most felt: the popularity of the aforementioned cosplay, wherein young fans dress as their favourite anime and manga characters, has all but eclipsed the traditional superhero or Star Trek costume as the clothing of choice at comic book conventions across the country. The social aspect of cosplay, not to mention the huge amount of material targeted at a female audience (shoujo/yaoi), has also increased the number of young women and girls who read comics --something traditional Western comics and graphic novels have not really been able to do for years.

(see all entries with manga tag)



3. Quebec BD and translations

It seems like there were more original Canadian graphic novels published in French than ever before in 2007. According to Michel Viau, there were 86 albums published in Quebec in 2006 and I expect that number to be much larger when the results come in for 2007. At the very least, the record 10 albums published by Mecanique Generale and 6 albums published by La Pasteque represent something of a high-water mark in terms of volume, presentation, artistry, and love of comics.

In addition to the large number of wonderful-looking French-language comics published in Quebec in 2007, the year saw several prominent cartoonists receive top-notch translation treatment. Following the successful translations of Michel Rabagliati aand Guy Delisle, D+Q published Pascal Blanchet's award-winning White Rapids and the book has enjoyed brisk sales and rapturous reviews in the English press. Condundrum Press broached the translation market with its BDAng imprint, featuring editions by Line Gamache and Richard Suicide. Even France's venerable indie outfit L'Association got into the action with an (albeit non-tranlated) anthology of work by Henriette Valium.

Quebec, and especially Montreal, sometimes seem to have a more thriving scene, with a social aspect and a higher proportion of zine and art comics production than the rest of English Canada put together.



4. Webcomics

Publishing comics on the web seems to be the safest and easiest way to present comic art to the widest variety of people these days. Certainly, the number of people who surf the web is much larger than the number of people who might stumble across your minicomic, zine, or graphic novel in a comic book shop or independant bookstore. Hence, the webcomics phenomenon. For example, 2007 was the year that the Shuster Awards recognized webcomics with a separate category (Dan Kim was the winner).

Comic strips and comics books continue to migrate to the web, with several webcomics also making the transition to print in newspapers and book collections. U.S. cartoonist Nicholas Gurewitch's Perry Bible Fellowship webcomic was a bestseller as a book collection on the Chapters-Indigo and Amazon.ca graphic novel list, while Marvel Comics made a poorly-received attempt at archiving old comics online.

As well, 2007 saw a further consolidation of webcomics publishing, as cartoonists continued to move out of the wilderness of indy webcomics and the myspace/comicspace social networks for the relative collective/protective safety of umbrella sites and large syndicates. While established cartoonists like Stuart Immonen could carve out a space online for their comics work, younger artists sought out venues through larger forums like DC Comics Zuda or the Vancouver start-up Zeroes 2 Heroes. The debut of Transmission X, a collective of Toronto area cartoonists who have already established themselves in print comics and illustration (similar to the Act-I-Vate crowd in the U.S.), and the general high quality of the serialized work being produced by the collective, perhaps points the way to the future of webcomics.

(see all webcomics tags)


5. Classic Reprints

2007 also saw several reprint projects launched, exploring and celebrating the heritage of Canadian comics culture. Coming in for special attention was Laurence Hyde, a cartoonist and filmmaker who began his career in the socialist press of the 1930s. Hyde's 1950s anti-nuclear woodcut novel Southern Cross was reprinted twice: it was reprinted in full by Drawn and Quaterly and was also included in a bestselling anthology of woodcut novels edited by George Walker, Graphic Witness. In addition to the La Pasteque's reprints of the Red Ketchup series, plans are in the work to reprint several other Canadian cartoonists of the past, most notably a two volume edition dedicated to Doug Wright, due from D+Q in 2008. D+Q also forged ahead with its ongoing projects, including Moomin, the Gasoline Alley series and Clare Briggs' Oh Skinnay! (these last 2 edited by Jeet Heer).

The history of Canadian comics was also celebrated in John Bell's Invaders from the North, a colourful overview of comics in Canada, based on years of collecting and research by the dean of Canadian comics historians. As a nice coda to Bell's book, the U.S. fanzine Alter Ego reprinted the classic 1970s history, The Great Canadian Comic Books.




6. The Dollar

The Canadian and world economy were a top comics story in 2007. The value of the U.S. dollar relative to Canada's had a huge impact on prices, although U.S. book and comic publishers were slow to respond to these changes, leading to some creative merchandising on the part of booksellers and comic shop owners and complaints from readers. Several schemes were suggested by retailers and bloggers and prices are beginning to stabilize to reflect the more-or-less dollar parity that should prevail for the next half year, at least.

The U.S. economy in general is heading for a down-turn, with some predicting a recession for 2008.
The war in Iraq, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and other aspects of Empire, are some of the bigger drags on the shared Canada-U.S. economy that mean bad news for consumers in the new year. Illustration gigs, publishing deals, and book sales may suffer in the long run. The world of comics printing is already in for a change, as the ongoing Quebecor saga demonstrates.

Sequential tried to take the pulse of the changing comics retail trade in 2007 with a series of Comic Shoppe Talks and regular convention round-ups. Attempts were also made to track bestsellers. We will be interested to learn how the dollar effects the business in 2008.

(see all comics retailers tags)

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General Overview and Summary

Publishing

Graphic novel publishing in Canada continued to grow in 2007, with several new imprints entering the fray.

Established stalwart Drawn and Quarterly continued to lead the way, with a number of bestselling and award-winning graphic novels by Canadian, U.S., and international creators to its credit. Well-received volumes published by D+Q included Exit Wounds, by the Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan, Shortcomings (Adrian Tomine, USA) reprints of Moomin comic strip (Tove Jansson, Finland), and Abandon the Old in Tokyo (Tatsumi, Japan). D+Q's stable of Canadian cartoonists also had a good year: 2007 saw new books from Julie Doucet, Guy Delisle, and Pascal Blanchet. As well, Seth polished off his high-profile George Sprott serial for the New York Times.

Large Canadian publishers and distributors continue to benefit from the manga craze (but ventured into the graphic novel wilds with a few books) while new books from Cumulus Press, Pedlar Press and a host of self-publishers, zinesters, and webcomics types kept up the indie spirit.

Quebec publishers Mecanique Generale, La Pasteque, L'Oie de Cravan, and Conundrum Press issued a record number of books in 2007 (see #3 in the Top Trends list above). New work by Delisle, Blanchet, Jimmy B., Leif Tande and PhlppGrrd were some of the highlights of BDQ in 2007.

Outside the world of graphic novels, the few publishers of U.S.-style comic books in Canada were basically silent in 2007: Dreamwave continues to be a non-starter and Mr. Comics has severely curtailed it's publishing compared to 2006, with no changes to their website since August. Ditto the most recent incarnation of Captain Canuck, whose newest series seemed to just fade away in 2007.


Awards

It's a measure of the general popularity of comics that graphic novels now find themselves nominated for mainstream book prizes. In June, The Jack Chisvin Family Award in Holocaust Memoir/Literature was awarded to I Was A Child of Holocaust Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein (McClelland & Stewart). However, the majority of prizes handed out to Canadian comics and creators in 2007 came from within the comics readership and fan communities.


(all awards tags)


Passages



Several cartoonists passed away in 2007, ranging from the tragically very young to older Giants of the North. Please join with us in bidding a final fond farewell to these artists.


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For a more detailed, month-by-month chronicle of the year in comics, you could do worse than take a stroll through the Sequential archives:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December


Here's to a productive and fun comics year in 2008!
(images copyright Lynn Johnston, Svetlana Chmakova, Catherine Lepage, Cameron Stewart, Graeme MacKay, & Seth)

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   Saturday, October 13, 2007  
Developing the Comix Industry?