Canadian Comix News & Culture

   Monday, August 18, 2008  
Summer Reading: Jennifer Stewart

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/18/2008 06:00:00 AM

Our next Summer Reading Survey comes from comics retailer Jennifer Stewart. Please send us your own list.

1. Name/occupation -

Jennifer Stewart, owner of The Dragon, Guelph's comic, gaming, and anime destination - www.thedragonweb.com - and its side project Comics in the Classroom. I'm also the Latin and Drama teacher at The Linden School in Toronto.

2. What is your latest project (ie, what are you hyping)?

I'm currently gearing up to promote the second year of Comics in the Classroom - a resource for teachers and school librarians looking to integrate graphic novels into their curricula or libraries. I am also putting together The Dragon's 10th Anniversary celebration, taking place this September and October. On top of that, my novel submission just went in the mail to Tor Books.

3. Please provide a list of books you have recently read or are planning to read.

On the non-comic front, I'm reading "The Naked Olympics" by Tony Perrottet, which is a great overview of the ancient Olympics. His engaging writing will appeal to anyone interested in the subject. I'll be moving on to "Understanding Roman Inscriptions" by Lawrence Keppie, as well as a number of plays in preparation for the coming school year.

In terms of comics, I'm currently reading the new volume of DMZ. I recently read "The New York Four" (brilliant writing, as always), "Waterbaby", "Apocalipstix", "Coraline GN" (beautiful work by Russell), "Tellos Colossal Vol.1", "Thor Vol.1" by Straczynski, "Superman/Batman Saga of the Super Sons" (cause I love Bob Haney!), and "Maintenance Vol.3".

I'm also looking forward to reading "The Ten Cent Plague" by David Hajdu.

4. Any upcoming events/upcoming publications? What is your next project?

Upcoming events? We've got lots! We're turning 10 after all! September 13th-14th is our annual sale, September 20th-21st is Warhammer weekend, September 27th-28th is Magic and WizKids. We finish it off on October 5th, with a signing and party in support of the Hero Initiative, with special guests, Rock Plaza Central. Also look for a 10th Anniversary poster by a noted artist. More info will be coming as we approach September, so check the website.

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   Friday, June 13, 2008  
Today: Book Expo Canada

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/13/2008 06:00:00 AM
Today and this Weekend in Toronto: Book Expo Canada

Chris Butcher has the lowdown on several comics-specific panels. Book Expo is the annual trade show run by trade show giant (and Publishers Weekly owner) Reed. For the last few years, both the U.S. and Canada shows have a large comics/graphic novel showcase, with publishers and distributors showing their wares. Kind of like a comics con, except with authors and business people in suits and no costumes (except for the odd kids' book character like Dora the Explorer).

June 12-16
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
North Building

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   Sunday, June 01, 2008  
Monday Morning Round-up:

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/01/2008 11:45:00 PM
Some Canada-centric links to recent comics-centric word groupings on the interweb. Sequential hopes to provide meatier content soon. In the meantime, does it surprise anyone that Naruto volume 29 was the bestselling comic in Canada last week?

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   Monday, May 26, 2008  
Comics vs The Real World

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/26/2008 12:01:00 AM
This Sequential contributor has been only sporadically online over the past week or so, an example of the real world winning out over comics (although while offline om the so-called real world I did manage somehow to buy and sell comics, talk to cartoonists and comics critics, and even read some comics). Thus, some of the following news tidbits may be a bit stale (but guaranteed 100% nutritious for the brain matter).

  • Real World: This news item is the perfect example of what has come to be called "not comics" --the only tangential relation to comics is that is was forwarded by ex-comics publisher David Widgington. Anyway, readers of Sequential may want to follow this story, about Canadian mining giant Barrick-Gold slapping Montreal publisher Editions Ecosociete with a nuisance lawsuit in an attempt to block publication of a book critical of corporate practices in Africa (the book links Barrick Gold Corp. to the alleged 1996 deaths of miners in Tanzania). The publication of the book, Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalite en Afrique, was delayed after the $6 million (!) lawsuit appeared, but the publisher is fighting back with a solidarity campaign and responses from the Canadian Labour Congress and press coverage.

  • Publishing: Stuart Immonen has just released CENTIFOLIA, an art book collecting sketches, strips, and finished art. I saw a copy in my local shop today and it is a handsome package.
  • Retailing: Ben Benedict talks to Brahm Wiseman of London, Ont.'s Heroes on the occasion of its grand re-opening this past Saturday.
  • Conventions: Andrew Nguyen posts the first report from this past weekend's Anime North event in in Toronto.

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   Friday, May 09, 2008  
This Weekend: Free Comic Book Day, Fredericton, NB

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/09/2008 01:54:00 AM
The flooding in New Brunswick has delayed this comic book event by one week.

Details here.

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   Thursday, April 17, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: April 17

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/17/2008 02:20:00 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. See here for last week's list. 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 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (2) Fruits Basket 19, Natsuki Takay (Tokyopop)
3. (3) Vampire Knight 4, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
4. (4) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
5. (13) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
6. (5) Naruto 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
7. (8) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
8. (7) Dark Wraith of Shannara, Terry Brooks et al (Random House)
9. (14) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
10. (9) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
-----
11. (10) Death Note 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
12. (12) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
13. (6) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
14. (47) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
15. (28) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
16. (11) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Toshifumi/Hiroe (Random House)
17. (26) Naruto 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (17) Naruto 4, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
19. (-) Death Note 5, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
20. (27) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
-----
21. (-) Simpsons Comics Dollars to Donuts, Groening et al (Harpercollins)
22. (16) Naruto 9, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
23. (35) Naruto 6, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
24. (-) Death Note 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
25. (19) Bleach 2, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
26. (23) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
27. (42) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
28. (22) Naruto 10, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
29. (20) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
30. (15) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
-----
31. (-) Hobbit Graphic Novel, Tolkien et al (Harpercollins)
32. (41) Fairy Tail 1, Hiro Mashima (Random House)
33. (40) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
34. (31) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
35. (-) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
36. (21) Persepolis 1, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
37. (25) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
38. (18) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
39. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 1, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
40. (-) Fullmetal Alchemist 2, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
-----
41. (37) High School Debut 2, Kazune Kawahara (VIZ)
42. (-) Vampire Knight 3, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
43. (-) People's History Of American Empire, Zinn/Konopacki/Buhle (Henry Holt)
44. (-) Naruto 15, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
45. (43) Naruto 20, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
46. (29) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
47. (24) Bleach 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
48. (30) Naruto 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
49. (46) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red:Red, Hidenori Kusaka Mato (VIZ)
50. (-) Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare), Ken Hoshine (Spark)

36 of the 50 are translated Japanese manga. Of the remaining 14, 5 are Canadian, 1 is French-Iranian, 1 is British, and 5 are by U.S./UK authors best known outside comics.

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.

In total, BookManager lists over 4000 graphic novels, trades, and strip collections. It is a wondrous, scary place, where everyone from David Hajdu 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) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (2) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
3. (4) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
4. (5) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
5. (3) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
6. (8) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
7. (-) Plain Janes, Rugg/Castellucci (DC/Minx)
8. (24) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
9. (6) Zombies Calling!, Faith Erins Hicks (Slave Labor)
10. (12) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
-----
11. (7) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
12. (10) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
13. (14) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
14. (15) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (27) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
16. (9) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
17. (-) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
18. (-) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
19. (-) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
20. (11) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Tessier/Dubois (Cumulous)
-----
21. (-) The New Frontier 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
22. (16) Keep the Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
23. (19) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (20) Middle Aged Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
25. (17) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
26. (21) Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe, John Bell (Dundurn)
27. (23) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
28. (25) Graphic Witness, George F Walker (Firefly)
29. (26) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (NMK/IDW)
30. (28) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)

Cecil Castellucci's Plain Janes makes a return to the list this week. I'm honestly not sure if it dropped from the list last week because I thought Castellucci was American (she is not) or if sales were just lower (honestly!). This week's curious fact: For the record, Omega Flight: Alpha to Omega by Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins would rank at #16 if it was actually created by Canadians and not just about fictional Canadian characters owned by Marvel Comics.

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   Wednesday, April 16, 2008  
Comic Shoppe Talk: Neo Tokyo, London, Ontario

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/16/2008 06:30:00 AM


This edition of Comic Shoppe Talk features Robert Chamberlain, owner-san of Neo Tokyo, The Anime Store, located in downtown London, Ontario.

As regular readers of the Sequential Bestseller List know, manga dominates comics sales in Canada. We welcome this opportunity to get a snapshot insider's view of the retail side of this phenomenon. My thanks to Neo Tokyo for taking the time to answer the standard battery of Comic Shoppe Talk questions.

Neo Tokyo is a little over 700 square feet with the space about evenly divided between manga, anime (DVD rentals & sales), and merchandise. It is located close to London's core, having opened its doors in June of 2003 expanding ever since. It left its original location (just not big enough) in Oct of 2007 and moved up the street a few blocks to double its floor space. According to Robert Chamberlain, "We continue to refine the art of packing more into a small space than we have any right to expect."

You are next door to a more traditional comic book shop, The Comic Book Collector. What is your relationship? Are you in competition?

Not at all, Neo Tokyo began as an out-growth from The Comic Book Collector with the owner, Tim Morris, and I moving into the next door store front as partners. I've since bought out Tim (very amicably) and the two stores continue to work in partnership each attracting their own circle of customers but with a great deal of cross interest. I believe this helps both shops by bringing out customers that may not make the trip to either store on their own but if they're already at one they'll explore the other.

What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers? What is the general culture of your store?

I'd say that the age range is from 10-30 with the majority in the 16-26 range. The gender breakdown would be in the 60/40 (female/male) area. The culture I try for in the store is one of a sort of club house. I try to make sure that everyone coming through the door feels like an old friend.

What do you sell more of by volume, graphic novels (including trades and manga) or monthly comic books (floppies)?

We don't actually sell any floppies. Having grown out of a more traditional comic store we never had the need to sell any. We focus entirely on manga / manhwa Japanese / Korean books with very few exceptions.



Bestsellers?

Bestselling I would say easily are Bleach and Naruto with Fullmetal Alchemist a strong contender.

What are your bestselling non-manga graphic novels?

If I were to be a purist and not consider the Korean books manga, I would say that it would have to be Banya The Explosive Delivery Man. Though the korean books still only represent a small fraction of the graphic novels I sell in a month.

The manga question.

Manga represents the future of comics in my opinion. Find a teen-ager reading a comic and odds are it is either manga or so heavily influenced by it as to be as good as. TV spreads the word of manga fairly well to younger readers but only a minority of my customers watch their anime on TV. Magazines / anthologies also seem to function primarily as an introduction but most new books are seen first via the internet.

What do you see as the major trends in retailing over the next year? The next 5 years?

I believe that manga will continue to explode and that North American retailers will have to adapt to that.


What books do you find yourself recommending the most?

Depending on the age of the person asking I find myself making personal recommendations for Eden Endless World, Claymore, Bleach, Dragon Head, Uzumaki, King of Thorn, Planetes, and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Usually the first question is what have you read that you liked?

What comic/manga would you recommend for an 8-year-old girl?

I have recommended Aria and First Adventure King for younger readers but even then I recommend someone read with them to help with more complicated visual concepts.

What comic/manga would you recommend for a 40-year-old urban professional?

Depending on taste I'd recommend Eden Endless World, Translucent, Satsuma Gishiden, Tanpenshu.

Why are you a comics retailer?

I've always been a fan of a good story in whatever format you find it. I became a comic retailer because I was in the right place at the right time to make it my job to deal in interesting stories.

What bothers you the most about the current comics industry?

I have less involvement with the 'comics industry' than most comic book stores. I don't have to deal with back issues or grading at all but any problems as far as missed deadlines and delayed books are made much worse by the fact that they start out in Japan and have to work their way through the entire machinery to make it to my shelves.

How important is the web to your business?

As far as the day to day business it isn't all that important, it is an important means of communication with my suppliers and customers (most of whom are extremely web-savvy). I hope to make it more important by breaking into online shopping cart sales to allow me to tap into and service the surrounding satellite communities in our area.

What is the comics scene like in London?

Much as I would like to see more of it and I would like to support local artists and events London hasn't, as yet, had much activity of that sort. I would very much like to see a local con happen but it needs someone who knows how to put on such an event rather than a fan, no matter how enthusiastic, without the know-how.

Neo Tokyo
787 Dundas St
London, ON
N5W 2Z6
phone: (519) 642-7862

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   Monday, April 14, 2008  
Former Etobicoke Comic Shop Burns; Body Found

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/14/2008 06:30:00 AM

Hamlet Books, a onetime comic book store that had become a repository for its packrat owner's massive accumulation of books, memorabilia, and electronic junk, burned down over the weekend. The Etobicoke store, located at 3231 Lakeshore Blvd. W, was packed so full of books and other items that it took 4 hours to extinguish what would have been a small fire if not for the floor-to-ceiling piles that hindered firefighters. The fire broke out shortly after midnight Friday. A body, believed to be the elderly male owner who lived in the basement of the apparently defunct store, was discovered on Sunday.

Tamara Shephard/Inside Toronto

Chris Doucette/Toronto Sun

Amy Fuller/Toronto Star

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   Thursday, April 10, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: April 10

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/10/2008 05:27:00 PM


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. See here for last week's list. 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 28, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
2. (2) Fruits Basket 19, Natsuki Takay (Tokyopop)
3. (3) Vampire Knight 4, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
4. (-) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
5. (5) Naruto 27, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (4) Fullmetal Alchemist 16, Hiromu Arakawa (VIZ)
7. (19) Dark Wraith of Shannara, Terry Brooks et al (Random House)
8. (30) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
9. (10) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
10. (9) Death Note 1, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
11. (6) Negima! 17: Magister Negi Magi, Toshifumi/Hiroe (Random House)
12. (7) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
13. (8) Death Note 2, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
14. (13) Death Note 4, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
15. (11) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
16. (-) Naruto 9, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
17. (39) Naruto 4, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (12) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
19. (-) Bleach 2, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
20. (21) Garfield Goes Bananas, Jim Davis (Random House)
-----
21. (33) Persepolis 1, Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
22. (-) Naruto 10, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
23. (14) Complete Persepolis, Satrapi (Knopf)
24. (23) Bleach 22, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
25. (15) Vampire Knight 2, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
26. (17) Naruto 3, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
27. (-) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
28. (20) Death Note 3, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
29. (49) One Piece 17, Eiichiro Oda (VIZ)
30. (16) Naruto 26, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
31. (-) Bleach 1, Tite Kubo (VIZ)
32. (32) Naruto 24, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
33. (18) Death Note 12, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
34. (-) Naruto 25, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
35. (-) Naruto 6, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
36. (-) Naruto 8, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
37. (-) High School Debut 2, Kazune Kawahara (VIZ)
38. (22) Fruits Basket 1, Natsuki Takaya (Tokyopop)
39. (-) Naruto 7, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
40. (26) Death Note 13, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
-----
41. (-) Fairy Tail 1, Hiro Mashima (Random House)
42. (27) Death Note 7, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
43. (24) Naruto 20, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
44. (40) Death Note 6, Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata (VIZ)
45. (46) Naruto 5, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
46. (-) Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red:Red, Hidenori Kusaka Mato (VIZ)
47. (50) Vampire Knight 1, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
48. (-) Asterix the Gaul, Goscinny/Uderzo (Orion)
49. (25) Naruto 19, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
50. (38) Naruto 22, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)

A strong debut (#4) for the latest Lynn Johnston collection, published last week. 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. (-) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
2. (3) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
3. (2) Jellaby, Kean Soo (Hyperion)
4. (1) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
5. (3) Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown (D+Q)
6. (22) Zombies Calling!, Faith Erins Hicks (Slave Labor)
7. (5) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)
8. (8) Essex County 1: Tales From the Farm, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
9. (6) The New Frontier 2 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
10. (7) Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati (D+Q)
-----
11. (10) Extraction!: a comix reportage, Tessier/Dubois (Cumulous)
12. (11) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
13. (-) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
14. (13) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
15. (14) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
16. (15) Keep the Home Fries Burning, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
17. (16) Milk Teeth, Julie Morstad (D+Q)
18. (20) Northwest Passage, Scott Chantler (Oni)
19. (21) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (23) Middle Aged Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
-----
21. (9) Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe, John Bell (Dundurn)
22. (-) Rememebering Farley, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
23. (26) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
24. (29) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
25. (-) Graphic Witness, George F Walker (Firefly)
26. (17) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (NMK/IDW)
27. (18) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
28. (19) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (-) 365 Days, Julie Doucet (D+Q)
30. (24) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)

No new entries, only the return of previous listers --with the exception of #1.

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   Wednesday, April 09, 2008  
Midweek Madness

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/09/2008 12:32:00 AM

  • Jeet Heer vs Michael Chabon: Wow, Jeet can't seem to stay out of the scraps this week. On the heels of his dust-up with Bart beaty last week, his review of David Hadju's 10 Cent Plague for Salon has drawn a lengthy rebuttal from novelist and comics fan Michael Chabon (for good measure, Beaty chimes in as well).
  • Chris Butcher posts the 20 bestselling comic books/floppies at the Beguiling from last week.
  • Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Hope Larson's new graphic novel for young adults, Chiggers.
  • Cameron Stewart is interviewed about his Transmission X webcomic, Sin Titulo, at the Digital Strips site: part 1 part 2 Stewart has just finished work on a new graphic novel for Oni, The Apocalipstix.
  • The World Press Freedom Day 10th Annual Awards Luncheon, featuring an exhibition of the winning and runner-up cartoons of the international political cartoon competition on the theme of "Re-writing History", will be held May 2nd, in Ottawa.
  • An ad for a car dealership has stirred up controversy and the ire of the Winnipeg police. (see above)

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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)
-----
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)
-----
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)
-----
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)
-----
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)
-----
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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   Monday, March 24, 2008  
In Other News:

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/24/2008 12:01:00 AM

  • The Gazette profiles Francis Desharnais, creator of the strip collection Burquette (400 Coups), the story of a teenage girl forced to wear a burka.


  • Double Jolt of Jeet: aside from writing about history and politics for a variety of publications, Jeet Heer occasionally writes about comics. This week, at the Sans Everything blog, Jeet muses about Archies' girls, Betty and Veronica, and bring Northrop Frye along for the ride. Then, Jeet reviews David Hajdu's The 10 Cent Plague for the Globe and Mail:

In 1949, E. Davie Fulton, an up-and-coming Tory MP from British Columbia, got Parliament to pass a private member's bill banning crime comics from our pristine dominion. Fulton's efforts were loudly praised by a 10-year-old Baie Comeau boy named Brian Mulroney, who delivered an award-winning speech denouncing crime comics.
  • Chris Butcher thoroughly reviews the first issue of PiQ magazine, ostensibly devoted to fans of anime, comics, manga, and video games, and includes an interview with a local OTAKU to prove a point.
  • Toronto cartoonist Jacob Blackstock was the hit of SXSW in Austin, Texas, with an application that helps users create webcomics, according to this CBC article. Bitstrips has caught the attention of the Facebook team and Wired magazine.


  • Nathalie Atkinson reviews graphic novels for kids in the Globe.


  • Quebec language police investigate D+Q over signage, website.
  • Vito Pilieci writes about Superman's 70th anniversary for Canwest News Service, thankfully omitting any "Superman is Canadian" nonsense.
  • Jian Gomeshi interviews New Yorker cartoonist S. Gross about his new book of swastika gags on the Q podcast (the interview is right off the top).

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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)
-----
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)
-----
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)
-----
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)
-----
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 19, 2008  
Comic Shoppe Talk: Lucky's, Vancouver

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/19/2008 11:55:00 AM

This week's interview subject is Gabe Wilder, owner of Lucky's Comics in Vancouver. The store is celebrating its lucky 13th year in 2008!

Lucky's is a stalwart of the arts comix scene on the West Coast, with regular gallery shows and special events featuring Canadian cartoonists. Wilder describes his store as "cozy, under 1000 sq. ft. We have a front room gallery behind the front door, a main area with books and comics on shelves and racks, and Lucky's Gallery in the back room (about 200 sq. ft). Opened in 1995, just turned 13 last month. We're located on Main Street in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver - it's truly one of the best areas of Vancouver, replete with coffee shops, local designer boutiques, antique shops, and restaurants." My thanks to Gabe for supplying the following thoughtful replies to my standard, boring questions.


What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers? What is the culture of your store?

Hard to break precisely, but here goes: probably about 20% boys ages 7 - 13, 10% girls ages 7 - 13, 25% males 18 - 35, 25% females 18 - 35, 20% parents of the boys and girls, usually 35 and older.

What do you sell more of by volume, graphic novels (including trades and manga) or monthly comic books (floppies)?

We sell vastly more graphic novels than floppies.

Do you have a store specialty or area of expertise? What makes your store unique?

We focus on work by self-publishers and independent publishers, and within those categories have a good selection of local art books and zines. We are probably somewhat unique for focusing on the aforementioned material, while also selling mainstream graphic novels (Marvel, D.C., Dark Horse), and even some fiction and non-fiction books, and children's books. Our two galleries and the amazing talent displayed in them make us unique, and make us an interesting destination by themselves. For example, right now we have original painted shoe forms from Chris Von Szombathy's FIRE AWAY, and six silkscreens from Owen Plummer's Flip Flop Prophets book (Le Dernier Cri), both in the front gallery (both here in conjunction with book launches); and in the back gallery an installation called The Game of Life, by Ryan McCormick.

What do do you sell more of by dollar value? What percentage of your business is comics? What is the state of the back-issue market?


Comics and books account for 2/3 or 3/4 of our sales. The state of the back issue market is - nil. I don't sell them in the store currently, mostly because of space considerations. It would make more sense to move that portion of the business online if I had the time and wherewithal to do so.

What are your bestselling books? How accurate is the bestseller list on your website?

Our bestselling books over the past year (I may be forgetting some here) are:

all the Bone books
Moomin vol. 1 and 2
Tintin books
I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks
Acme Novelty Library 18
Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad
Fire Away by Chris Von Sombathy
Nog a Dod, edited by Marc Bell
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Complete Persepolis
In Me Own Words, and Me Write Book, by Graham Roumieu

We sell a lot Drawn and Quarterly books, probably more than any other publisher - closely followed by Fantagraphics. The bestseller list on the site is fairly accurate, but usually reflects sales of the last couple of months, not some up to the minute stock ticker.

The manga question.

We have a small manga section - maybe this will sound strange but I have never had a huge demand for it. We try to carry some classics - Tezuka books, Lone Wolf, newer pop titles like Naruto and Shonen Jump magazine, but that's about it. I admit that I get intimidated to the point of paralysis by the sheer volume of titles available.

What do you see as the major trends in graphic novels and comics retailing over the next year? The next 5 years?

I don't know about major trends in graphic novels...I don't think it's that easy to pin down. I think the success of Bone has publishers realizing that the age 7 - 13 demographic may not be entirely lost to them, and hopefully there will be some kind of renewed focus on books for young readers. Over the next 5 years I think companies like Picturebox, Fantagraphics, and Drawn and Quarterly, who put great emphasis on high quality production and design, and consistently release creative and interesting works, will thrive and see increased demand for their products in the mass market. And not just these three companies - I think any quality work published by smaller publishers will be increasingly found and embraced by a wider audience. As far as retailing goes, it's a tough gambit, but I think stores can really help themselves by hosting events, building community, welcoming local artists and creators who want to consign books, making sure to stock kid's comics so that under 13 year olds have a reason to visit...I guess those aren't really trends...whatever. Trends - hopefully the trend in retailing is toward welcoming, cleaner and more aromatic shops...and humor, more funnybooks.

What comics do you find yourself recommending the most?

Different for different people, but...see best seller list above to start. As far as off-beat stuff with wide appeal, I like to recommend Tiempos Finales by Sam Hiti, Fuzz and Pluck by Ted Stearn, Sock Monkey comics by Tony Millionaire, Dogs and Water by Anders Nilsen, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, most of the First Second line is pretty broadly appealing to comic neophytes...Owly, Korgi, Moomin, Bone, Gon, and Usagi Yojimbo are often recommended for the younger crowd...Red Son, Kingdom Come, Therefore Repent and 1602 seem to sell well to non/new comic readers looking for a fun read.

What are your favourite comics?

Fuzz and Pluck, Tiempos Finales ... any thing by Gary Panter, Marc Bell, Big Questions, Madman, several of Fantagraphics Ignatz books, like Gipi's Wish You Were Here, Grotesque, and Ganges, Gabrielle Bell's Lucky, all Joe Sacco, David Collier, I'm probably forgetting tons of stuff ... almost forgot Zippy the Pinhead, one of my all-time faves.

What comic would you recommend for an 8-year-old girl?

Drawing Comics is Easy by Alexa Kitchen, Amelia Rules, Owly, Korgi, Archie comics (gasp!), Little Lulu. I wish there were more....


What comic would you recommend for a 40-year-old urban professional?

Most of our graphic novels from D&Q, Fantagraphics, First Second, etc...again depends on the person and what kind of genres they're into.


Why are you a comics retailer?

It's fun.

How important is the web to your business?

We use the interwebs to publicize store events through Facebook and Myspace. We've recently redesigned our website, and plan to perform more regular updates on it. Planning to expand this portion of the business ... online commerce and all that.

The dollar question.

I'm in the "it's about time" camp. We've been charging U.S. price in Canadian for at least a year, so it doesn't really affect us. I personally prefer to just see one U.S. price on the book, and let the Canadian stores work out what they want with the exchange. I'd be surprised if a store wasn't charging at par at this point on all their books...even if you're taking a bit of a loss on older books purchased before the current state of near dollar parity, they're older books, you might as well price them lower to move them. The question for stores is, at what point do you abandon the "at par" policy? What would the repercussions be if $1.00 Cdn bought $1.50 or $2.00 U.S.? Or if it went back down to the old days of $1.00 Cdn buying only 70 cents or less? Seems that if publishers want to play it safe, they should just be putting one (U.S.) price on the book. In these uncertain economic times, who can say where the U.S. dollar will be in 6 months or a year? So to answer your question, the change in the DC pricing policy reflects what Canadian consumers expect anyway, so, it's a good but obvious and necessary move.

Vancouver has a thriving comics scene and Lucky's seems to be a big part of that, with gallery shows and signings featuring local artists. How would yu characterize the scene there? Are there any local creators/zines/minicomics that you promote in store? Any upcoming events?

The "scene" here is pretty disparate in style, but incredibly friendly, welcoming, and supportive. We promote a lot of local creators/zine/minicomics/artbooks in the store...some favorites are Owen Plummer, Ben Jacques, Jo Cook's Hell Passport series, Jason McLean, Radar Friends, Laura Eveleigh, Niles Armstrong's Heavy Humans out of Portland, Cometbus, check out islandsfold.com for great books from Luke Ramsey...lots more. Upcoming launch for a book by Billy Mavreas called inside outside overlap: a boy priest and lifeform the "cat" adventure. New gallery shows in the back room every month - openings usually on the first Friday.


Lucky's Comics
3972 Main St.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V5V 3P2
www.luckys.ca
gabe@luckys.ca

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   Friday, March 14, 2008  
Weekly Bestsellers in Canada: March 13

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/14/2008 01:00:00 PM


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 and Walmart 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 25 by Canadian creators.

Top 50 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

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

Well, after skipping a week (the list vanished when my computer crashed), we're back for the March Break. The new, heavily-hyped volume of Naruto has been at #1 for two weeks now. Kean Soo has displaced Lynn Johnston as the highest ranking Canadian, at #14.

See here for last week's list. 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. 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 25
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. (5) Essex County 2: Ghost Stories, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
6. (6) Dramacon 3, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
7. (10) Skim, Marissa Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
8. (15) Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe Salgood Sam (insomniac/IDW)
9. (8) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
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10. (9) The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci et al (DC/Minx)
11. (7) Teaching is a Learning Experience!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
12. (24) Dramacon 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
13. (20) Dramacon 2, Svetlana Chmakova (Tokyopop)
14. (-) She's Turning into One of Them!, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
15. (14) White Rapids, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
16. (17) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
17. (-) Albert and the Others, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
18. (13) Never Wink at a Worried Woman, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
19. (-) Family Business, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (-) Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels, ed. George A Walker (Firefly)
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21. (-) Degrassi Extra Credit 3: Missing You, J Torres/Eric Kim (Pocket)
22. (11) Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
23. (12) Last Straw (1985), Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
24. (-) The BackBench Collection, Graham Harrop (Ronsdale)
25. (18) The New Frontier 1 (Paperback), Darwyn Cooke (DC)
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26. (19) Northwest Passage: The Annotated Collection, Scott Chantler (Oni)
27. (22) 365 Days, Julie Doucet (D+Q)
28. (21) Just One More Hug, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
29. (25) The Big 5-0, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
30. (-) The Spirit (Hardcover), Darwyn Cooke Jeph Loeb J Bone (DC)

I added another 5 this week for variety.

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   Thursday, March 13, 2008  
In Other News

:: Posted by Bryan @ 3/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
Xtra profiles Zdenky Burkhardt and Jody Jollimore, the creators of Vick Vancouver, an interactive youtube video series inspired by graphic novels like Maus.

Xtra also interviews Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, creators of the Skim graphic novel.

Publishers Weekly interviews Jeff Lemire about his Essex County trilogy of graphic novels and the importance of hockey to a cartoonist growing up near Detroit.

Johanna Draper Carlson reports on DC matching their Canadian cover price to the U.S. price. As one of her comments notes (and as Sequential noted awhile ago), this is mostly an anticlimactic move, as most Canadian retailers have been selling U.S. comic books at par since late last year.

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   Wednesday, March 12, 2008