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11 Million Reasons to Smile

 

In Chapter Nine of our book we examine the place of creators of contemporary young adult comics and wonder about the relative neglect in the area of comics studies. Specifically, in pages 101 and 102 we discuss the phenomenal success of Raina Telgemeier, who, we note, was responsible for $4.5 million worth of book sales in 2014. One problem with writing about such recent-published work is that it can become quickly out of date. If we had the opportunity to do a quick updating of the text (which is what this blog is for) we would report that in 2015, according to data compiled by BookScan and reported by Brian Hibbs, Telgemeier was responsible of an astonishing $11 million worth of book sales. Here's Hibbs:

The next four places #3-6 on the Top 20 are owned by Raina Telgemeier, with "Drama" doing 264K (it sold just 94K in 2014), "Smile" at 240k (151K in 2014), "Sisters at 219K (it was the #1 book of 2014's report... At 179K!) and vol. 1 of the newly colored "Baby Sitter's Club" pulling down 116k. Raina also takes the #12 book with another "Baby Sitter's Club" volume at 68K. That's an astounding performance, and an absolutely incredible growth in sales year-over-year.

Where is this growth coming from? Is it coming from all quarters as more and more stores realize the strength of middle-school-age-oriented graphic novels, or is it coming from big players like WalMart going big on the category? Anecdotally, "Smile" and "Sisters" are both in my own store's Top 100.

Raina has six books that chart altogether (though there are 27 entries in the full list, due to various editions and formats), and she sold 990k copies this year, for more than $11 million in sales -- almost 6.5% of all the sales of the comics report for BookScan were by Raina Telgemeier (and almost 4.25% of the dollars!) That's purely incredible (and just a little bit insane)

I might go further and say that what is "just a little bit insane" is the near total absence of scholarly discussion of Telgemeier and her work. Our chart in Chapter One shows her to be completely absent from our data sources, but GoogleScholar turns up a couple of pieces in which she is mentioned (though it still seems to lack any articles for which her work is the primary subject). Think about that: 6.5% of all comic book sales, completely ignored by scholars. 

I think clearly this will change over time. Tomorrow's undergraduates will wonder if she is kept out of comics classrooms of the future. 

True anecdote: Once per week I take my son (ten years old) and two of his friends (ten and eight) to their after school activity. The ten year old girl last week arrived with a copy of one of the Babysitters Club graphic novels, raving about it and having read about 90% of it already since having picked it up from the school library earlier that day. In the car she recapped the plot to the other two, and they finished the book and then began it again from the beginning. When I mentioned that I've met at Raina Telgemeier a few times at the Toronto Comics Art Festival there was shrieking from the backseat. I might just as well have said that I know Adele or Taylor Swift.

Both the data and the anecdote point to the same direction: these are books that connect strongly with their audience. Sadly, it's not an audience that comics studies has particularly prioritized. Hopefully that changes soon.

tags: Chapter 9, Chapter 1, Telgemeier, Book Sales
Monday 03.21.16
Posted by Bart Beaty
 

DINK Creates a Diversity Prize

In Chapter Nine of our book we discuss the ways that the prizes won by certain comics creators - notably by those who are neither male nor white - have tended to be marginalized within the economy of prestige of the comics world. It is interesting to note, therefore, a program intended specifically to combat this perception.

The inaugural DINK: Denver Independent Comic and Art Expo (to be held March 25 and 26, 2016) has launched a new comics award, the charmingly named DINKy Awards. Recognizing work in seven categories, the group is celebrating local work, works in various publishing categories, but has also chosen to award a prize in the category: Outstanding Work - Diversity. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that such a category has been used within the framework of a slate of comics prizes.

The definition of "diversity" is not spelled out on the DINK website, but some things can probably be gleaned from the five inaugural nominees:

Ikebana by Yumi Sakugawa 

The Immortal Nadia by Jamal Campbell (pictured above)

March: Book 2 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

O Human Star v1 by Blue Delliquanti

The Story of My Tits by Jennifer Hayden

Congratulations to the nominees, and to DINK itself for such a forward looking prize!

 

tags: Awards, Chapter 9, diversity, DINK
Monday 03.14.16
Posted by Bart Beaty
 

YALSA Top Ten List for 2016

The Young Adult Library Services Association (a division of the American Library Association) has released its annual Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, including the Top Ten list.

We discuss previous iterations of the YALSA list in chapter nine of the book as an example of what a comics canon that tried to include diversity (of representation and of taste) as a legitimate criterion might look like. As selection committee chair Jason Poole puts it, "We drew from a record number of nominations and ended up with a selection of quality graphic novels from all sorts of genres, perspectives, and cultures. I am especially excited to see the top ten populated with titles featuring female protagonists, reflecting a shift in the comics industry towards more equal representation of all its readers.” This concern for diversity in the young adult lists results from the influence of librarians and teachers, who bring a distinctive set of reformist professional values to their selections.

Your top ten (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova (Yen Press)
  • Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Lumberjanes Vol. 1 – 2 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Shannon Watters, illus. by Brooke Allen (Boom! Box)
  • Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 – 3 By G. Willow Wilson, illus. by Jacob Wyatt, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa and Elmo Bondoc (Marvel Comics)
  • Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (Harper Teen)
  • Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (Dial Books for Young Readers)
  • Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia (Fantagraphics)
  • A Silent Voice Vol. 1 -3 by Yoshitoki Oima (Kodansha Comics)
  • Trashed, by Derf Backderf (Abrams ComicArts)
  • The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 1 – 2 by Ryan North, illus. by Erica Henderson (Marvel Comics)

Source: ALA Member News

 

tags: Chapter 9, YALSA, Diversity, Young Adult
Thursday 01.21.16
Posted by Benjamin Woo
 
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