Hibbs gets the Bookscan numbers every year. He's the one who does the breakdown of the book market for comics every year in his column, so I am pretty sure he would take those numbers into account when he wrote about them. Not 100% but it would out of character for him not to look at/include the bookscan numbers.

-M

That is the 2019 info though..... I don't think he reviews book scan more than once a year, based on past columns... so those items could be doing better than that, He also notes in that same column that he doesn't could scholastic book fairs, which is the target market for those books.

I also don't think that's an apples to apples comparison. There are 52 weeks of comics that include 10-20 titles a week, PLUS trades in the direct market, compared to, what, 10-15 releases for the year for the YA imprints. It seems like those imprints accounting for about 15% of the year's sales is actually quite good, and worth cultivating.

Here's some more news on graphic novel sales in bookstores, this timethe numbers are focusing n "adult" GN, i.e. those not aimed at the YA market.



Bleeding Cool reported on the Publisher's Weekly story with their usual (lack of) wit and wisdom:



but despite all the BCisms, there are two important points in there-

-some of the best selling OGNs are getting print runs equivalent to single issues at the height of the 80s speculator book, but these are in a market aimed at readers not speculators, so more are actually getting in the hands of end users than sitting unsold in comic shops.

-you reap what you sow i.e. Scholastic has ben cultivated readers of GN for a decade now and those kids have grown up to become adult readers of GNs but not Wednesday Warriors and their customer base/market is booming as are sales. Meanwhile direct market publishers have spent a decade exploiting existing readers to milk every penny from them through variants and publishing stunts and done little to cultivate new readers or any readership and their market/customer base and sales are shrinking steadily.

-M

Well, complete in one volume comics or book series comics (i.e. things like Captain Underpants or Dog Boy) are thriving in the book trade, while the single issue market is shrinking steadily, so the market trend seems to agree with you.

The monthly single issue with 20ish pages of content is a dinosaur product, but the direct market doesn't want to give up the ghost and move into the 21st century marketplace.

-M

I am not sure if 20 page super-hero stories would sell to today's audience. Slice of life, humor, horror or sci-fi shorts where there is a tradition of shorter done in one stories with little to no carry over might find a market, but prose short story collections in genres they used to be popular in (sci-fi, fantasy, horror) have not been selling well as audiences want longer stories with rich world-building in those genres now. That's hard to do with 20 pages or a single prose short story. Not impossible, but hard. I think you have to look at what kind of storytelling is dominating the wider marketplace. Even television, which used to feature episodic done in one storytelling features long form storytelling (season long arcs) for any kind of drama or genre shows, Sitcoms still do the done in one for the most part, but even some sit-coms are featuring line-through subplots through seasons. SO the question is-is short-form storytelling doing well anywhere in the market place? If not, then no, done in one 20 page comics are not going to help because it's still a product out of synch with the current market.

-M

20 pages? No. But, imagine if DC published Superman books under one title? That would sell better than twenty pages.

Hello. I’m sorry to have only just found this thread -it is really interesting. I’m Adam Lumb - writer of the article on Bleeding Cool.

Firstly I want to thank MRP the original poster for sharing the article. MRP you have understood exactly what I was trying to say.

For those who thought the article was also to plug my own books, you are right too. If you think the message got lost in what is also a pitch for my own books I agree. The purpose of the article on Bleeding cool is to sell books as well as discuss the issues and drive traffic for Bleeding Cool. And that can mean some of the “thesis“ gets lost.

But I also passionately believe in the points I made about the medium of comics and the industry of comics. 

You have all had, on this thread, the exactly the kind of debate I wanted to spark. I agree with much of what has been said. Debate it essential to recognising things could be better than they are now.

If you want to see more of my “critical thinking” around comics please check out this piece and the You Tube video downthetubes.net/making-better-comics-artist-adam-lumb-delves-into-the-comics-form-aided-by-the-work-of-scott-mccloud/

Or if you just want a shameless plug for my own work 😉 you can find my Kickstarter here as of June 2022 and see what I’m up to. 

I’ll end with a David Bowie quote:

“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”


That’s where I am with my book The Tide Vol. 3.

thanks for listening 

Adam

www.seachangecomics.com