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Storyopolis has added an event to the second leg of my Kenny and the Dragon tour in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 4th at the Geffen playhouse. This will be a morning event, part of their “Saturday Scene” program, and will feature a live band as well as yours truly.

Tickets are available at Storyopolis, or you can call 310-208-5454. I hope I see you there!

My chapter book debut as an author and illustrator, Kenny and the Dragon, is now available in stores. You can use the Booksense/Indiebound site to find a store near you, or try Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Thursday!

Today is the last day that we’ll accept entries for our latest contest to “Design Your Dragon”, so if you work well under pressure, you have until midnight tonight. We have received some phenomenal entries so far – you really rocked it out this time - wow!

My loverly wife Angela, my assistant Will, and yours truly, will judge and announce the winners tomorrow for a special edition of “Friday Fan Art”. Stay tuned!

We’ve received some AMAZING entires to the “Design Your Dragon” contest so far…so keep them coming! With only a week left to go, if you have not yet entered then you better get scribbling.

You can enter from any part of the world, any age, and any medium. And of course, you can enter as many times as you’d like.

Here are the contest details once again:

I am terribly excited to share with you all my upcoming chapter book, Kenny and the Dragon. Though it is not due in stores until August 5th, I will be giving away three signed (first edition) copies here on the site…each, with a very special drawing in them.

All you have to do is design your very own dragon!

Like Grahame, the dragon who dubs himself a “Renaissance guy” in my book, I want you to come up with a drake of your own, who has its own personality. Here is what I am looking for:

1. A full color image of your dragon (any medium), along with his/her/its name.
2. A quick (4-5 lines) description of his/her/its personality. What does it like to eat? Does it play an instrument? Is it moody? Enjoy long walks in the park? Etc…

…you tell me what makes your dragon so darn special.

I will be judging on originality, creativity, and pure imagination. It doesn’t matter if you are a good drawer or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a two-year old kid, or an eighty two-year old kid…all entries will be accepted.

And those entries have to be in front of my bespectacled eyes by July 31, 2008.

You can send ‘em to me at:

Tony DiTerlizzi
“Design Your Dragon” Contest
P.O. Box #442
Amherst, MA 01004

Or email’em to Angela at: [email protected]
*Please title your email “Design Your Dragon”.

Winners will be chosen by myself, my loverly wife Angela, and my trusty assistant Will. We will announce the winners here on the site August 1, 2008, and I will then award winners with a signed copy of Kenny and the Dragon, along with a drawing in the book of Grahame (my dragon) shaking claws and congratulating YOUR DRAGON!

…sound cool? Then get drawin’ - and good luck!

Jesse Lopez did a take on my rabbit wizard which was part of the inspiration involved with Kenny and the Dragon. Nice mood in the cave piece Jesse!

Anyone remember the scene at the end of Back to the Future when Marty McFly’s dad, George, becomes a famous sci-fi writer and opens the box full of his latest novels? That is totally what it is like when you get your complimentary books from the publisher (without the Delorean).

My editor, Kevin, is totally cool and will often send me his only advance copy fresh from the printer. This can be months (or even a year) before the book is released. One of Simon & Schuster’s VPs, Rubin, hand-delivered the first and only copy of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to me from New York City! (Okay, he was on his way to visit his son in Boston, but it was so awesome! And Ang cooked a great meal to celebrate.)

I get so excited because I really like to draw, and I really like to spin a yarn, but I LOVE making books. I love the size of them in your hand, the paper texture, the printing effects on the cover, and the smell of the ink (yes, I smelled dittos when I was a kid - this was destiny my friends). My favorite feeling of all, though, is sitting alone on the couch with a cup of coffee, or in bed right before sleep, and immersing myself in the story presented in those bound pages with a little bit of ink printed upon them. It is true magic for me.

And I want to share some of this excitement with you. I have been so inspired seeing what everyone has done with the “Spiderwick Drawin’ Contest” that I want to keep that creativity going. So, next week, I will announce a “Design Your Own Dragon” contest and will give away some of my own fresh-off-the-press copies of Kenny & the Dragon…stay tuned!

Gene Yang, Graphic Novels and NCTE
Graphic novels are finding a place in the NYC classroom and, SPLAT 2008.

Imagine my surprise as I discovered some brilliant graphic novel programming when I attended the National Council of Teachers of English convention at the Javit's in NYC this past November. 

Now wait, that may have not come out sounding the way it should have.  I should start out by mentioning that I discovered James Bucky Carter's name listed on the programming and figured it would be pretty cool to find out what he was going to talk about in the way of graphic novels for the classroom.   Carter has a great book called Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel and delivers a really great workshop.

Among hundreds of programs you would have also found Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón the two creators of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.  These two men have been creating comics together for over four decades and to hear their perspective on the state of the industry and what inspired them to recreate the 9/11 Commission Report as a graphic novel, is worth every minute. 

These weren't programs where graphic novels were mentioned as an afterthought, graphic novels were discussed in matter-of-fact terms as books to be used for reading.   The presenters know and appreciate the fact that graphic novels can be used to educate and entertain readers of all skills.  And these people really really know the stuff!  I had anticipated finding people who were excited about the format and maybe had just begun to explore using graphic novels in the classroom.  I was really underestimating the market. 

Even more encouraging was the number of people sitting in on the sessions.  Each room was packed or nearly full.  The teachers were in their zone and the audience was completely engaged.  This is fertile ground for a revolution.   Maybe there is more to teaching kids the art of enjoying reading.  It was great to see these teachers using graphic novels to reach out and connect with readers of all skill levels.

The attendance for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) convention in New York was only 8,000 teachers.  Only 8,000 teachers?  How many students does that represent and, from how many parts of the country?  If you thought teachers dont care about reaching students, you need to sit in on one of these sessions at NCTE.  It will definitely change the way you look at teachers.  We make it difficult for them to do their jobs every year with tax cuts and budget 'restrictions' and yet they come back year after year.   

Across the country, in the San Francisco area is a teacher and an author who figured out that teaching with graphic novels can help you instantly connect with your students.  Gene Luen Yang has been writing comics and graphic novels around his family time and teaching duties and wound up creating American Born Chinese which went on to win the Printz award and was also the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. 

Yes, I have mentioned Gene here before and you may start to recognize a pattern here.  There are graphic novel creators like Gene who will continue to resurface on a regular basis as this format continues to grow.  The latest appearance for Gene, in my world, arrived with the NCTE magazine.  In the newest issue, Gene was given the chance to write an article for NCTE in a graphic novel format.  It was so cool to see how he discovered the benefits of using graphic novels as a tool for connecting with students in the classroom.  This was in the magazine for the National Council of Teachers of English.  IF they can see the benefits of using graphic novels, much as Gene does, it wont be long for the word to spread.

That brings me to the New York City Department of Education who recently contacted my counterpart, Janna Morishima and me to discuss creating a graphic novel symposium for the librarians who serve the schools in the five New York City boroughs.  These people understand that graphic novels are something that need to be included in the educational programming. And, much like librarians a few years ago, they want to learn how to bring them into the school system.   The program is for some 800-900 public and private school librarians.  As one of the people in our meeting put it "We need to teach kids with new tools.  Why would anyone try to teach 21st century students with 19th century methods? We need to use the things these kids understand."

Truer words were never spoken.  Kids are moving at light speed and teachers are doing everything they can to keep up.  Every day there are more and more great graphic novel titles getting published.  Talking with the folks from the NYC Department of Education about using graphic novels reminded me of something my junior high school music teacher said when we asked him why he was playing The Who for us in class.  He said "There is some amazing structure in this music. One of these days you will talk about Pete Townshend the way my teacher spoke about Mozart."  He knew exactly how to reach us.

So the revolution continues to spread and in the most natural of places-the class room and the library.

Hey, I would be remiss in my duties if I didnt tell you about another graphic novel moment in New York City.  The Center for Independent Publishing will be hosting its first major graphic novel symposium on March 15th.  SPLAT 2008 will feature some great creators and a guy who knows a lot about the art of graphic novels, Scott McCloud.  There will also be some great folks from the educational world, Karen Green from Columbia University, Peter Guitierrez, a curriculum development consultant, Margaux Del Guidice and Michael Lizardi, School Media Specialists, and Christian Zabriskie, Senior Librarian YA Services from Queens Public Library .  It's a great day of programs and you will learn some pretty cool stuff.   Click here for more....http://www.nycip.org/graphicnovelsymposium/panel.php

Viva La Revolución!

Next time on The Graphic Novels Guy: Remainders, Graphic Novels and The Spring Book Show

John Shableski works for Diamond Book Distributors as a sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries. He's been a panelist at BEA, a moderator for graphic novel panels at the New York Comic Con, a guest speaker at library events, regional book shows and a symposium coordinator. He's currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums across the country. For general questions you can send an email to [email protected]

The Launch of TOON Books
And one of my Geek Moments

Does everyone have a 'geek moment'?   I'm pretty sure we all do.   I have defined a 'geek moment' as an event that will remain in a person's memory as one of life's highlights.  I now have six of them (which should include my family stuff...but that is a different category altogether).

Two of these events happened in my radio broadcasting days.  The first one occurred when Bun E. Carlos, the drummer for the band Cheap Trick, came to our radio station for a clinic on drumming for one of the local music stores.   I've never been the kind of person who had posters of a favorite band on my walls (that space was reserved for surf posters).   What Bun E. Carlos represented to me was some great moments from my days in high school.  Live at Budokan was the album that launched his band and also destroyed a pair of speakers in my 1961 Mercedes.  Cheap Trick was a part of the soundtrack of my life.  I just wanted to thank him for the music without appearing to be some sort of spaz.

The next event was meeting Bill Cosby.  I had the great opportunity to introduce him when he took the stage for the first time in our local arts center.  Instead of sitting in my front row seat, I chose to stand just offstage and watch this man, a great storyteller like Mark Twain, talk about stories from his childhood.   Cosby, through his records, taught me that city kids were a lot like me and my friends growing up.  I had the chance to thank him for giving me that gift.

My next geek moment arrived years later in the form of a voice mail.  Judy Shaw from the Norman Rockwell Museum called me to ask if I could meet with the folks from the museum. They wanted to discuss a graphic novels exhibit they were developing called LitGraphic.   I couldn't get to the musuem in Stockbridge, Massachusetts fast enough.  To me, Norman Rockwell is the master illustrator and storyteller.   While I was standing in the room where the paintings for the Four Freedoms are on display, I caught my self whispering 'thank you' to Mr. Rockwell. He had taught me to take a much closer look at the smallest of details and to enjoy them.

The most recent geek moment occurred during the ALA Mid-winter convention in Philadelphia.  I had been working with my counterpart, Janna Morishima to host a launch party for a new publisher called TOON Books.  This is a project Francoise Mouly has been working to create with her husband Art Spiegelman. 

I had yet to meet either one of them, but from the moment I saw them approaching our booth, I knew exactly who they were.   For me, Francoise represents The New Yorker.  My favorite magazine period.   Her husband Art won the Pulitzer for his graphic novel Maus and is a legend for his creative genius and impact on this graphic novel format.

My dilemma at that moment, was how do I look casual?  Calm?  Cool?  Here comes The New Yorker and THEE Pulitzer Prize!  Can I talk with them without stuttering?  In only a few moments, Francoise and Art made me feel right at home and we dove immediately into a discussion of how TOON Books came to be and what their approach was in creating comics for emerging readers.   

Francoise was actually responding to an earlier email I had sent her asking why she had decided to publish books for the graphic novel market.   I, and the librarians who would be attending that evening's launch party wanted to know what her approach was going to be, and why she chose to create these books for such a young group of readers.

Keep in mind, there is a lot of 'me too' that takes place in any industry, so it was interesting to hear that she wasn't copying anyone else's efforts.  She is indeed creating a new category.   I became even more convinced of this as she explained to me how many years she spent researching the stories and how children perceive words and images.   She had grown up with comics herself and already understood a great deal about the reading and learning process.

                  What really sealed the deal for me was the moment she described the approach for each of the first three books in her project.  Silly Lilly is the awareness of self.  Otto's Orange Day is the awareness of imagination and Benny & Penny is the awareness of the world around us.  This was the first time I had met a graphic novel creator or publisher, who knew the specific impact and benefits, as well as the audience for their books.  As her husband Art would point out, "This isn't supposed to be medicinal.       Reading is supposed to be fun for kids.  Give them something they enjoy."

I had found myself in the presence of two incredibly smart people who are creating a brand new category in the publishing industry. 

My bonus geek moment is that I get to work with them to help introduce their books to the American audience.   Will they become a reading staple for years to come?   I really do hope so.  I think they are worth every ounce of energy that Francoise, Art and the rest of the team from TOON Books has put into them.  I'm sure you will like them too.

Oh, and my other geek moment?   It came the winter of 1991, the second time I paddled out into 30 foot waves. Unlike my first attempt at the age of 16, when I wasn't sure I would make it back to the beach alive.  I realized that this time I was going to really live it up and ride each wave like it would be my last. 

Next time:  Gene Yang, Graphic Novels and the National Council of Teachers of English

Here’s To Looking at 45

And rediscovering Amelia Rules!

After my last posting on this site, I received a funny note from a friend who inquired if 45 meant the old record singles from my radio days.  I guess that could be a natural assumption since I do like to use music analogies as they help me illustrate the progress of the graphic novel format.   The reality is that I am turning 45.  This is the week that I get to celebrate another year of life on this planet.  I know my mom was thrilled when I made to the age of 18 still intact.  If you had ever met any of the people I grew up with, or ran with, then you would understand my mom’s perspective.

This year is turning out to be much more fun for me than I think most guys my age are having.   Instead of asking: What have I accomplished?  I get to ask: How big is this graphic novel thing going to be?  I know what the guys at Atlantic, Sun Records, Stax and Motown must have felt when they first started working in rock and roll.  There is so much great stuff out there and so much more on the way.   Oh sure, there have been some excellent graphic novels published over the past couple of decades, but now the traditional publishing houses are jumping into the mix.  This may be to the chagrin of the folks who have been at it for a while, but it certainly validates all their efforts over the years.   Competition also means better books.

This new challenge forces the creators and gn publishers to think about ways to promote their books more effectively.   Promotion is certainly something that many publishers could do better.   Just the other day I received an emailed press release from a publisher promoting a future graphic novel title from an author who wants to do something ‘edgy’ about the ‘dark underbelly’…blah, blah, blah.   I caught my self acting like a snob.   My first impression when I saw the news release was “So?  Do we really need another stinkin’ book about the dark underbelly?  Who cares? “

I was looking for the press release to tell me that this major house had invested in doing something mainstream that will sell millions.   I had missed the biggest point of the press release: This publisher has actually begun to ‘work the book’.  They are prepping the trades for the advance reader copy of the book.  If they can drum up some excitement, and anticipation, then someone will actually read the book when it hits their desk and talk about it.   THIS is where the gn publishers really need to improve their game.  They need to send out press releases to every single news outlet, magazine and blog possible, create excitement and deliver the book on time.  This is a formula you can steal from the traditional publishing houses and it helps to sell a lot of books.

There are a few creators and publishers who actually do ‘work the book’.   A great example of this is the Amelia Rules! series by Jimmy Gownley.  He and his wife, Karen, set up workshops and appearances to support this series and it is paying off.  If you haven’t yet read Amelia Rules!, I really suggest you pick up a copy.  The fourth in the series, When the Past is a Present, is due out soon.   

Amelia is a ten-year-old who lives with her divorced mom and her retired rock star aunt. Amelia is just a cool girl who keeps her group of friends together. One that you wish your kids had as a friend or would like them to emulate. 

Why, you may ask is this guy raving about a kid’s book?  As a dad, I love this series.  During a few quiet moments at the Renaissance Learning Convention in Orlando, I re-read the Amelia books.  One of the cool things about reading graphic novels is that you discover more on the second and third pass.  It’s like staring into a Norman Rockwell picture, there is so much more to see. 

There is this one particular scene where Amelia’s mom gives her a cloverleaf pendant.  She tells Amelia that when her husband gave it to her, he said it symbolized their family.  You could see, even though this is a story for kids, how significant this moment was for the mom as well. 

I caught myself getting a little choked up. I know…maybe I am getting sentimental in my old age.   I am allowed to get sappy now.  When I read that scene, I could see how Jimmy had mastered the perspectives for both characters.  It was a pretty cool moment for me.   

Jimmy also touches on a pretty tough subject that is a fairly universal theme here in the U.S.: War.   One of Amelia’s friends has to deal with his father being deployed for action overseas.  I know more than a few people who are experiencing this very thing, and you probably do too.  Jimmy does an amazing job of weaving this part of life’s realities into his stories.

So, I made it to 45.  I’m pretty lucky to be here.  I have a wonderful family and a great wife, who has somehow survived me.   I get to see a great new format explode in American pop culture and I get sappy over a good book now and again. 

How cool is that?

Next Time: The Arrival of TOON

Aretha vs. Diana, Interpretation vs. Adaptation

It's all about soul isn't it?

When you look back to the various iconic voices in rock and roll there are those who define a style, and even a time.   For me it’s kind of like the games my friends and I would play.  Which one is hotter?  Or: Which one would you cut your arm off for?   Betty vs. Veronica, Ginger vs. Mary Ann?  Yes, even comic book characters were subject to this game.  For the record, I would always go with Mary Ann (Ginger was too high maintenance) and it was Veronica (bad girl) over Betty and no, I wouldn’t cut my arm off for a cartoon character.

How do Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross come into the game?  Well, they never made it into the first two games but they did fit into the who-has-the-most-soul category.   Aretha had it hands-down.  Diana always sang the ‘pretty’ songs.  Even when she was being ‘soulful’ you could tell there was that edge missing.  When Aretha sang, you know it came from some place way deep down inside.  She poured her life into every note.  Pain, doubt, regret, and love are what she felt with every moment of those songs.   Diana?  She was a graduate of the Motown school of etiquette where breaking a sweat wasn’t allowed.  The songs were all pretty, but missed the raw energy that Aretha brought.   Other women who sang it like Aretha did are Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, Joan Jett, and definitely Janis Joplin.   It’s all about the soul and has nothing to do with the polish.

That leads me to the publishing part of this conversation.   For a while now, there have been quite a few graphic novels that were essentially adaptations.  Whether it’s Shakespeare or the Civil War, there are going to be plenty of adaptations hitting the marketplace.  Why is this?  For the most part, it is because there are many publishers who are in the ‘me too’ phase of this revolution.   They don’t yet have a grasp of the format and want to jump on board as quickly as possible.  Their answer is to grab a story that is in the public domain and then farm out it out to the art department. In some very rare cases you will see great adaptations, but for the most part something will definitely be missing from the stories.

Even to the untrained eye, there is a sense that something is lacking from these adaptations.   The reason for this is in the efforts from the creative team who worked on the book.   When a book is farmed out to an uninterested art department or a contract artist the passion for the work is lacking and very visible.  The artist will hit the marks that were set for the project, but that’s as far as it goes.  No soul.

When you have a project that shows soul, you will understand the value in the real effort needed to create a graphic novel.   I’ve talked with more than a few publishers, who have been looking to develop a line of graphic novels.  They have a great wealth of prose titles to work from and are anxiously looking to see which title would be best adapted to the graphic novel format.   My reply to all of them is this:  “You have to have artists and creators who want to do the project first.   If they don’t have a feeling for the story, it won’t work.”   You will spend a lot of money to develop a story, but because you didn’t have a creative team fully vested in the book it just won’t be as good.

Here is the way to find your talent:  audition.  Send a group of your titles to a variety of creators and ask them which one they would like to do.   You will then see a real passion for the story.  That passion is what you need and it will translate onto the page.  You will see unique camera angles used in the telling of the story.  You will also see perspectives you may have never considered that is born from the creator’s unique vision.  Now you have an interpretation of the story which is much fuller than you could have ever imagined.

The same logic can be applied in the bookstore.  When you have an owner who really understands what it means to be a part of the community it shows in everything they do.   A really good store owner is much like a movie director or music producer. A good store owner is someone who conducts a symphony.  The people whom they hire are as critical as the store design, the marketing, and promotions.  Each person is an element or an instrument that plays into the shopping experience.  If you don’t have that in your store, you need to find it.  You’ll sell books, but it won’t be the same experience that builds loyalty and passion.  If you have ever met Mitch Kaplan or toured his Books and Books stores in the Miami area, you would have definitely seen this for yourself.   Each store has its own rhythms and sensibilities, but the people who greet you bring the same thing to the table: passion and soul.  I realize how ‘new-agey’ sounding that may be, but it really is a great experience.

I guess it all boils down to passion and soul, doesn’t it?  If the graphic novel is done with a passionate, creative team and a store is run with a passionate feeling for books; it becomes an experience we all want to have over and over again.   

Aretha vs. Diana?   I’ll take Aretha any day…

Next time on The Graphic Novels Guy: Here’s to Looking at 45

John Shableski works for Diamond Book Distributors as a sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries. He's been a panelist at BEA, a moderator for graphic novel panels at the New York Comic Con, a guest speaker at library events, regional book shows and a symposium coordinator. He's currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums across the country: as Vegas, Seattle, and New York. For general questions you can send an email to [email protected]

Across the Universe you’ll find Essex County

And a bunch of really great graphic novels…

If you missed seeing the movie Across the Universe in a theater, you really need to see it on DVD.  This incredible film is a musical that takes 33 classic Beatles songs and reworks them, reinvents them without rendering them unrecognizable. The visuals used in the movie are in stark contrast to what you would have seen with the fab four produced movies back in their early days. I think the Beatles would be hard pressed not to have a great deal of respect for the updated version of their music and the special effects used in the production. Sadly, the movie saw only limited release by studio execs who just ‘didn’t get it’.

Hmmmm….execs who just don’t get it. That’s a familiar theme that has impacted culture in North America since the concept of independence stirred in the consciousness of the original colonists. The king didn’t ‘get it’. The people of the colonies didn't want to live under the rules of the old world. It was, after all, the new world and things were quite different on this side of the ocean.

Fast forward a couple hundred years and there are similar (yet not so dire) circumstances. Have you listened to local radio or watched your local news casts lately? They are all scrambling to find an audience. The situation is much like the arrival of television and its impact the world of radio broadcasting and the movie houses, the internet is wreaking havoc on the entertainment world and the execs just don’t get it. When you hear the dee jays talk on music stations, they no longer have any attachment to the very reason people listen: the music. You almost never hear them talk about the songs or the artists. The talk, if you can call it that, is about the latest promotion that was designed to keep you around as a listener. Their promotions are created to bring in more advertising dollars. Now, the only time you hear anything about the bands and the music is if you listen to the weekend countdown programs like Rick Dee’s. If he didn’t have the artists to talk about he wouldn’t have a show.

Now, consider your local news casts. The car crashes and house fires are typically the lead stories. These kinds of stories don't draw the audiences like they used to. In an attempt to hold the viewers longer, a little more cleavage is shown on news casts. Again, the execs don’t get it. The local viewer has so many options  sources to get information, but the best and fastest source to get real stories is on the internet where the better stories about positive life affirming things actually have a life online.

Fortunately, the owners of the better news sites understand the user perspective and they break the stories down into segments that your old newspaper used to provide. Newspapers? They still have a life and if they remember to deliver better information beyond the car crashes and house fires, they would do better to create a weekly edition and use the revenues from the classified section to support the cost of printing.

Some execs actually do understand that a change is ‘a coming’. Like the arrival of rock and roll, graphic novel publishing is beginning to find traction in some very key places. First of all is the library market. When no one else recognized the value of a graphic novel, librarians understood what compelled readers to pick one up, read it and share it with friends. The retail market is still a few years behind, but they are catching on. Kids, who long ago discovered a cool stash of these books in their libraries, have become old enough to run their own publishing houses. Sure, the early days were the same as garage bands and basements-turned-music-studios, but they were doing some really great, creative stuff.

Is it all superhero stuff? Hardly. There is such a vast array of stories being told in a graphic novel format. Will Eisner’s A Contract With God and Art Spiegelman’s Maus were a clear indicator of subject matter that went way beyond spandex. Biographies and memoirs seem to have been the favorite genres to gain traction. And now, graphic novels are making their way into the North American pop consciousness  Manga has been around for ages though many don’t realize that Speed Racer is a product of the manga world. With the movie due out in few months, there are a lot of baby boomers who will find that their favorite race car driver will be sporting a new look…much like the songs of the Beatles were reinvented for Across the Universe.
 
The new generation graphic novel creators are now gaining more and more notice in the places normally reserved for traditional prose.  However, we need to give credit where it is due.  Public librarians have championed graphic novels for more than a few years now.  I was lucky enough to be in the Diamond Comic Distributors booth for the Midwinter ALA convention in Philly when the committee chair for the Alex Award came looking for a way to contact Jeff Lemier, the author of a graphic novel called Sussex County. She wanted to call him directly to let him know that his book was the winner for this year’s Alex Award.  This is significant news as the last graphic novel to have been selected for this was a book called Persepolis and that was almost a lifetime ago. Unfortunately, my cell phone was dead so we had to contact him and his publisher via text messaging. Of course they were excited, but what in the world does it mean when your book wins an award during the mid-winter ALA convention? It means an instant run on your inventory.

If you havent yet read Essex County you may be surprised at how much you enjoy the story.   The Essex County trilogy follows the lives of different characters in a fictionalized version of the author’s hometown in Ontario. The award-winning volume Tales From the Farm combines slice-of-life sensibilities with magic realism to tell the story of Lester, a recently orphaned 10-year-old who goes to live on his uncle’s farm and befriends the local gas station owner.  The main character is a young kid named Lester who is experiencing a sense of isolation and loneliness, and escapes into a fantasy world of comics and superheroes to deal with it. While the book is aimed at adult readers, many young people can relate to this sense of alienation, and longing for something more in their lives.  Its really worth picking up.

When it comes to winning a Caldecott or Newberry award, the traditional publishing world does understand what it can mean for sales. They submit book after book to make these lists because it moves a lot of product. When I lived in the wholesaler world, we would position a staffer at the back of the room for the award ceremonies and as each winner was announced we were calling the titles into our buyers. The buyers would then rush to get their orders in with a publisher who may only have as little as 500 copies available. Essex County was quickly out of stock and a call went out to do another print run. I am sure that the people at Top Shelf, the publisher for Essex County, were quite thrilled. After all, they hadn’t submitted the book for consideration. Someone on the committee discovered the book and the other members agreed it should win. It’s not that as a publisher, Chris Staros didn’t ‘get it’, it was really a pleasant set of circumstances that defined for him, and now a lot of other graphic novel publishers the value of a library award. You can bet, if these new execs are paying attention at all, they will now submit any book they can think of for these awards.

As the traditional publishing industry grapples with flat sales, you will see execs who still don’t ‘get it’, but the smart ones are adjusting to the new terrain while at the same time those rebellious graphic novel kids are starting to see the risks they took are all starting to pay off. Because of these risks, you get to see an ever growing range of stories.  Demand for talent is already on the rise and the risk for the big houses is equal to the effort and focus. Who wins out? The creators, the smart publishers and ultimately, the audience.

Anytime a cultural shift takes place here in North America or anywhere else on the planet for that matter, we get exciting new ideas, new technologies, new music and new forms of entertainment. Our publishing and entertainment industry has reached a new kind of literacy and it’s a great time for new ideas to take root. Go pick up Essex County and you will see what I mean.

Next time on The Graphic Novels Guy: Aretha vs Diana, Interpretation vs. Adaptation and Graphic Novels invade the classroom.

John Shableski works for Diamond Book Distributors as a sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries. He's been a panelist at BEA, a moderator for graphic novel panels at the New York Comic Con, a guest speaker at library events, regional book shows and a symposium coordinator. He's currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums across the country: as Vegas, Seattle, and New York. For general questions you can send an email to [email protected]