Graphic novels have become popular over the years. It has gone from thin magazine size, 8.5” x 11” to thick, slightly smaller than comic book size, 6.6” to 10.2”. I have watched over the years when there were only a handful of graphic novels in book store shelves. The graphic novels went from one shelf to an aisle! Still, there is some competition. Let’s look at a few graphic novels and other books. Let’s start back with comic book storytelling and the early graphic novels. One of the early adaptations was taking classic novels and turning them into comic book form with Classics Illustrated. A publisher of Classics Comics was the Elliot Publishing Company. It soon became Classics Illustrated and one of my favorite issues is the adaptation of Lorna Doone, written by R.D. Blackmore, it is illustrated by a great comics artist, Matt Baker (more on him later). Later Classics Illustrated was published by First Comics starting in 1990 with adaptations by Kyle Baker, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, and many other fine artists.
St. John Publications published a “picture novel”, It Rhymes with Lust (1950) by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller, with art by Matt Baker. Another early graphic novel was Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book (1959) taking the Mad magazine cartoonist work and published by Ballentine Books. Blackmark (1971) was another book with art work by Gil Kane and scripted by Archie Goodwin. Richard Corben created Bloodstar (1976), a fantasy work published by Morning Star Press, was one of the works using the term “graphic novel.” Then, we had another pioneer of the graphic novel form, Wil Eisner with A Contract with God (1978). Another collected a series into a trade paperback, The First Kingdom (1978) by Jack Katz. We also had Sabre (1978) by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy. Marvel Comics had its first Marvel Graphic Novel with The Death of Captain Marvel (1982) by Jim Starlin. This was the earlier hero, Mar-Vell, not Carol Danvers.
Size comparisons of graphic novels and manga, photo by the author.
The one graphic novel that solidified the form was Maus (1986), created by underground comics creator, Art Spiegelman. It is one of the most personal, historical, and powerful stories that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Also in 1986 was Batman: The Dark Knight Returns collecting the four issue limited series. It was highly influential on recent Batman films and adapted into two animated movies; Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 (2013). The next year, there was another collection, this time of a twelve issue comic book series, Watchmen (1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. There was a Watchmen (2009) movie and a tv series Watchmen (2019). This brings us to our first example, Marvel Graphic Novel #4, The New Mutants (1982) by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod. This graphic novel of course introduced the New Mutants team, one of the first spin-off titles for the X-Men. It is 49 pages, sported a $4.95 cover price (comic books priced at 60 cents), and is about 8 x 10.5 inches.
The next graphic novel is Kingdom Come (1996) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. It collected the four issue series which went for $4.95 an issue. It was 47 pages, cost $14.95, and is 6.6 x 10.2 inches. It has expanded to 392 pages and cost $19.99. Also an Absolute Kingdom Come hardcover, $99.99, with 344 pages. A current graphic novel is Harleen Book One (2020) by Stjepan Sejic. The Black Label series ran for three issues. The first book was 208 pages, cost $7.99, and is 8.85 x 11.16 inches. The Black Label titles in this series were all about magazine size like the old graphic novels. Now let’s move into the novel side of graphic novels with DC Ink. Mera: tidebreaker (2019) is by Danielle Page and Stephen Byrne. The book is 192 pages, priced at $16.99, and measures 6.02 x 8.99 inches. A nice attempt to bring in YA readers to a manga-esque line, but needs refinements.
Which one do you think you can carry around the easiest? Which one is bulkier?
An example of the YA books is Star Wars: Join The Resistance (2017) by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, illustrated by Annie Wu. This is part of a three book series from Disney Lucasfilm Press. It is 224 pages, hardback, price is $12.99, and measures 5.75 x 8.88 inches. A few more examples. A brilliant graphic novel, American Born Chinese (2008) by Gene Luen Yang is 240 pages, carries a $16.95 price, measuring 6.21 x 8.56 inches. The manga examples include Eagle Vol. 1 The Candidate (2000) by Kaiji Kawaguchi. It is published by Viz and runs 112 pages, $6.95, and is about 5.5 x 8 inches. The manga is out of print now. Next is Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2002) from VIZ Media. This is a full color book of the anime, but I checked it against another manga in black and white and it’s about the same size. The book is 172 pages, $9.95, and measures 5 x 7.13 inches. So here is a proposal for comic book publishers. Manga is more popular than comic books. Young people flock to the manga aisle at bookstores.
There is casual interest by some readers for comic books. At bookstores, the graphic novels are disorganized and all over the place. Publishers need to tap into the lucrative manga market. First is that while comic books seem geared for graphic novel collections, the biggest indicator is that writers have mostly given up on issue titles, it is just one storyline title, part 1, part 2, etc. I don’t think young readers want to pick up a graphic novel that is about the size of their school textbooks. This is fine for collector’s market, but comic books should go for the popularity of manga. What is that popularity? One, small, digest size books, go for the 5 x 7.13 inches size. Two, the stories are easily categorized and one volume is a satisfactory read. Three, there usually is two pages of color and the rest is black and white. Manga readers are not picky about the full comic book experience.
The perfect size graphic novel, all titles should be printed this size!
So print in a handy, portable size, self-contained stories that might also go on for the entire series, and lastly, in black and white. This should bring the comic book graphic novel to an affordable price, $9.95 is the target, and size, about 160 to 180 pages and under 6 ounces (Regular graphic novels go from over 13 ounces to a little over one pound). Plus printing in black and white. Whatever hits that target price. This can publish graphic novel titles in easy to shelve books for stores, libraries, and schools. What about comic books? This is where the collector’s market kicks in. They can printed as they are now, full color, and offer an alternative to the graphic novels. The smaller size graphic novels are for readers. There can be different sized graphic novels, 6.6 x 10.2 inches, with higher price, and in full color, just like now. This would be collector’s items like current graphic novels. Also, there can be creator projects and special stories. Anyone like a review of the pictured graphic novels and manga? Comic publishers chibi-fy the graphic novels!
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