BEA report: Graphic novels on rise in stale market

The Seattle Times reports back from last weekend's BookExpo America in Washington, D.C., where one analyst named graphic novels among the "best prospects" for the near future in a stagnating publishing industry.

"The only thing that's keeping the publishing industry growing is a slight increase in population," Simba Information's Michael Norris said.

ICv2.com's coverage is more upbeat, focusing on the integration of graphic novels into the "over-all book business" of the trade show:

While DC and Diamond (and its family of distributed publishers) anchored a sizable contingent at the graphic novel pavilion, a number of graphic novel publishers, such as Viz (Simon and Schuster), Tokyopop (CDS/Perseus, soon to be Harpercollins), Papercutz (Holtzbrinck), and Fantagraphics (W.W. Norton) were adjacent to or part of the booths of their distributor publishers. And most notable, the graphic novel imprints and lines being launched or underway at every major book house made the effort to visit the full range of graphic novel publishers similar to the task faced by the floor warriors in every other segment; just like everybody else, we had to push our way through the crowds at the big house booths as at least part of our journey around the floor.

ICv2 also notes the high profile of Disney's Abadazad, which was promoted through banners and ads.

(Photo from ICv2)