Book Expo ‘08: Manga In Costco At The Airport? At The Px

Immediately following Saturday morning’s Graphic Novels breakfast that kicked off Graphic Novels Day at Book Expo America 2008 in Los Angeles, the panelists for the Graphic Novels and Manga Distribution panel got down to business to talk about changes and challenges of the marketplace. As graphic novels and manga continue to make inroads into new markets, representatives from Harper Collins / TokyoPop, VIZ Media, DC Comics and Diamond Comic Distributors talked about their desire to strengthen their presence in comic shops and independent bookstores too.

With a mix of representatives from the publishing, marketing and distribution sides of the graphic novels biz, the panelists all agreed that they don’t expect graphic novels and manga to continue its rate of double-digit year-over-year growth. However, they were optimistic about opportunities to make manga and graphic novels available in more places where books are sold, including military commissaries, airports and big box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco.

Another issue that comes up time and again is limited shelf space at chain bookstores and comic shops that already carry manga and graphic novels.

As John Cunningham, DC Comics’ Vice President of Marketing put it, “As a long-time book person, when I hear from booksellers that they don’t have room for more graphic novels in their stores, I think that I can walk through the literary books section in most bookstores, run my fingers over the stacks and get dust on my fingertips. (The booksellers) say, ‘What can I do about the graphic novel section — it’s so messy!’ But that means there’s traffic there! People are picking them up, reading and buying them! ”

While everyone is excited about the explosive growth of graphic novel sales over the past few years, the companies represented at Saturday morning’s panel are in it for the long haul, and know that it will still take years for graphic novels and manga to truly be a part of the mainstream of American pop culture consumption.

“There’s a lot of preconceptions of who the customer for manga is,” said Ferreyra. “Being informed by the history of manga in Japan, we’re well aware that identifying only a single market is wrong-headed; we’re looking to reach younger readers and older readers too. We’re all hoping for a day when we’ll see everyone on a train, young and old alike reading manga.”

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