diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-the-third-wheel-book-781PW just posted this update about the Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney.  Granted, the article quotes BookScan numbers and even if they ARE a poor representation then it means the numbers are actually well above the 1 MILLION copies sold. While some will argue that Wimpy Kid is NOT a graphic novel, to the kids buying the books and to the buyer making the call for the school districts and library systems, Diary of a Wimpy Kid IS a graphic novel series. The second thing to consider is that all the major houses see GN in the same sentence as ONE MILLION SOLD and the race is on! The search for the next Wimpy Kid will also include a closer look at more webcomics…
This is getting better every day!

Thank you Jeff Kinney and THANK YOU Charlie Kochman!

11 COMMENTS

  1. Don’t forget this:
    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wimpy-kid-do-it-yourself-book-jeff-kinney/1100191870?ean=9780810989955

    The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
    “Now you can write your own bestseller!
    With The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, you’re the author, illustrator, and main character. Filled with loads of interactive pages and plenty of space to write your own life’s story, this book is all you need to create your masterpiece. Whatever you do, make sure you put it someplace safe after you finish. Because when you’re rich and famous, this thing is going to be worth a fortune.
    Includes more than 60 new pages! 32 pages of full-color comics (16 brand-new)!”

    My second-grade nephew devoured the latest book in one day, then began to read it again! (This was the week of Thanksgiving.) Last week, he sent me his first comic, which included “Zoo-Wee-Mama”!

    So naturally, I’m encouraging him (as is his adult cousin, who I seduced to the geek side with TMNT Adventures back in the day).

    Let’s say there are 1,000,000 readers. How many will become comics fans? How many will become comics CREATORS? Is this the new Peanuts, the new Garfield, which inspires a new generation of comic creators?

    All I know is this: libraries didn’t stock Peanuts or Garfield collections when I was a kid.
    (Heh… somewhere, there is a 40-50 year old cartoonist who was inspired at a young age by the New Yorker cartoon collections found at the local library.)

    So, yeah, expect a Cartooning Ka-Boom in about ten to twenty years.

  2. Actually, every library I’ve visited in the last few years has had the Wimpy Kid books in Fiction. However, the kids do love them, and many who love those books also love comics – at least in my school library, they do.

  3. “While some will argue that Wimpy Kid is NOT a graphic novel…”

    Non-sequential spot illustrations with balloons are not comics, therefor Wimpy Kid is not a graphic novel…

  4. Mario, I think you’re missing the point of the statement. Technically, you are correct but for the buyers of the category and for the kids who demand them, the Wimpy Kid books are being called graphic novels…which is actually great news for comics creators because you now have the people who wield the greatest power asking for more graphic novels. Buyers, in the library and education markets make purchasing decisions on the scale of which can push print runs from the low thousands into the 50-60 K or higher.
    So, if you’re a comics creator, embrace the Wimpy Kid and celebrate the opportunity that this series has created.

  5. I don’t understand why there’s even a hint of controversy over whether or not Wimpy Kid “counts” as a graphic novel. It’s created by a cartoonist, published by a comics imprint, born from a webcomic, edited by one of the industry’s leading comics experts, and it contains a hybrid mix of cartoons, sequential panels (contrary to what Mario said), prose, and static illustrations. Is the art form not allowed to evolve? At what point in comics’ artistic evolution did we all mutually agree that no further permutations or experiments were allowed?

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