Tag: Books

It's my FAVORITE day of the year, when Brian Hibbs posts the year-end sales from bookstores via the Bookscan chart. Now we know these numbers are significantly low, but as I always say, they present a metric. The huge take away? Well, we all knew The Waking Dead was a juggernaut,—sales in this franchise would have made it the #3 publisher all by itself—but after that it's kids comics all the way, led by the maybe-comics of Dork Diaries, but following by Big Nate, Ninjago, Ursula Vernon's Dragonbreath, Drama and so on.

Short version, the last remaining book retail giant plans to close as many as a third of its stores over a 10-year period—although that may be an optimistic projection, as well. Slowed by the rise of digital and a lack of new malls, B&N oipened only two stores in the last fiscal year, and it's end of year profits were well below what was expected. While the Nook ereaders has been a bright spot, sales there have slowed as well. So a leaner meaner BN seems to be in the cards.

With 2013 barreling along, it's time to start looking at some of books that are going to make it a notable year, and here's one that has flown mostly under the radar until now: Who is AC? by Hope Larson with art by Tintin Pantoja, to be published by Atheneum on April 16th. It's Larson's first original GN since Mercury, she she describes it thusly:

Every couple of years, Scholastic, the biggest played in the kids book arena, releases a study on how kids read called The Kids and Family Reading Report. Jim Milliot sums up this year's findings, which largely centered on kids and ebooks:

In case you didn't get the memo, Warren Ellis's second novel is out tis week. It's called Gun Machine, and it's a dark story about a New York City detective who finds a room...

DC also released their collection plans for the DCU for May-August, and they include FOUR deluxe editions collecting the various BEFORE WATCHMEN miniseries. Perhaps even more excitingly, a big collection rounding all of the...

When it was announced that executive editor Karen Berger was stepping down last week, articles on the Vertigo imprint immediately took on an elegiac tone—even though official DC press outlets insisted that the line...

For you number-lovers out there, and we know you are out there, here's something a bit more speculative but still interesting. Retailer Matt Blind has used his very own arcane logarithm to calculate approximate...

Animator Tony Cliff makes his debut at First Second this fall with Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, a new GN from First Second, about a globe-trotting adventuring heroine in the picturesque past. Lovable...

As year-end lists of best continue to come out at a steady clip, graphic novels continue to be represented on lists—not as a special category but as their own thing. And that's a good...

Over the holiday weekend, I had a chance to view Ron Mann's documntary Comic Book Confidential, about which I will have more to say at a future date, but the 1989 film serves as...

Well, the year is winding down, and with it comes the annual "Best Of" lists from various websites and media.  Publishers Weekly led the charge, issuing an actual graphic novel listing within their greater...