Amazon's TOP 50 GRAPHIC NOVELS Charts Sales, Not Accuracy

Amazon.com's weekly list of their fifty best-selling graphic novels is as interesting to read as it is misleading. It's not that we doubt the accounting abilities of the world wide web's biggest bookseller, only their terminology.  For instance, take Amazon's most recent "Top 50" list, dated 09 April 2010: Of their top 25 best-selling graphic novels, only two of the books listed actually are graphic novels.  Do you know which listed duo Amazon has correctly identified?  Let's take a look at the first half of Friday's Top 50:

1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid
4 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
5 Kick-Ass
6 Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
7 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
8 Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
9 The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13)
10 Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
11 Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn *
12 Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour *
13 50,000,000 Pearls Fans Can't Be Wrong: A Pearls Before Swine Collection *
14 The Boys Volume 6 SC
15 The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
16 The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
17  Yotsuba&!, Vol. 8 *
18 Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
19 The Losers: Book One (Vol. 1 & 2)
20 The Complete Persepolis
21 Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
22 Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
23 Warriors: Ravenpaw's Path #2: A Clan in Need
24 Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
25 Watchmen

We've taken the liberty of colorizing Amazon's listings for your ease of reading pleasure - and now that you've had a chance to read them easily, let's get back to our question from up top. Only two of Amazon's first 25 enumerations are really and truly actually 'graphic novels:' do you have your answers ready? Here's ours:

16 The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb

20 The Complete Persepolis

We could be real sticklers and argue that Robert Crumb's The Book of Genesis might fall outside of a graphic novel's strict definition, as  true graphic novels must also be original works, and we're pretty sure Crumb didn't draft the Bible.  However, Genesis was created for the graphic novel format, and Crumb's work didn't exist previous to his publishing it as a graphic novel, so we'll accept his best-seller into the Original Graphic Novel Club. 

You may have gleaned from our paragraph above, then, that to be a true graphic novel, a work has to be (a) original (b) not appeared in print in any other format (c) was created as a complete work specifically for the graphic novel format and (d) is, of course, sequential art (or comics). 

We're definitely understanding graphic novels better than we ever have, and hopefully you are, too.  But it feels like we're missing something.  What about those four paperback Scott Pilgrim volumes that, along with Jeff Kinney's Diary of  A Wimpy Kid books, dominate Amazon's upper half? They are original, they were created for the format they're in, and none of them have been in print before. So far, so good; they look like graphic novels to us.  But are they?

 

Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim's creator,  would be the first to attest his volumes are  actually comic books, although they don't adhere to the monthly 22-page pamphlet format most folks think of when they think of a comic book.  (His publicists would likely disagree and side with Amazon, but that's beside the point. )  They're not graphic novels, though. The giveaway here is that they're volumes, which is another way of indicating that Scott Pilgrim is a series. Graphic Novels, by contrast, are self-contained works; they don't continue with a 'Part II'.  So, we'll add another point to our definition of what a Graphic Novel is by saying that it's (e) a self-contained work.

Though we admittedly don't know the future plans for the otherwise self-identified Twilight: The Graphic Novel, an adaptation but nonetheless original work created for the 'graphic novel format,' Volume 1 is part of its title. That suggests to us that the Manga-esque Twilight comic book has high aspirations --- but it's not a graphic novel, either.

If the remaining 13 books of the Top 25 aren't graphic novels, what are they? Two of the Top 25 -- numbers 9 and 13 -- are collections of comic strips; the remaining ten are trade paperbacks, or collections of (mostly) reprinted material. For a better understanding of what a trade paperback is, check [here] or [here].

In case you've been wondering about Amazon's bottom half, you'll find #26 thru #50 below.  Peruse at your leisure, and we'll meet you down below with a few closing observations. 

26 The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
27 Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
28 Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
29 Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
30 Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
31 Asterios Polyp
32 Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross
33 Tales from the Crypt #8: Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid
34 Instructions *
35 Planetary Vol. 4: Space-time Archaeology
36 Irredeemable: Volume 1
37 Irredeemable Vol 2
38 Captain America: Reborn *
39 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
40 Hellboy Volume 9: The Wild Hunt
41 Batman: The Killing Joke
42 The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
43 Batman: The Long Halloween
44 The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel *
45 Halo: Helljumper
46 Wolves at the Gate (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 3)
47 V for Vendetta
48 Astonishing X-Men Omnibus
49 Batman: Year One
50 Predators and Prey (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 5)

 A few of our Top 50 observations, as promised:

Fourteen of the Top 25 and 18 of the Top 50 have been or will soon be motion pictures; only 11 of the 50 are superhero related, three of those written by Alan Moore and 5 of those belonging to Batman; at #5, Kick-Ass, released just over a month ago and with a movie adaptation opening this Friday, recently surpassed 100,000 copies in print; and last but not least, only a total of six of Amazon's Top 50 Graphic Novels really and truly are actually graphic novels.

Curse us for the fundamentalists we are, but does Amazon's misrepresentation mean anything?  After all, they're only re-affirming what most people think graphic novels are in the first place, aren't they?  Of course, but that does beg the question as to what exactly that hazy notion might be.  

Amazon.com's Top 50 list includes everything from children's books, trade paperbacks, serialized comics and comic strip collections, to a fairy tale storybook and even a hardbound collection of a comic book artist's original sketches.   A variety like that makes us think that Amazon's 'Graphic Novels' are, by and large, books containing narratives told mainly through a combination of words and pictures.  They do  make an exception for children's storybooks, but as most don't make a habit of using word bubbles, we figure they're immune to the classification.

Ultimately, we're hard-pressed to draw any firm conclusion. All we can say with certainty is that considerable over-use of the word has rendered 'graphic novel' meaningless,  an impotent and completely non-descriptive generalization. In other words, the once prestigious term 'graphic novel' has evolved to be no different than the one thing  it  was invented to  be distinguished from: a comic book.  

To fundamentalists like us, that means everything.

Consoling Numbers: The Secret Lives of American Gamers

Probably months before it light-cycles a neon path into theaters this Christmas, the glowing world of Tron: Legacy will accessible to anyone with a PS3, an X-box, maybe even a Wii.  After all, the movie is set in a video game arcade! At least, the original Tron was, back in 1982 - a primitive time when folks had barely graduated from Pong and somehow got by with only an Atari joystick to pass the time.  We live in a very different world than we did thirty years ago, and from the looks of it, we'd better be careful or we'll end up with Tron as our neighbor. Of course, then we'd have light-cycles in our garage...and that doesn't really sound so bad. Hmmm...

Here's a designer - and informative - look into the secret life of the video game - and the people who play them - all-American style:

Less Obvious Heroes: WATCHMEN vs. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

J.D. Salinger, the semi-reclusive and slightly mysterious author of The Catcher in the Rye, past away Wednesday from natural causes at the age of 91. Catcher, which was first published in 1951, was Jerome David Salinger’s sole published novel; that, and a handful of short stories,  remain his only public writings.  Nevertheless, there's few among us who haven't met the 16-year-old Holden Caulfield or who could find meaning and relationship in his disaffected quest to be anything but a "phony" -- an unmasked vigilante of sorts roaming a masquerade world.

Having so few published works, comics' prolific pace would have been anathema to Salinger, but it's interesting to see him - and Catcher's Holden Caulfield - through comic book glasses.  From his obsession with privacy to his stature as a cult figure, Salinger would certainly have had much in common with Alan Moore - especially if Moore were to have quit comics all-together following Watchmen. Moore's recoil from the mainstream comics scene is reminiscent of Salinger's own aversion to publishing, to which he seemed to have a singular dislike. Both writers, intentionally or not, also sparked their share of controversy - for Moore, his pornographic novel, Lost Girls, may be his best example; however, Salinger easily trumps Girls, as Catcher in the Rye earned the privilege of being the United States' most-banned book of the 1990's.

Sales-wise, Catcher in the Rye is estimated to have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide since it was first published 59 years ago; it continues to sell about 200,000 copies annually. Watchmen was published 24 years ago, in 1986; The Los Angeles Times reported in 2008 that the graphic novel had sold 100,000 copies the year before, and that DC Comics had printed nearly a million more in response to rising sales spurred by the then-forthcoming Watchmen movie.  In addition, Watchmen's initial print run - as a twelve-issue comic book mini-series - would greatly increase its numbers - although exact data unfortunately doesn't exist (what does exist can be seen HERE).  Even if it did - all things being relative - abbracadabbling would declare this point a draw.

The stories and content of Catcher and Watchmen seem, at least on the surface, to be infinitely different.  Thematically, however, intriguing similarities exist, especially between the main character and narrator of each, Holden Caulfield and Rorschach.  Both characters have issues with masks, either metaphorical or literal. Both are extraordinarily cynical characters, each of them a wanderer in life with heroic intentions of saving others and somehow returning the world to a better, early way of being. Both rail against wealth and corruption, both are unwilling non-conformists and are alienated (if not eventually killed) because of idealistic beliefs they'll never sacrifice.  Both Rorschach and Holden's persistence with their ideals brings their sanity into question, and each is called upon to acclimate to a society they detest. Yet despite of the pervasive sense of alienation  that surrounds the characters,  Holden and Rorschach also remain pessimistic about their  (misguided?) role  as a savior and their mission to uphold an order they believe to be right and just.

 
When we heard of J.D. Salinger's death, we knew immediately it had a place on our blog, for undoubtedly Salinger's influence can be felt and seen in the works of many writers today.  It doesn't seem likely that the author would have considered Holden Caulfield to be a super hero, although his sixteen-year-old protagonist certainly meets many of the genre's criteria to be one. 

Like Moore's Rorschach, Holden is a psychological examination made human.  With no domino mask or cape to his name, Salinger's greatest contribution has given generations of young readers a less obvious hero, but a hero nonetheless.   

[Source]

Industrial Vigilante: One-In-Ten Americans Reads Comics...Or Do They?

If you or someone you know hasn't picked up a comic or graphic novel lately - or ever, the Industrial Vigilante says you might want to consider a trip to the bookstore or your local comic shop this afternoon, especially if you or that unnamed someone aren't the sort of folks who like feeling left out.

According to Simba Information's compilation of Winter 2009 data as collected by the Simmons Market Research Bureau, one in ten adult American book buyers also reads comic books. That's 10% of the book-buying public over the age of 18. In addition, 70% of adults who have read comics have also purchased at least one (1) prose book - fiction, non-fiction, what have you - during the last twelve months. While buying just a single book would be serious torture to me, recent literacy data has indicated that 44% of adult Americans don't even buy one in any given twelve-month period.

US News online reported the US population to be about 306M in January of 2009 and Wikipedia places the current total over 308M. It also states that 27-percent of the population, roughly, is below the age of 20. For this blog's purposes, we'll figure that 25% - or 77,000,000 people - are below the ripe age of 18 and weren't counted in the Simmons/Simba studies. That means, then, that 102M American adults don't buy books or read comics at all. It's possible these folks may read library books or the fine print on internet porn sites instead, but the implication here is that American literacy and the general interest in reading is pretty damn bad.

On a much more uplifting note, the recent information also suggests and supports the conclusions made by several other comics studies, that reading comic books is associated with a greater interest in reading other material, as well as improved academic performance in younger readers.

Simba's research has been noticed because the reported number of comic book readers comes as a surprise to the industry, and a welcome one at that. But when you've been in comics as long as Ivy, the Industrial Vigilante, you know there's more to the 'The Big Panel' than meets the eye. Finding any real value from the One In Ten requires a Vigilante to ask some tough questions, such as:

• Why are the number of readers so high? And who are they, specifically?
• What types of comics are the One In Ten reading?
• Is the comics industry addressing their customers and potential customers well enough, or even at all?
• How is the economy affecting comics?
• And oh yeah, what's the story with the younger readers? Where did they go?

Hmph! Dabblers, 'looks like the Industrial Vigilante's going to be sticking around for a while. We'll get these questions figured out, so keep reading... and stay vigilant.