PeKOMIK

Suppose, ten years ago, you had asked a comics shop owner who his or her least likely customer was. There’s a good chance that he would have answered you with “teenage girls.” At the time, it was estimated that 85 to 90 percent of comics customers were male. It was also estimated that over 80 percent of comics sales in this country took place in the Direct Sales market, a fancy name for comics specialty stores. As a result, the merchandise offered inside most specialty stores has basically reflected the tastes of those male customers. Meanwhile, almost by accident, Shojo (Japanese comics for teenage girls) found its way into traditional bookstores. The resulting sales surge has made these very same teenage girls one of the key factors in the overall growth of comics sales over the last several years and the primary reason for the expanded graphic novel shelf space in the big book chains. Surprising? Not really.

Graphic storytelling, that is, the use of words and pictures to tell stories, has the same ability to entertain and inform as any other medium. This fact is celebrated in other countries, but not here in our own America, where, ironically, comics were born. At Dark Horse, we have our very own example of the possibilities that exist for growth. A number of years ago, Dark Horse published a book, Another Chance to Get It Right, by mainstream author Andrew Vachss and artist Geof Darrow. The book was held up on screen during the Oprah show while a phone number was flashed for less than ten seconds. Over 150,000 phone calls were received by viewers attempting to order the book. Unfortunately, we received complaints for weeks afterward that the book could not be found in bookstores or comic shops.

The bottom line is this: If publishers expand the types of comics and graphic novels they offer, if distributors push more than the obvious “sure bets,” and if comics retailers dedicate a portion of their monthly budgets to expand the types of books they offer, we have our best chance of attracting NEW readers. And make no mistake, if the market is to grow, we need new KINDS of readers. One step in the right direction is the attention being focused by the mainstream on “comics lit.” While the term and its definition are somewhat exclusionary, the acceptance of the works it refers to gives creators with a very different voice than those found in traditional comics fare the chance to be heard, thereby appealing to some of the 99 percent I mentioned earlier.

As always, Dark Horse will strive for variety of content and format in its publishing schedule, the not-so-secret formula behind our success.