Tag: Daniel Clowes

Quick Hits | ‘Demon Slayer,’ Dav Pilkey, Bill Watterson top 2023 graphic novel sales charts

Plus: ‘Monica’ wins in Angouleme, the Bram Stoker Awards ballot and more.

Pulling information from Circana BookScan, ICv2 has listed the top 20 graphic novels sold in 2023 in the superhero, manga and “author” categories. They’ve also posted lists of the top adult and kid’s graphic novels.

Looking through the lists (which don’t provide exact numbers, just rankings), it looks like the first volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge is the big winner, topping both the manga chart and the adult graphic novel chart. Or maybe I should say “a big winner,” because over on the kid’s graphic novel chart, Dav Pilkey rules supreme, as Dog Man and its Cat Kid Comics Club spinoff took 13 of the 20 positions, including the top 3.

Also, I’m not exactly sure how the superhero and author categories are defined. For instance, the Invincible Compendium shows up on the author list — which makes sense, given how popular the Amazon show is — with Robert Kirkman listed as the author. But I would have expected it to be on the superhero list, given it’s about superheroes and Kirkman isn’t the sole author.

Then for superhero graphic novels, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin hardcover topped the list, followed by Tokyopop’s Nightmare Before Christmas: Battle for the Pumpkin King manga. I think you could make the argument that the Last Ronin is a superhero title, but the Nightmare Before Christmas manga seems like it’s in the wrong place. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the catgeories.

All that aside, sales numbers for comics disappeared during the pandemic when the industry went from a single distributor to multiple distributors, so seeing any kind of data like this is appreciated and interesting.

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Quick Hits | ‘Chivalry’ wins at the Locus Awards

Plus: #ComicsBrokeMe, Lambda Literary Awards, Hoopla adds manga and more.

Awards | Chivalry, the short story by Neil Gaiman adapted into a graphic novel by Colleen Doran, has won a Locus Award in the category of “Illustrated and Art Book.” The graphic novel, which was published by Dark Horse, was up against several traditional art books and a few other graphic novels like The Night Eaters in the category. Artist Charles Vess also won another Locus Award in the category of “Best Artist.”

Industry | Writing for the Daily Beast, Chris Kindred talks to several comic creators about the #ComicsBrokeMe hashtag that Shivana Sookdeo created after the death of Ian McGinty and the stories they shared about working in the comics industry.

“The act of creating hundreds of well-illustrated pages takes serious time, significant strain on the body, and mental stamina. So many of us have sustained significant damage to our health trying to make ends meet,” Sookdeo told Kindred.

The article also notes the creation of the Cartoonist Cooperative, a creator-run organization trying to address these issues within the industry.

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Fantagraphics will publish a new Daniel Clowes graphic novel this fall

The creator of ‘Ghost World’ and ‘Wilson’ returns to comics with ‘Monica’ later this year.

Fantagraphics has announced a new project by Daniel Clowes that will arrive in stores this fall — Monica, the life story of a woman that the publisher describes as “mysterious, uncategorizable and quintessentially Clowesian.”

The award-winning creator of Ghost World, The Death-Ray, Wilson, Patience and more took about six years to finish the new project, which will no doubt be one of this year’s biggest releases.

“Daniel Clowes had already created what might well be my favorite body of work in the medium’s history,” said Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds. “But Monica raises his own bar even higher, as both a writer of fiction and as a cartoonist. It’s a masterpiece that is both utterly Clowes and unlike anything else I’ve ever read.”

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Clowes, Piskor get Studio Editions in October

You’ll find original art scans, process pieces and more in two new Studio Editions coming in October.

Fantagraphics has announced Studio Editions for two popular comic artists — Daniel Clowes and Ed Piskor.

Much like IDW’s popular Artist’s Editions line, Studio Editions contain un-retouched original art scans — letting you see the artist’s originals in a way that you’d otherwise only see if you had direct access to them. “These full-size reproductions retain original pencil marks, corrections, and marginalia—fascinating imperfections that provide insights into the creative process of these master cartoonists,” the press release reads.

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