April Roundup

It’s almost May and that means that ALIA National is almost upon us. All the best for everyone going. James Baker, will be representing ALIA Graphic there, so watch out for his presentation about the ALIA Graphic Book Club. He will also be speaking at the ALIA Groups panel talk. If you’re thinking of joining us, speak to him. 

In Australian comics news, we’re really excited that Sarah Firth’s Eventually Everything Connects is being published by Graphic Mundi in the U.S. in June, followed by UK and European editions too. Congratulations Sarah!

And we’re absolutely delighted to hear that Jessica Walton and Aśka’s Stars in Their Eyes has been really well received in the U.S. receiving a Stonewall Honor, being included in the 2023 Rainbow Booklist for YA, and the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, among others. 

We recognised those two graphic novels in our Notables Shortlist and we’re so happy to see them find new readers and success away from Australia. They deserve it.

Anyway, here’s our monthly roundup and don’t forget to read comics! 

News

• Brian Hibbs publishes a yearly report of graphic novel sales in the U.S. book market. It’s always an incredibly thorough and fascinating read and 2023’s report is out now on The Beat. Some key points: almost 49% of sales went to manga, 38% went to kids’ comics where Scholastic and Dav Pilkey reign supreme. The full report is here.
• ComicsPRO has completed a comprehensive survey of comics stores in the U.S. It gives a really interesting insight into the make up of comics stores and the challenges that comics they are facing. You can find all the key results in this great article on The Beat by Heidi McDonald.
• It’s been building up slowly, the relationships, love, and, of course, the training. Fence Challengers: Long Shot, is the new phase of the series and our favourite fencers have finally reached the State Championships. C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad’s Fence series continues this July and we can’t wait to see what happens at the State Championships. More info on Popverse here.
• Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont together with Edgar Salazar is working on a Wolverine mini series set in the Australian outback. Wolverine Deep Cuts will be a stand alone mini of four issues, later to be published in a collected edition. You can find all the info here.
• Dav Pilkey published another Dog Man volume and the law of diminishing returns doesn’t seem to apply to this author and this series. According to Popverse, not only sales are up from the previous volume, but sales of the backlist are also higher. Astonishing! You can find the article Dog Man is the best-selling book around the world right now here.
• The 3 Body Problem is a highly acclaimed science fiction trilogy by Cixin Liu. The novels have recently been adapted into a TV series and Yen Press has just announced they will be publishing a graphic novel adaptation of the books. You can read the article on Bleeding Cool for more info.

Collections

• The challenges of long manga series are well known and it’s interesting to see what other librarians say about it. Priya Sridhar has published a great survey of libraries and how they deal with long manga series on Anime Herald. You can find the whole article here. 
• No Flying No Tights has published another great Staff Picks feature, this time focusing on single volume manga. So if you want to read manga but don’t want to commit to a really long series. They have you covered with some great suggestions. You can read Manga: One and Done here.
• Comics shop retailers share their favourite hand-sells in a recent article on Publishers Weekly. You can find the article here. This is an interesting article and something we could all reflect on. What graphic novels do you recommend when you’re talking to someone at the library and why?

Podcasts/Media

• We published a creator chat with Paul McLaughlin of Lil Viking Space Rangers. The discussion covers this delightful and humorous comic for kids, the process of making comics, Paul’s experiences with libraries and doing workshops at libraries and more. You can watch the creator chat on our YouTube page here or listen to it on our podcast feed here. We’ve also published our monthly roundup podcast where we discuss some of the news and new titles. You can find our podcast on our Acast home here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
• Library Pass hosted an excellent webinar on comics and manga that is now freely available. It covers a lot of great ground. You can find the webinar here.
• The Readings bookshop in Melbourne has published two recent episodes with Australian comics legend Bernard Caleo where they discuss the most intriguing and interesting graphic novels of 2023. You can listen to part 1 here and part 2 here.
• In this episode of the Graphic Medicine podcast, MK interviews Cara Bean to celebrate the April 2 launch of Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health. They discuss the book’s origin story, how to not get overwhelmed when working on a complex topic in comic form, and the work Cara hopes her book will do in the world. You can listen to the episode here.

NEW TITLES

Junior

• Darkwing Duck: F.O.W.L. Play by Amanda Deibert, Carlo Lauro (Dynamite) [9781524123581]
• I Survived The Battle Of D-Day by Lauren Tarshis & Brian Churilla (Scholastic Inc) [9781761521614]
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll by Stephanie Williams, Asia Simone (Scholastic) [9781338785524]
• Pizza and Taco, Vol. 3: Super-Awesome Comic! by Stephen Shaskan (Scholastic Australia) [9781761522215]
• Together Forever by Kristen Gudsnuk (Scholastic Inc) [9781338630824]
• Whatever After: Fairest of All by Sarah Mlynowski, Anu Chouhan (Scholastic – Graphix) [9781761521591]
• Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, Travis Dandro (Drawn & Quarterly) [9781770466968]

YA

• The Anxiety Club: How to Survive Modern Life by Frederic Fanget, Catherine Meyer, Pauline Aubry (SelfMadeHero) [9781914224218]
• Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story by Nicole Maines, Rye Hickman (DC Comics) [9781779510457]
• A Fox in My Brain by Lou Lubie (Fairsquare Comics) [9781960171108]
• Homebody by Theo Parish (Harper Alley) [9780063319585]
• Itaewon Class Vol 1 by Jin Kwang (Ize Press) [9798400901409]
• Just Another Story by Ernesto Saade (Lerner Publishing Group) [9798765623367]
• Tomorrow the Birds by Osamu Tezuka (Ablaze) [9781684972388]

Adult

• Amazonia Book 1 by Rodolphe, LEO, Bertrand Marchal (Cinebook) [9781800441316]
• Dwellings by Jay Stephens (Oni Press) [9781637152911]
• Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls (MCD) [9780374601652]
• Gleem by Freddy Carrasco (Drawn & Quarterly) [9781770467101]
• Harlem by Mikael (NBM) [9781681123288]
• In Perpetuity by Peter Hoey, Maria Hoey (Top Shelf) [9781603095372]
• The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories by David Small (WW Norton & Co) [9781324092827]