The London Book Fair takes place 19th – 21st April. This annual trade event has decided that comics and graphic novels are worth some attention as well and tells us so on the specially created Comic & Graphic Novel Pavillion:
“Comic books, graphic novels, manga and animé have finally emerged as a serious part of the publishing industry. To embrace this LBF has introduced a Comic & Graphic Novel Pavilion. Discover the latest titles, key players and watch celebrated illustrators creating new work live in the ‘studio’. There will also be a number of seminars discussing the opportunities available within these markets.“
Well, that’s nice. Serious part of the publishing industry indeed. It will be interesting to see all those anime books – I always thought they were movies. The exhibitor list currently looks a bit sparse right now (Diamond Distributors, SelfMadeHero and Highland Books – a Christian book publisher with a couple of cartoon collections rather than comics). But, being less snarky, it is a good thing for comics to get a higher profile at the LBF since it’s a major publishers event, with over 23,000 industry professionals in attendance. Deals are done and books are sold.
The Seminars include: Helen McCarthy, Cory Doctorow, Ian Rankin, Paul Gravett, Marco Lupoi (Panini), Emma Hayley (SelfMadeHero), Sophie Castille (Mediatoon) and cover a range of comic publishing topics: Cross-Media Horizons: Graphic Novels & Video Games, Getting Graphic Novels and Manga to the Reader, New Opportunities: Graphic Novels and Digital, Graphic Novel Industry Unveiled.
More details on the LBF Graphic Novels Pavillion website.
Sat, Feb 13, 2010
Books, Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events