Laitan tähän koko artikkelin New York Timesista. Itseäni huvittaa että vaikka briteissä on aina ollut mainioita sarjakuvantekijöitä snobit kiinnostuivat vasta kun funnies ja comics keksittiin myydä nimellä graphic novel. Paskanmaku, hyvä jos menevät kaupaksi.
In July HarperCollins UK released its first series of graphic novels: the “Agatha Christie Comic Strip Editions,” graphic adaptations of those quintessentially British crime stories. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of the London publisher Orion Books, is bringing out its first graphic novel, “Shooting War,” in November, while Faber & Faber, on the heels of its success with a graphic-novel version of Paul Auster’s “House of Glass” in 2005, has signed a three-book deal with the American graphic novelist Adrian Tomine (“Optic Nerve”), and is publishing the first in that series, “Shortcomings,” next month.
Bloomsbury, the British publisher of the Harry Potter books, is set next year to publish its first graphic novel, “Logicomix,” a book that the newspaper The Independent has already praised as “potentially, the genre’s ‘Sophie’s World,’ ” referring to the early-’90s pop-philosophy best seller.
It’s not just publishing hype. In 2005 Mr. Briggs and Posy Simmonds, two of Britain’s most respected graphic novelists, were inaugurated into the Royal Society of Literature, and last year they illustrated the front cover of the society’s magazine under the headline “The Invasion of the Graphic Novelists,” causing ripples within the literary establishment. Comica, a British comics festival that takes place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, enters its fifth year in October, while British newspapers frequently publish reviews of graphic novels.
Meanwhile, sales are on the rise. Michael Rowley, the graphic-novel buyer for Waterstone’s, Britain’s largest bookshop chain, said sales of the books had increased 41 percent in the last year alone.
What is behind this sudden wave of enthusiasm for a genre that has previously been sidelined in Britain?
For Paul Gravett, the author of “Great British Comics” and one of the country’s foremost promoter of graphic novels, one of the primary reasons is simply the creation of the “graphic novel” category. “The word comics is laden with so many negative connotations, while the words ‘graphic novel’ give it a certain cachet,” he said.
Jonathan Cape’s success with its graphic-novel line has also been encouraging for other British publishers. “It’s becoming something that we need to pay attention to,” said Kelly Falconer, an editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson. “We’re dipping a toe in the water — and if it works, then we’ll start looking for more.”
Those in the book business also agree that the recent success of a few breakthrough graphic novels — like “Jimmy Corrigan” and the Iranian writer and artist Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis,” the film version of which is currently being released worldwide — has significantly helped the genre. Meanwhile, the possibility of printing graphic novels cheaply in the Far East has helped free the market and allowed publishers to take risks on novels that would otherwise have been prohibitively expensive.
Timing is another factor. For many the publication of Mr. Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” in 1986 signaled the opening for a wider acceptance of graphic novels, but that failed to materialize. To explain their popularity today, Mr. Gravett cites the Internet and graphic multimedia.
“I don’t think that it is a coincidence that graphic novels are coming into their own in an era where people are becoming acclimatized to taking in words and images together,” he said.
After a slow start, Britain is now keen to nurture artists working within the medium. Last month The Observer, with Jonathan Cape and the Comica festival, initiated a short-graphic-narrative competition to find new British talent. Angus Cargill, an editor at Faber & Faber, said he was “very definitely looking for new British stuff.”
With publishers in Britain still taking on works mainly from the Canadian graphic-novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly, as well as the American companies Pantheon and Fantagraphics, the incentive to find home-grown talent is high.
British graphic novelists are also embracing their heritage. Bryan Talbot’s “Alice in Sunderland” explores, in part, the history of the graphic novel in Britain, wending from the Bayeux Tapestry to Hogarth’s cartoons and Sir John Tenniel’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” illustrations.
Ms. Simmonds’s next work, “Tamara Drewe,” to be published in November, is loosely based on Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crowd,” while her graphic-novel version of Dickens’s “Christmas Carol” is set to be published in January. Last March Self Made Hero, a London publishing house, brought out a line of Shakespeare manga to wide acclaim, beginning with a futuristic version of “Hamlet.”
And it looks as if the British public is now finally ready to support its local talent.
Mr. Franklin at Cape said the most successful books this year have been “Alice in Sunderland” and Simone Lia’s “Fluffy,” also British. He added, “People are coming out of the woodwork, and it’s fantastic.”
Aihe: Englantilaiset ovat kiinnostuneet sarjakuvista (Luettu 6492 kertaa)