Comments on: World, Meet Comics, Me http://blog.booklistonline.com/2009/03/05/world-meet-comics-me/ Behind the Book Reviews--The Official Blog of Booklist Online Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:38:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: John http://blog.booklistonline.com/2009/03/05/world-meet-comics-me/comment-page-1/#comment-340895 John Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:40:54 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/?p=1846#comment-340895 Ian, the moment has arrived. It’s like the Clash accepting a Grammy or Prince winning an Oscar for Best Song. It is strangely fun to see the NYT posting a list of best selling titles for graphic novels/comics. Keep in mind it is the list of Best Selling Titles. This is why you have Naruto dominating the manga list. You cant lump the titles together as that would be the same thing as lumping all the Harry Potter series together.

I believe, if you combined manga sales with the paperback sales, manga would likely crush that category as well.

I do like Keir’s suggestion we make the classics like Lord of the Flies and the others look like subversive reading. Kids love to read those things not allowed.

The NYT Bestseller lists are barometers of popular reading. They are not intended to determine what is classic literature. What’s difference between an Oscar winning movie and a summer blockbuster? About 100 million dollars in ticket sales and unforgetable lines which become absorbed into our cultural dialog.

I am certain there was a moment when librarians and literary giants orignially frowned upon the value of the NYT lists. Same thing happened with rock and roll.

I say bring it on…bring on the manga, bring on the superheroes, bring on the memoirs, bring it all!

I did notice there’s not a list of romance titles.
What’s up with that?

]]> By: Keir http://blog.booklistonline.com/2009/03/05/world-meet-comics-me/comment-page-1/#comment-339302 Keir Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:14:50 +0000 http://blog.booklistonline.com/?p=1846#comment-339302 Welcome to Likely Stories, Mr. Chipman. Glad to have you. As to your question, I guess the only thing that’s left are the questionable magazines found in the backs of some fathers’ closets . . . of course, according to some recent reports, teens are increasingly likely to MAKE their own explicit material. Sigh. I say we start a campaign telling young people that, under any circumstances, they are NOT supposed to read mid-century classics like Lord of the Flies, 1984, Brave New World, etc. etc. Maybe they’ll start furtively reading Catcher in the Rye behind their copies of Watchmen.

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