Adult graphic novels, youth comics, comics for kids, manga… It seems the French couldn’t get enough of the stuff in 2018, doubling sales from independent bookstores. By comparison the other sectors rose just 0.6%. The numbers come from a report by the L’Observatoire de la Librairie commissioned to mark the launch of the Festival International Read More …
The numbers are in and the numbers are: $42 billion globally, with North America contributing an impressive $11.9 billion of that. As reported here at TNPS last month, US takings were on target to beat the 2016 record of $11.4 billion, and final results show a 4% jump on 2016, and 6.7% growth on the Read More …
The past seven days on TNPS – here’s what you missed. Dubai Audio Library “the largest Arabic audio library in the world” Dubai Audio Library “the largest Arabic audio library in the world” Self-published comic book to become Netflix series – Again Self-published comic book to become Netflix series – Again Saudi Arabia’s 4th Read More …
What are the chances? You self-publish a comic book. Someone finds an old copy in a trash can. He happens to be a TV director. Next thing you know, your self-published comic book is a TV series. Now try count the odds for it happening twice! Okay, so there was no trash can involved the Read More …
Here’s a summary of TNPS posts from the past seven days. UK small publishers find new ways to survive as chain bookstores turn them away HarperCollins’ Harlequin launches romance book website in Australia The Mogadishu Book Fair: an oasis of tranquility in a troubled land Small presses and self-publishers left stranded by collapse of Read More …
It may not be the biggest, despite what Statista tells you, but the San Diego comic convention was the first to sue for the right to the branding “Comic Con,” and news just emerging is that the Salt Lake Comic Con, has been landed a $4 million bill as part of a legal decision that Read More …
The big American and British book and comic events get plenty of coverage elsewhere, so aren’t usually a staple of The New Publishing Standard, but the San Diego Comic Con warrants a mention here on two counts. First, and rather surprisingly, is that the San Diego event with its regular 130,000 visitors is being touted Read More …
The global publishing market has never been more exciting, and every day myriad publishing stories cross my screen that I’d love to develop here at TNPS, but there simply isn’t time. But if you’re reading TNPS in the first place you probably share my obsession with all things international publishing, and would no doubt enjoy Read More …
It would be impossible to try cover even a fraction of the publishing news that lands on my e-desk each day, but there’s so much happening in our industry that passes unnoticed. So here’s a selection of some of the past two days’ best publishing stories, taken from the TNPS twitter feed (@thenewpubstd). Apologies if Read More …
Last month the second Saudi Arabia Comic Con took place. Numbers are just in and 25,000 people turned up for the event in Riyadh. This past week Saudi cinema re-opened after 35 years, and the first film shown was Marvel’s Black Panther. While In Dubai the Middle East Film and Comic Con attracted 60,000 visitors, Read More …
The global publishing market has never been more exciting, and every day myriad publishing stories cross my screen that I’d love to develop here at TNPS, but there simply isn’t time. But if you’re reading TNPS in the first place you probably share my obsession with all things international publishing, and would no doubt enjoy Read More …
Kobo’s French ebook and audiobook distribution partner Fnac started offering digital comics via the Orange mobile service last year, and this year it adds audiobooks and ebooks to the telco offering. At a time when telcos are struggling to differentiate themselves from one another, being able to offer additional consumer content is one way to Read More …
The Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC) is underway in Dubai, and the Arabic-language children’s publishing house Kalimat is set to release the first of its graphic titles, Antara, part of series first unveiled at the Sharjah IBF 2017 and again at the Paris book fair earlier this year. Among the star attractions at Read More …
The president of the Saudi Publishers Association, Ahmed Al Hamdan, this week valued the Saudi Arabian publishing industry at 5 billion SAR ($1.3 billion), but just what that valuation entails remains unclear. In an exclusive interview with the Saudi business daily Al Eqtisadiah (The Economy), Al Hamdan said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “ranked #1 in Read More …
The Royal Palm Golf and Country Club in Lahore, Pakistan is probably not the kind of place you’d normally expect to see Harry Potter, Spiderman and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. But then again, Pakistan is probably not a country we associate with comics and science fiction at all. But things are changing, and Pakistan presents a Read More …
Cosplay, the art of dressing up in elaborate costumes of comic, anime and science fiction characters, is a major part of the comic publishing industry’s wider entertainment arena, and dates back to the very first World Science Fiction Convention in New York in 1939. Today the Comic Con India Cosplay Finals are live as this is Read More …
Development of the Vietnamese comic book market is high on the agenda at the Japan-Vietnam Festival this weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, reports VietnamNet. As well as displays by the Japan Manga Book Association, copyright issues will be discussed, and also ways for both Vietnamese and Japanese artists and authors to move the Vietnamese Read More …
As a kid back in nineteen bow and arrow I spent much of my childhood reading comics, dreaming about writing comics and, in my early teens, writing to fellow comic-lovers around the world. And I do mean around the world. We only had snail-mail back then (a time when owning a pocket calculator was the Read More …
For a couple of hours this coming Saturday adults in Yangon, Myanmar (that’s Rangoon, Burma for those of us who learned geography last century) will be able to take a trip down memory lane in the company of some classic comics from Myanmar’s comic golden age. ‘Graffiti and Cartoon Story’ is a public display of Read More …
Marvel’s new editor-in-chief is no stranger to controversy. Last year C.B. Cebulksi’s arrival in the US to take on the role (he had previously been working for Marvel in Shanghai as Marvel Asia VP) was overshadowed by revelations he had previously written comics under a Japanese pen-name. That wasn’t controversial in itself so much as Read More …
