![\"\"](\"http:\/\/prodimage.images-bn.com\/pimages\/9780525429999_p0_v1_s1200x630.jpg\")
This is a graphic novel.<\/p><\/div>
\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.scholastic.com\/planetpilkey\/images\/dog-man-a-tale-of-two-kitties.png\")
This is a graphic novel.<\/p><\/div>
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/d1ldy8a769gy68.cloudfront.net\/300\/978\/162\/672\/416\/7\/9781626724167.jpg\")
This is not, but it cohabitates.<\/p><\/div> Trying to find the best name for the comics section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs sales of books in comics format have soared over the past several years, most booksellers and publishers have come to use “graphic novel”\u00a0to provide an umbrella for\u00a0a wide-ranging\u00a0genre that includes nonfiction and other forms that defy the definition of “novel.” The term\u00a0has become easy\u00a0collective shorthand, but its inaccuracy\u00a0irks many, including the very artists who make these books, many of whom use and prefer the term “comics.” So how do we resolve this terminology issue at the store?
\nKids and their parents are used to the “graphic novels” term, too, and that’s what they come in asking for. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change things, but if we do, we need the shift to be clear to our customers.
\nWe keep\u00a0Calvin & Hobbes<\/em>, Get Fuzzy<\/em>, Garfield<\/em>, The Far Side<\/em> and other comic strip \/ cartoon collections in our juvenile humor section, and\u00a0keep narrative comics\u00a0\u2014 both fiction and nonfiction comics, and manga\u00a0\u2014 together in their own section. We still call this the Graphic Novels section, because it’s the industry norm and it’s what our customers come in looking for, but it seems time to revisit the terminology, especially since its very practitioners object. But what to use instead?
\nMany parents still hear the word “comics” and think of comic books and comic strips, and therefore\u00a0dismiss them in favor of the\u00a0chapter books they think\u00a0are better for\u00a0their children. Now, anyone who reads comics understands how amazingly brilliant they can be, how complex and layered and thought-provoking and powerful. But\u00a0for customers who grew up with a strict division between chapter books and comic books,\u00a0the latter of which were generally thought\u00a0to be merely fluff, the Comics label still carries a stigma.
\nOur culture has moved quickly over the past several years, so I think\u00a0it won’t be long before we’ll be completely past\u00a0any misguided elitism, but we aren’t quite there yet.
\nI decided to\u00a0put this question to my fellow children’s booksellers around the country to see if they\u00a0had any solutions. Leslie Hawkins, owner of Spellbound Books in Asheville, N.C., and fellow ShelfTalker blogger, replied, “The whole sequential art storytelling community needs to brainstorm and gives us better labels to sell their books. ‘Graphic novel’ doesn’t work for non-fiction, but at least most people understand it as… not-Garfield. I recently revamped signage and borrowed an umbrella phrase from the ABC catalog: ‘Great & Graphic.’ Underneath it says ‘Comics, graphic novels, manga, etc.'”
\nI do like “Great & Graphic,” but you just know how many people walking by that section will make the obligatory “graphic” jokes, which gives me a little PTSD from the era years ago when the Flying Pig was transitioning from being a children’s-only store to a general store, and had a signboard outside proudly proclaiming, “We now carry adult books!” You can imagine the\u00a0endless jokes\u00a0\u2014 even after we re-did the wording to read, “We now carry books for adults!” There was just no good way to say it; it either sounded dirty or childish. I suspect that leaving “Graphic” on its own\u00a0might have the same result. Maybe Vermonters are just sillier than the rest of the nation.
\nAmy Fitzgerald from the\u00a0Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass., agrees that “parents are more accepting of Graphic Novels than they are of Comics.”
\nMeghan Goel from Austin’s BookPeople (and another Shelftalker blogger!) wrote, “Our graphic novels \/ comics up to age 12 are all under a sign saying comics. I agree there are more shades of gray there, especially since we call our teen section graphic novels, but it isn’t something that seems to create confusion (for now). We’re always open to new ideas on this stuff.”
\nLyn Roberts from Square Books in Oxford, Miss., had a solution that appeals to me: “In the adult store we use “Graphica” and mix fiction and non-fiction together.” They actually don’t use that term in the kids’ section, but I could see doing that at the Flying Pig.
\nJulia Hobart at The Bookloft in Great Barrington, Mass., has a system like our\u00a0current one. She says, “We are still using Graphic Novels for our section, we also keep our comics separate in the Humor section. I personally prefer that.”
\nTildy Banker-Johnson\u00a0of\u00a0Belmont Books in Belmont, Mass., labels their section “Comics & Graphic Novels,” which is an accurate and appealing term, and may be a result of their being a newer store that opened up already aware of the terminology shift. Like us,\u00a0Belmont Books keeps\u00a0Calvin & Hobbes<\/em> et al. separate in their humor section, so I do wonder if kids ever get confused looking for those in the Comics & Graphic Novels. Even if they do, however, it only takes a single point-out to dispel the confusion.
\nGraphic novel writers, artists, and comics creators\u00a0\u2014 how would YOU like to see these sections labeled?
\nNext up: the Teen vs. YA conundrum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"