February
22 NYCC final preparations

Setup is under way for the New York Comic-Con. I was on site at the Javits Center this morning for a meeting and to check out ICV2'.com's Graphic Novel Conference.

It's far from the freezing cold of last week, but it is cool and, worst of all, rainy today in the city. The floor for the show is definitely much larger and more prolific than last year. (If I'd remembered to bring the USB cable for my camera with me to the show today, you could see the photos I took of the entrance.) There was some confusion about the location of badges, but the crew quickly sorted it out. Show organizer Greg Topalian was behind the desk himself at one point. Cars were lined up on the street outside as exhibitors rolled their wares into the exhibit hall to set up.

The conference kicked off with Milton Griepp's white paper on graphic novels. Key point: Graphic novels are now the more popular format for the comics medium, surpassing periodicals in 2006.

• Some of the key notes and numbers from Milton's presentation:
• The graphic novel market hit $330 million last year, with two thirds of that coming from sales in bookstore channels and the remainder from comic book shops. Throw comics into the mix, and that adds $310 million to the figure, bringing the combined industry total to $640 million. These are "numbers the comics business hasn't seen since the early 1990s," Griepp said.
• 2006 saw 2,800 graphic novel releases last year, adding to a growing backlist. Diamond tracks about 10,500 backlist titles, of which 45% are manga.
• Griepp listed several mass media popularity drivers, including the Cartoon Network effect, which boosts sales of the manga related to its top anime shows: the boost movies give to the specific graphic novels they are based on (think "V for Vendetta" or "300"); the DVD effect, which creates a boost when those films come to that market; press coverage, reviews and awards; and videogames, which were key in driving sales of Marvel's "Halo" graphic novel and TOKYOPOP''s "Kingdom Hearts."
• As graphic novels begin to reach mass market retailers such as Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, etc., the biggest successes will become even bigger.

And the parties are getting started. We'll be heading over to the The Caribbean Cultural Center this evening for "The Art of Joe Quesada." A graphic novel launch party for Blokhedz, which will include clips from the animated feature, kicks off at 6 p.m. at Negril Village.