Traditional Comics Become All Grown Up

Traditional book and graphic novel publisher Open Book Press is turning the comic book industry on its ear in summer 2006. The reason the publisher is shaking things up is not only from the re-launch of SMASH! Comics, which it acquired in fall 2004, but by releasing it’s new comic book line in a graphic novel inspired format which can be embraced by fans, comic retailers, and even more importantly – traditional book stores.

Bayville, NJ (PRWEB) March 17, 2006 -- Traditional book and graphic novel publisher Open Book Press is turning the comic book industry on its ear in summer 2006. The reason the publisher is shaking things up is not only from the re-launch of SMASH! Comics, which it acquired in fall 2004, but by releasing it’s new comic book line in a graphic novel inspired format which can be embraced by fans, comic retailers, and even more importantly – traditional book stores.
   
Traditional comic books are generally produced on thinner paper, in a folded and stapled format, and released on a monthly schedule, giving each comic only a 30 day shelf life. This is one reason why comic books have never been embraced by the book industry, which favors product with a long shelf life, increasing the chance of sales.

The new SMASH! Comics line however is not going to be your traditional comic book line. Open Book Press has taken what works for the comics industry, and more importantly what works about graphic novels in the book industry and combined the two. Essentially this new line of comic books are, in reality, short graphic novels. Like graphic novels they have a standard ISBN book number, corresponding barcodes, perfect binding (square spines), and have overall better production quality than traditional comic books.

“The biggest part of this equation is that we are not going to be using the traditional monthly comic book schedule.” said company co-owner Mike Gagnon. No it’s not a typo, you read right, no monthly schedules. “The biggest reason being that when you release on a monthly schedule your retailers are only going to have one month to make that sale, that’s why we’ve used the graphic novel format and why our comics will all be either stand-alone one-shots or continuing series with installments that are released bi-monthly or quarterly and in most cases each installment can stand alone and be read on it’s own so that it has a perpetual shelf life and does not have to be removed when the next book featuring the same character is released. This opens a big doorway for us to be the only comic book publisher who publishes in a format that can be sold in a traditional book store.” Gagnon added.

Open Book Press has also carefully selected all of its new titles from creators who have already established a built in fan-following and have previously found success when self-publishing their work or working with other publishers. Full listings can be found on their website at www.openbookpress.com. Retailers and distributors from the book industry who have chosen to support these new titles by carrying them have been applauded by both the comics and traditional publishing community for having the vision to be involved early on and take part in what could soon be seen as a pop culture revolution.

Because of the format Open Book Press is using for SMASH! Comics they will be competing more with other publisher’s short graphic novel lines and not so much with their monthly comics. When seen in that light Open Book has priced the books very competitively with black and white books ranging from 32 to 48 pages and in price from $3.75 - $4.25, and color books ranging from 40 to 52 pages and in price from $8.49 - $9.95. Currently similar products produced in a perfect bound format run around $5 for black and white and $7.95 to $8.95 for color. Although individual installments will carry a higher cover price than regular comic books, fans will be able to follow a quarterly comic book from SMASH! for as little as $16 for an entire years worth of stories. A regular monthly comic book costs at least $36 to follow for one year.

The first wave of the new SMASH! Comics, which are essentially graphic novels, will ship to stores in May and features such fan favorites as Mr. Scootles by H.C. Noel, and Grafenveer by Wayne Sanders and Christian N. St. Pierre. The comics will be black and white for the first few months, with new full color series scheduled to debut in late summer 2006.

More details can be found at: www.openbookpress.com

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