Spiegelman warns of potential for collapse of GN market

Publishers Weekly (subscription required) reports on last week's Association of American Publishers/PW summit, where Art Spiegelman warned attendees of the possibility of the collapse of the booming graphic novel market:

... The comics market has a "history of fads," Spiegelman said, and he worries that in 2007, publishers could see graphic novels as "so 2005."

Author Neil Gaiman picked up that theme, explaining that some publishers are releasing graphic novels with little regard to content. "You can't randomly publish graphic novels and expect to do well," he said. Despite their caveats, Spiegelman and Gaiman were both thrilled with the growing acceptance of graphic novels by booksellers and librarians, with Spiegelman describing comics "as the gateway drug to reading."

Tokyopop president John Parker was "unabashedly bullish" about the future of the format, but conceded that as graphic novels and manga gain shelf space, "customers are becoming more discriminating" because of the variety of choices.