One idea of how to do it would be to try and squeeze in beside the manga section which bring a lot of people into book shops.
That's true, and at least at some of the bookshops I've been to recently, they do that. That still leads to the myriad other ways the American industry is strangling itself -- continuity, fanboy-catering, trying to shoehorn "adult" stories into a genre that, at its core, is really for children. Etc. Also, the fact that most adults are already biased against comics -- we're going to have to get them while they're young, and by and large, mainstream comics are NOT for children these days. Most of the "graphic novels" are aimed at an adult audience, too. More and more there are exceptions, though, and that's a bright spot.
As for the magazine rack, I've been wishing recently that the big companies would dump their monthlies and just go for a manga-style anthology magazine. They almost certainly won't, because it would completely alienate most of the readers they have left. Magazine publishing is also incredibly expensive, and I'm not sure any of the US comics publishers can cut it anymore.
In some arenas, things are already coming along -- mainstream media outlets are starting to take graphic novels more seriously, and libraries are going crazy for them. To some extent, it's just a matter of time. I think the best thing to do is keep pushing in those venues.
In that case, in the event that my suggestion on silhouette wasn't clear enough
It was a really good suggestion! My teachers were always trying to hammer this into our heads. Thanks so much for helping me with this design. (Your art is always wunderbar, BTW.)
Comments
As for the magazine rack, I've been wishing recently that the big companies would dump their monthlies and just go for a manga-style anthology magazine. They almost certainly won't, because it would completely alienate most of the readers they have left. Magazine publishing is also incredibly expensive, and I'm not sure any of the US comics publishers can cut it anymore.
In some arenas, things are already coming along -- mainstream media outlets are starting to take graphic novels more seriously, and libraries are going crazy for them. To some extent, it's just a matter of time. I think the best thing to do is keep pushing in those venues.