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It’s been great to see book publishers coming around to the graphic novel market over the past several years. We’re seeing a lot of raw talent get published that straight up wouldn’t have had these avenues open a decade ago.
But I really do mean that that talent is “raw.” Too many of these books are under-edited, largely because they’re being edited by folks who have no experience working in comics, as imprints dip their toes in the OGN pool without really committing to producing professional work.
So you get otherwise charming books let down by simple, avoidable errors like reading order or balloon placement. Things any comics editor would spot immediately.
There are a lot of reasons why that’s a shame, but the biggest one for me is that it’s not putting the medium’s best foot forward. Any graphic novel might be a reader’s first, so if the reading experience itself is confusing or unpleasant, it may well put them off comics forever.
Which may well thwart the publishers’ ambitions of opening up this market in the first place. If their guiding stars runaway successes like Fun Home or Smile, they need to commit to the same level of quality as those books.
Part of the success of those books is that they were made by creators who have been making comics for a long ass time. But these publishers well know that a strong editor can whip a promising premiere work into shape.
But a “strong editor” in prose doesn’t necessarily have the skill-set for being a “strong editor” when it comes to comics. It requires different experience and knowledge. So imprints that rely on their prose editors to edit a few comics aren’t setting themselves up for success.
Those books end up being under-edited, so couldn’t possibly compete with more professionally polished works from competitors. I fear publishers will conclude they should commit even less to breaking into the OGN market. When the problem is that they aren’t committing enough.
It’s honestly hard to believe how many sub-professional-quality graphic novels I see published by mainstream book publishers. Apparently nobody at those publishers knows that the books are being let down in this way. That they’re failing to correct the most elementary mistakes.
Dedicated comics imprints are much better on this front, for the obvious reason that they have dedicated comics editors. There’s a huge jump in quality and readability that publishers would notice if only they bothered looking.
As usual, I don’t have any kind of grand conclusion. Comics are different from prose, and editing them requires a different skill set. This is backed up by the quality of work coming out of imprints across the board, and publishers would be smart to pay attention to that quality.
