RETAIL // 11.21.02

CENTRE STAGE
By Alasdair Stuart

I used to be a semi-professional stage magician. Between the ages of 15 and 18 I was part of a group called The Young Magicians of Mann, teenagers of various ages who performed magic shows at various schools and community halls across the Isle of Man. Some people did escapology, others did card tricks. Me, I went down a slightly different route.

My own act was more akin to stand up comedy with occasional magic than an actual magic routine. I always knew basically where I was going, but each separate performance was always slightly different to the one before it. A joke would be added here, one taken away there and whilst I always ended up putting a needle through a balloon (A great trick which like all the best ones is really simply) the route I took there was always different. For me, it wasn't the magic that was the attraction. It was the performing, being centre stage in front of a room of people and knowing that I had their undivided attention. Of course, this didn't happen all the time (Primary school halls are right up there with herpes-ridden spider monkeys in the worst audience rankings), but when it did, there wasn't a feeling like it.

It happened again last month.

At the start of the year, I was contacted by a lady called Sheila Silvester, one of the senior school librarians in the area. She and her colleagues were interested in stocking graphic novels and wanted to come in and speak to me. Great I thought, worked out a day and a few weeks later, in they came.

And I spent the next four hours working my arse off. Pretty much every single book in the shop was looked at from PREACHER to USAGI YOJIMBO and the questions were always the same--What's this about? and What age group is it suitable for?

And by extension, Why should I buy it from you?

It was one of the single toughest things I've done in this job, and I was knackered by the end of the day. But, they left with six hundred pounds worth of books. They got stock, we got custom and everyone went away happy.

About a month later, I got a phone call from Mrs. Silvester. It was an invitation to a Librarian Conference being held at Grantley Hall a few months later. They were so impressed with me that they wanted me to come and talk to a room filled with most of the librarians for the region. To the gentle sound of my ego straining against the ceiling, I accepted.

So obviously, there was some planning to do. I talked to our head office about it and between us we got a solid structure for the talk worked out:

The reason I went for these books is simple. First and foremost there's nothing which isn't suitable for children here. In a couple of cases, such as RANMA 1/2 and PEDRO AND ME, it's slightly older children but nonetheless this was the major factor in picking the books. Not only did we have to pick stuff that was good and varied but also was suited to a very specific audience. Bear in mind as well, this was our 'audition piece', a chance to show we meant business in an area which could be very profitable for us.

Ultimately the talk itself broke down into something like this:

I opened by introducing myself and directing them to the handouts. We'd got our hands on the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) list, a list of graphic novels approved for schools in America and had got the vast majority of these books from there. So straight away we were piggy-backing off something a little more official than just stuff we thought was good. Then, into the books:

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN Volume 1-Power and Responsibility

After strenuously emphasising that comics were more than superheroes, I opened with…a superhero book. However, the advantage ULTIMATE SPIDERMAN has over others is that firstly it's pretty 'PG' and secondly, it's the ultimate distillation of the things that superheroes do very well. Specifically, superpowers as adolescent power fantasy, the look at adolescence that can be achieved through that and an extremely strong sense of morality.

The fact that it's a well written and drawn book about an everyman thrust into an incredible situation is simply an added bonus, as is the presence of the movie in the public consciousness. SPIDER-MAN, at this time at least, was very much in the public eye and we got a lot of interest in this book.

BONE Volume 1-Out from Boneville

The key points I went for with BONE were ones I'd return to over and over again. First and foremost, BONE is one of the most 'friendly' graphic novel series being published at the moment. Jeff Smith's art is open and welcoming, the story is intense but not gorey and certainly the first couple of books can be read in isolation. Therefore, it's a series which is useful as a sampler and if well received there's a big back catalogue to draw on. It's also simply a great story well told, echoing LORD OF THE RINGS in its epic scope but with a far more personal touch.

PEDRO AND ME

In there, quite simply, because not enough people know about this book. Again, Winick has an open, welcoming art style and again, like a lot of the books I chose it's very, very funny. However, the real strengths of the book lie in it's subject matter.

As a completely honest portrayal of a young man's life and the effect he had on others, this has the emotional impact of a freight train. Winick's an intelligent writer and here he almost takes a back seat, simply letting his memories flow out onto the page. As someone who lost a close friend to cancer when I was a lot younger, the study of how these two guys got on and how Pedro dealt with his illness is both inspirational and incredibly moving. It's a tough book to read, but one that more people should. I'm proud to say we got orders for this one.

USAGI YOJIMBO

Like BONE, I went for this based largely on the art. However, there's an almost 'stealth' element to USAGI that I really played up. Whilst the characters are anthropomorphic animals, the world in which they live is an intricate and accurate examination of feudal society. The example I used specifically was the story about the Nori farmers in 'Brink of Life and Death' where the action itself almost becomes secondary to the fascinating look into how Nori is harvested and made. Fun, and educational was the line I went for here.

RANMA 1/2

I used RANMA 1/2, at least in part, to give a potted history of manga. I touched on books like AKIRA, mentioned that the medium has a reputation for over the top, adult material and assured them that RANMA was nothing of the sort. Again, I played up the High School aspect of the story, Ranma's gender problems becoming a metaphor for the difficulties of adolescence and how not to deal with it.

I also emphasised the martial arts element here, suggesting that like USAGI, there's a 'steath' element to the book. Whilst the majority of it is Benny Hill style farce with extra kicking, there's an interesting character study at it's heart. And, of course, a guy who turns into a pig.

ELECTRIC GIRL

My one regret with the talk was that I wasn't able to find more female-centric books. However, Michael Brennan's superb series goes a long way towards filling the gap and could have been tailor made for this sort of talk.

The story of Virginia, a young girl given electrical powers by a passing gremlin it would have been all too easy for this to become yet another superhero book. However, Brennan takes the secondary plot point of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, that of the main character simply trying to live their lives, and brings it to the foe. Virginia neither wants nor likes her powers and as a result this is a book a lot more grounded in reality than ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN.

It's an intelligent, surprisingly dark but still all ages suitable book. Throw in still more open, welcoming art and you're onto a winner.

BUFFY-Ring of Fire

I make no apologies for putting this in there, for two reasons. Firstly, as I've said before this is a perfect outreach tool for people who don't read comics and secondly because this was the only piece of 'known ground' we had. Many of these librarians already carried some BUFFY books and this one, with it's in continuity story and moody artwork made a perfect addition to what they already had. It's a good story and one featuring characters most of them and their pupils already know and as a result, almost sells itself.

I was nervous as hell going into this. After all, I'd not been 'on stage' for years and I was very aware that this was a big deal for the company. Whether or not we got some nice chunky library orders was down entirely to me and how I performed.

Unbidden, phrases like 'I can do it, coach!' began to float through my mind.

And snot. Make no mistake folks, I had the mother of all colds and it wasn't going anywhere. So stressed, ill and with the weight of the world on my shoulders I stepped up and…

Did it.

It worked like a charm. I was informative, I was intelligent and I managed to answer a lot of tough questions. More importantly, these were questions I'd not even considered before. Things like:

-How well bound are these books?
(Answer-Good enough for sustained reading although they could still be better).

-A lot of these titles seem very male-oriented. Why do you think that is?
(Answer-This is one of the biggest problems in the industry and it stems from its roots in America. However, a lot of manga series such as MARMALADE BOY, MARS and PEACH GIRL are very female-centric, tremendously successful and now available in English.)

-Why is the company called Travelling Man?
(Answer-My boss is sitting right over there in the corner. Let's ask him.)

Ultimately, what I got from the event was a lot more than a new avenue of sale and some large trade paperback orders. In a month where I've seen my job made tougher by sins of omission at best and incompetence at worst, this was an event that showed me something very important.

There's an audience for graphic novels that extends outside the shops, that's intelligent, motivated and in a perfect position to educate children that, ironically, comics aren't just for them any longer. These are people who care about finding good stories for their charges and keeping them reading.

In short, they care. And it's time we started paying them a lot more attention.