BookExpo America, the annual book industry show sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, provides an interesting insight into what publishers and booksellers are thinking, and comics continues to be an important, though small, part of the show.

Who was there, who wasn’t:  As in previous years, Diamond Book Distributors had organized a small aisle of comics publishers, including Dynamite Entertainment, Image Comics, Paizo Publishing, and Lion Forge.  Oni Press and BOOM! Studios had booths elsewhere on the floor, and a number of trade book publishers (Scholastic, Abrams, Disney) included graphic novels among their highlighted titles.  Notable for their absence: manga publishers, who weren’t a big presence at BookExpo last year either.

What was hot:  The big deal at BookExpo is seeing what books are being heavily promoted.  Image had a full roster of creators and signings, but Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung’s Snotgirl seemed to be getting special attention, perhaps because the second volume has just come out.  Tee Franklin was there all weekend as well, doing signings for Bingo Love (see "Graphic Novel Defies Romance Stereotypes"), and Kit Seaton was also doing signings and handing out advance copies of The Black Bull of Norroway, which is scheduled for a November release (see "Image Gets Bullish with ‘The Black Bull of Norroway’").

Lion Forge was promoting Brenna Thummler’s Sheets, a ghost story set in a laundromat, which is due out in August (see "Exclusive Preview: ‘Sheets’ by Brenna Thummler"); Andrew Cangolese and Josh Shipley’s This Is a Taco, which debuted in May; and Ezra Claytan Daniels’ Upgrade Soul, which is slated for a September release (see "Lion Forge to ‘Upgrade Soul’ in September").  This will be the first print edition of Upgrade Soul, which was originally published digitally and received the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics in 2017.

Greg Pak was at the BOOM! Studios booth to autograph copies of the first trade of Mech Cadet Yu, which was released last week.  At Oni Press, the hot giveaway was a galley of Katie O’Neill’s Aquicorn Cove, the followup to her Eisner-nominated The Tea Dragon Society.  Brandon Sanderson was autographing copies of volume 2 of White Sand (see "Preview: ‘Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand’ Vol. 2 HC") at the Dynamite booth.

Quirk Books, which recently added graphic novels to their lineup, was featuring its interactive graphic novel Knight’s Club: The Bands of Bravery, which will be published in September; the book allows readers to choose which direction the story will take.  Also at the booth: Fred Van Lente’s The Con Artist, a mystery novel set at Comic-Con in San Diego and illustrated by Tim Fowler; the book is due out in July.

Run, the sequel to John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell’s March trilogy, got a huge pair of banners straddling both sides of the entrance to the exhibit hall, with a Wimpy Kid banner up above; both books are forthcoming from Abrams.

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