Raina Telegemeier’s latest memoir, Guts, had an initial print run of 1 million, and there’s already talk of going back to press, according to Forbes.  This doubles the first printing of her last graphic novel, Ghosts. Currently, there are 18 million copies of Telgemeier’s books in print.

And that’s not all: Guts also topped the USA Today best-seller list in its first week of release, as did Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls when it came out in August.  That’s not a graphic novel best-seller list.  Those two graphic novels outsold every other book in the country in their release weeks.

The boom in middle-grade and YA graphic novels has not gone unnoticed, and publishers had plenty of new titles in that category to announce during and after New York Comic Con.  Here’s a look at some of these upcoming releases.

Oni Press will publish Fights: A Memoir, by Joel Christian Gill, in January 2020.  In it, Gill recounts his experiences growing up poor and black in the South in the 1980s. The story is told as a conversation with his son, allowing Gill to reflect on the decisions he made at the time.  Gill is now a professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the creator of several graphic novels about black history, including Strange Fruit and Tales of the Talented Tenth.

BOOM! Studios announced a quartet of graphic novels from its various imprints during and after NYCC:

Bear, by writer Ben Queen and artist Joe Todd-Stanton, is the story of a dog’s epic journey, with a twist: Bear, the guide dog for a blind boy, loses his own eyesight and must travel through city and country to find a forest spirit he believes can restore it.  Queen was a writer for Pixar’s Cars 2 and Cars 3, and Todd-Stanton is an author and illustrator of children’s books.  Bear will be out from Archaia in August 2020.

Bodie Troll: Hungry for Adventure, by Jay Fosgitt, continues the adventures of Fosgitt’s goofy, grumpy troll, his best friend Cholly, and his fairy godmother.  This new volume follows them as they dig deep into Cholly’s history, investigate the new bridge in their town, and encounter strange creatures who embrace the destructive powers of hugs.  Bodie Troll has built a following over the years, having starred in a four-part comic series published by Red 5; BOOM! Studios published it as a graphic novel in 2017.  Bodie Troll: Hungry for Adventure will be published under the KaBOOM! imprint in August 2020.

Goldie Vance: Larceny in La La Land, by writer Jackie Ball and artist Mollie Rose, takes the 16-year-old sleuth from her Miami home to Los Angeles, where she befriends an aging silent film star.  When her friend is accused of theft, Goldie puts her sleuth hat on and gets on the case, with a trip through Hollywood history as a bonus.  The original graphic novel will be available from BOOM! Box in July 2020.

Kudzu: Heart of the Mountain, by Dustin Bolton, is set in the South after an environmental apocalypse has destroyed the world as we know it.  Kudzu, a young boy, learns that his family was involved in the long-ago disaster and finds himself in a battle that could either destroy the human race or reboot the planet back into health again. Bolton is an animator whose work includes Adult Swim’s Harvey Birdman.  BOOM! describes Kudzu as "an Afro-Futurist Adventure."  It will be published by the KaBOOM! imprint in August 2020.

In addition to the graphic novels, BOOM! announced a new series from John Constantine: Hellblazer writer Simon Spurrier and Batman: Nightwalker artist Chris Wildgoose.  Alienated, which will launch in February, is like a grown-up version of ET: Three teenagers witness the birth of an alien being.  They don’t take it too seriously at first, but the creature that started out as a pet quickly appears to become more of a threat, and the teens have to figure out what to do about it.