Long-time graphic novel marketer Robert Boyd has left his position as Director of Sales at CrossGen and joined ADV as Marketing Manager for ADV Manga.  Boyd told us he left CrossGen voluntarily because due to its financial difficulties, it had not been releasing any of its book format products for months.  'This is not to say that CrossGen will never publish trade books again--I think they will, and there's a good chance that the book-publishing side of CrossGen will be leaner but stronger in the future,' Boyd said. 'But for me personally, after a couple of months with nothing much to sell (I pitched in on the comics and education stuff quite a bit), I decided to move on. I felt like I was wasting my time and CrossGen's resources.' 

 

Prior to working for CrossGen, Boyd spent some time at book distributors Client Distribution Services and LPC, working on graphic novel sales to bookstores in both cases. 

 

Boyd said he is '...excited to be working with manga,' citing ADV's Newtype and the successful launch of its new manga line with Azumanga Daioh and Full Metal Panic! as things that attracted him to the company.

 

Boyd's interest in manga is not newfound (he was selling Tokyopop titles in his positions at LPC and CDS).  'About two and a half years ago, I wrote an article for the Comics Journal that predicted that manga would continue to grow and become a major force in U.S. comics,' he said. 'This has certainly come to pass (and I will pat myself on the back for being one of the first people outside the executive suites of Tokyopop and Viz [and here at ICv2, see 'Home To Roost,' ed.] to realize it), and I feel lucky to be involved with manga here at ADV.'