A quick trip around the exhibition floor at Book Expo America demonstrates two very important facts.  First of all there are more graphic novels and comic collections being offered to the regular book trade than ever before; comic publishers have improved their distribution to the bookstore channel.  The prestigious W.W. Norton is Fantagraphics' new distributor (see'W.W. Norton To Distribute Fantagraphics'), while Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Image, and others have found a home with the LPC Group (see 'Dark Horse Moves to LPC' and 'Image Signs With LPC For Bookstores'), and Viz is a mainstay for Publishers Group West.   For their part, comic publishers are producing more graphic novels and comic collections in formats that the regular book trade accepts.  Meanwhile big-time publishers have discovered that graphic novels (other than Maus) can sell.  Pantheon's edition of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan has reportedly sold well in excess of 50,000 copies, a stellar performance that has piqued the interest of mainstream publishers and booksellers alike.  On the other side of the equation, comic publishers like Marvel's Bill Jemas increasingly see the mainstream bookstore, not the fast disappearing newsstand, as the primary feeder mechanism for pop culture stores.  So Marvel has ambitious plans to increase its output of trade paperbacks in an attempt to catch up with the industry leaders in bookstore penetration, DC Comics, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, and Viz.

The second inescapable conclusion from a brief exposure to next fall's booklists is that mainstream publishers are creating more and more books that pop culture retailers can sell.  Collections of comic strips and comic strip art abound, with a new Calvin & Hobbes book (see 'New Calvin & Hobbes Book For Fall'), a Spy vs. Spy collection, and a deluxe Peanuts art book from Pantheon.  This year's list also contains numerous books about comic books themselves, ranging from a University of Mississippi chronicle of DC's short-lived Milestone imprint, to Art Spiegelman's book on the great Jack Cole, to books on Wonder Woman and Women in Comics.  Movie and TV inspired volumes were everywhere, with glitzy tomes on this summer's blockbusters, plus a field guide to Star Wars animals, a Spotters Guide to Star Trek Starships, a book on the science behind the X-Files, and more.  'How-To' books, always an important category in pop culture stores, are also present in abundance, and several publishers actually have 'Pop Culture' sections in their catalogs containing coffee table books of fantasy, pulp magazine, pin-up, and comic art, most of which will slip seamlessly into the product mix at any pop culture store.  Even the fiction category holds some promise with a new vampire novel from Anne Rice, a Hollywood ghost story from Clive Barker, and the paperback edition of Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a book which anyone who loves comics should enjoy.