An ICv2 Release.  ICv2 has announced the release of ICv2 Retailers Guide to Graphic Novels #7, containing its annual survey of the graphic novel market for 2005.  ICv2 estimates the 2005 graphic novel market reached approximately $245 million at retail in the U.S. and Canada last year, up about 18% from 2004.  The graphic novel market has more than tripled in the last few years, increasing from around $75 million at retail in 2001, the first year ICv2 did its market report, to the $245 million figure just four years later.

The report also notes that about 1/3 of graphic novels were sold through comic stores in 2005, and the rest through bookstores, online, and other channels.

The issue also lays out the graphic novel connections to spring and summer movies; ranks the ICv2 Top 20 Manga Properties; provides guidance on the top manga launches; and also discusses current activity and upcoming releases in the superhero (and other American genre), fiction and reality, humor, kids, and goth categories.  And for the first time, the Guide covers graphic novel-related art books and novels, with special note taken of the successful manga and anime-related novels that started hitting the States in 2005 and continue into this year. 

ICv2 is the undisputed expert in the graphic novel field and publishes news and information on pop culture products in the anime, comics, games, toys, and movie and TV merchandise categories daily on its Website, ICv2.com, and in its magazines, the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga, the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Graphic Novels, and the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Games.  ICv2 also provides marketing, distribution, and general business consulting services to companies involved in the pop culture products industries.

The Guide is available free to retailers (send an email to DViau@icv2.com) and to others for $10 plus postage and handling via the ICv2 online store (click here).