Dinosaur lives! Or he should do...

In a parallel universe, some very interesting strips appeared in the DFC that never made it into our timeline. Even now, they’re out there. They exist. Within a year, they could be graphic novels on the bookshelves in our reality. There’s no reason why other universes should have all the fun.

So, publishers: buck your ideas up! Didn’t you see the success Borders has been having with their new graphic novel section? Pull your collective fingers out and start releasing some great original story-driven graphic novels here in the UK. No, I don’t mean dreamy melancholic reminiscences about growing up in ‘80s Britain, or worthy would-be award-winning stuff about being a child under the Khmer Rouge. Just some pulse-pounding, imagination-thrilling stories that will – good heavens – actually sell.

Here are a few I’d snap up in an instant:

Zhanna: Adventures in Time and Alternative Realities
Garen Ewing posted about this on the Super Comics Adventure Squad blog. He said that was just a working title, but you know what? I like it. Zhanna didn’t make it into the DFC because the time travel theme clashed with John Blake. (Hmm. So I guess it’s just as well we didn’t tell them about Gus…)

Dinosaur and WolfBy the absurdly talented, charismatic and inventive Iain McCaig, who was born the same day as me but probably not in Slough. The characters are a pigeon and a dachshund who think they’re epic heroes. At least, the pigeon does; the poor old dog just gets dragged along. It’s funny, wondrous, exuberant storytelling at its very best. You can find out more about this and some of Iain’s other projects in his gorgeous art book Shadowline.

Kingdom of Feathers
This strikes me as a kind of modern Trigan Empire or Atlantis Chronicles. The premise is absolutely brilliant and is the sort of thing that would have had me enthralled at any age from 8 onwards (right up to the present day). I’m not going to spill the beans here as I don’t know how the writer intended to unfold the story – or indeed who the writer is. But here are some pencil pages by Russ Nicholson.

Where's the meat?

Borders’ announcement of an eightfold increase in graphic novel sales since March has me dreaming of a resurgence (actually it’d be pretty much a protosurgence) in UK comics.

I started collecting properly with Daredevil #24 (Jan 1967). I’d enjoyed British comics well enough before then – there were great high-concept Valiant strips like Kelly’s Eye and The Steel Claw, and of course The Daleks in TV21 – but discovering Marvel was like when TV went to colour. Character as well as plot moved the stories forward, and Stan Lee and crew were in the process of creating a whole mythology. Glorious, heady stuff for an imaginative 10-year-old.

So it always baffled me that when most people in Britain talked about comics, they meant stories where teacher got a custard pie in his face. Okay, why would they be aware of the really great stuff – when Mjolnir broke, when Black Bolt spoke, when Ultron-5 met his end on a rubbish tip? When Mary Jane stood in that doorway, for heaven’s sake! (Face it, tiger – you hit the jackpot.) But didn’t they know that over 100,000 kids were lapping up Tim Kelly’s adventures in time, the mysterious Victorian adventures of Janus Stark – and, not too many years later, the truly brilliant Charley’s War?

Supposedly, boys lose interest in reading around the age of 11 or 12. But I think it may be just that they lose interest in the form and the content of print fiction that’s on offer.

My godson and his friends are now the same age as I was when I took my tenpence to the counter for Davedevil’s battle with Ka-Zar. I listen to their unbridled enthusiasm for Assassin’s Creed, Warcraft, God of War, Mirror’s Edge… It’s not just the games, it’s the backstory too. Give them stories they can get their teeth into, stories on which their imagination can take flight, and they’ll read them.

I’m not only talking about sci-fi and war action here, by the way. Rich, developing storylines and three-dimensional, compelling characters are what we need. The best British graphic novel I’ve read all year is Siku’s The Manga Jesus. It’s literally breath-taking – and, in case you think I’m proselytizing, I say that as a devout agnostic.

British publishers could right now be offering graphic novels that would grab the same kind of dedicated following that Assassin’s Creed does. Only first we have to catch up with America, France, Holland, Japan and the rest of the world where comics aren’t looked down on as just “the funny papers”.

Graphic novels sales hike

Heartening news from The Bookseller that Borders has seen an 800% increase in sales of graphic novels since introducing a dedicated section for them in their stores in March.

When they launched this initiative, Borders' children's buyer, J P Hunting, said: "Previously children's graphic novels got put into the children's section so titles got a bit lost. With a dedicated section, it will be easier for customers to find these titles." Darn tootin'!

However, balance Mr Hunting's very sensible remark with this from Claudia Mody, who is children's fiction buyer at Waterstone's: "There's some interesting publishing in this area coming up. It's a clever way of tempting new and reluctant readers." Yeah, there's the problem right there. Too many people in the UK think that comics are just an easy-in for "proper" reading.

Graphic novel sales in the UK grew 21% last year, despite scarcity of product, poor distribution and patchy display in bookshops, so it's to Borders' credit that they were bold enough to take a leap of faith.

Now we just have to hope that publishers will follow suit. But they need to take a look at what is selling. Borders say that their best sales are being achieved with the Alex Rider graphic novels, Clone Wars, etc - ie story-driven comics for 11+ years. It augurs well for works such as Garen Ewing's brilliant The Rainbow Orchid, the first volume of which is scheduled for publication in August. (Order it now - we have.)