The End

This is the final column of TIME.comix. Time, Inc., which owns Time.com, has been handing out buyout packages like candy and I have decided to have a taste. And so, Time.comix must come to an end.

This column started about five years ago when comix and graphic novels were just barely beginning to get serious attention from the mainstream press. My goal was to introduce the more general readership of Time's website to the unique, mostly unheralded possibilities of storytelling that I knew the comix form had to offer. My philosophy for the column has always been to offer supportive reviews of books that I found interesting. There seemed little point in telling a comix-averse audience not to read comix. The perfect TIME.comix review would be a brief guide to how to appreciate art works whose context and language would be unknown to a large number of the general readership.

Originally TIME.comix ran on a weekly schedule. Gradually it has slowed. This is mostly due to my own increasingly busy life, but also reflects a shift in the market. When TIME.comix began there were far more chapter-length comic books than there are now (manga excepted). Gradually the focus in the "alternative" comix industry has become more on completed long-form books that can be sold through regular booksellers, beyond just comic specialty shops. This reflects the major shift in public interest towards graphic novels that TIME.comix has born witness to, and I'd like to think, in some small way contributed to.

During the writing of TIME.comix, graphic novels have gone from a publishing backwater to being the only book category displaying any growth at all. Last year saw $330 million in sales, up 12% from 2005, according ICV2, a website dedicated to covering the market. Translated Japanese manga, particularly the ones aimed at girls, accounts for much of this growth, a phenomenon that I am pleased to say I wrote about for Time far before any other major media outlet. Now virtually all the major print and online media that cover books have at least some sort of graphic novel coverage, if not dedicated critics.

But for TIME.comix, this is the last. I may write for another institution or start my own site. I am unsure. If you would like to hire me or just drop a line that doesn't involve penis extensions or real estate in Africa, please reach me at aacomix@gmail.com. Thanks very much for reading.