I'm a little late in getting this posted (due to an unfortunate week without internet connectivity), but I wanted to post some brief musings on the wonderful world of comics that occurred last weekend. It began with the excellent ICv2 conference on Thursday (put on by Milton Griepp), which covered the current state of the industry. In brief, it turns out individual monthly comics sales are up slightly, manga sales are down for the third year in a row, and digital sales are up tremendously. (More about that manga number in a minute.) PW Comics Week did a nice job covering this conference; check it out for more info.

Thursday night saw the return of GNR's Second Annual New York Comic Con Kick-Off Party, held at our midtown offices. It was great to run into lots of old and new friends, including New York Comic Con's show-runner, Lance Fensterman, as well as the great guys from Boom! Studios, designer extraordinaire Chip Kidd, super agent Judy Hansen, Calvin Reid from PW Comics Week, several of our reviewers and writers, librarians from all over the country (like Columbia's Karen Green and Alameda's Eva Volin), and so many others. One of the many joys of Comic Con is just to sit and discuss comics with those who are truly passionate about the format, and this party was a fantastic way to kick off the weekend.

Friday and Saturday saw a whirlwind of activities, including many panels. I was on one (hosted by Diamond's John Shableski and covering the state of the industry and how publishers can attract new readers), and I moderated another (on kids' comics and manga). This panel was populated by a very well rounded team of people, all of whom are writers and reviewers and experts in the field: Kai-Ming Cha, Martha Cornog, Brigid Alverson, Vicky Smith, and Eva Volin. Here's where that news about manga's shrinking sales comes back: This panel brought up the fact that manga readership is NOT diminishing. If anything, it's getting larger and more passionate. What's taking a bite out of sales, however, is the rampant availability of "scanlations," poor-quality online "bootlegs" of manga material. So what to do? Publishers are being tasked with answering that question more and more if they want to offset these sales losses. The readership is definitely out there, and it's growing. Motivating them to buy is the key problem.

On Saturday, I also got to attend an excellent panel presented by our very own Katie Monnin, a teacher who is just about as enthusiastic about comics as anyone I've ever met. If you ever get a chance to hear Katie speak about comics in the classroom, my advice is to go see her. She's wonderful.

All these great times at the convention center were amazing, of course, but the highlight for me was shopping the back issues in the retailers' area. Several sellers were offering major discounts, and I managed to load up on piles of comics from the 1970s. I know Comic Con is all about looking to the future of the industry...but sometimes it's all about the past.

Plenty more happened at Comic Con, and I've got two of our writers working on writing up their experiences last weekend, so check back in a few days for more news about what went down.