SOURCE: "Graphics Go Literary," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 241, No. 38, September 19, 1994, pp. 20, 22.

[In the essay below, Reid comments on publishers' interest in and efforts to promote the graphic novel genre.]

Even if you've never read or wanted to read a comic book, you've probably found yourself reading an article about comics. And not just in "alternative" papers, but in main-stream bastions like Forbes, the New York Times and U.S. News & World Report. Superhero and action comics form the biggest part of the $1.3 billion U.S. comics market and have captured media attention with their obsessive and free-spending readership and huge commercial potential for movie and merchandising tie-ins.

However, while chain bookstores and comics specialty stores have enthusiastically accepted trade paperback compilations of superhero fantasies, if you happen to publish comics that don't feature bodybuilding specimens and apocalyptic battles, you can feel a little bit out of it. But...