BIFF! BAM! POW! Dynamic duo anchor Atlanta graphic novels panel

When Spring Book Show 2008, the South’s largest bargain book show, comes to Atlanta’s World Congress Center on March 28-30, writers, inkers and fans of graphic novels will be treated to the wisdom of two of the nation’s top experts on the booming genre. For those unfamiliar with the genre, graphic novel sales have exploded from $43 million in 2001 to $330 million in 2006. The panelists are John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors of Timonium, Md., and Chris Staros, the award-winning CEO of graphic novel publisher Top Shelf Productions of Marietta, Ga. They are among 18 presenters at

three seminars open to the general public being held in conjunction with the Spring Book Show.

Diamond, the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books, is also one of the biggest distributors of graphic novels in the U.S. through its Diamond Book Distributors division.
Chris Staros heads Top Shelf Productions, a critically acclaimed independent press publisher of literary graphic novels and comics. Since 1997, Top Shelf has published over two hundred graphic novels and comics that have helped to revitalize interest in comics as a literary art form.

One of the books that Chris publishes, Essex County, won an Alex Award at the American Library Association’s midwinter 2008 meetings. Other notable graphic novels published by Chris include Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, Andy Runton's Owly, Craig Thompson's Blankets and Robert Venditti's The Surrogates, all of which have garnered critical accolades from the likes of Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The New Yorker, USA Today and the New York Times Book Review.

John Shableski is sales manager with a focus on the independent bookstore market, public and school libraries for Diamond. He's been a panelist at BookExpo America, a moderator for graphic novel panels at the New York Comic Con, a guest speaker at library events, regional book shows and a symposium coordinator. He's currently collaborating on several graphic novel symposiums to be held in Las Vegas, Seattle and New York for the New York Center for Independent Press.

Information about the Spring Book Show seminars can be found at the Web site for Atlanta’s Anvil Publishers and the Spring Book Show Web site. According to Spring Book Show organizer Larry May of Knoxville, Tenn., the largest book remainder dealers from the United States, Canada and Great Britain will be attending the Atlanta show, where they’ll be able to buy stock for as much as 80 to 90 percent off suggested retail price. Vendors will display their wares in over 70,000 square feet of space at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.