Barnes and Noble is starting to abandon comics in their retail stores. In 2013 they suspended their relationship with Marvel and started to phase out single issues, but continue to sell graphic novels. Last week the bookseller has discontinued carrying DC single issue comics, but will continue to sell graphic novels.
The only comic publishers that Barnes and Noble deals with for single issues are Titan, Bongo, Alterna, and Archie. It remains to be seen if they will eventually get out of comics altogether when the current agreements expire.
The one thing that B&N is bullish about is manga. Over the course of the past three years the average bookstore has doubled the space devoted to soft and hardcover manga editions. They also run Manga Mondays at many of their locations, where they put many titles on sale.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
