Comics vs Graphic Novels...... I think that noise was Paul Levitz throwing in the towel for comics!

Came to this one a little late, but Newsarama had an interview with Paul Levitz, DC Comics' Publisher & President. They talk about the year gone by and the year to come. And a little down the page get into the whole comics vs graphic novels debate.

This is what Levitz has to say:

"Nobody knows exactly the size of the present audience for graphic novels as a category. My suspicion is that there are probably more people reading graphic novels today than there are reading periodical comics. I think that has probably crossed in the last year or two years."

Of course, for every nugget of interesting speculation or truth he comes out with theirs something so obviously wrong, so upside down in his thinking that you just scratch your head in wonder.....
On piracy in the comics medium, Levitz gives us an analogy to the Music industry with the contention that:

"When I look at the music industry, I think less music is being created and marketed today than there was 10 years ago. I think the effect of piracy has been to discourage creativity. You have a tremendous amount of ground level creativity – the group that would’ve only been a band in somebody’s basement, who now have access to the market by putting their stuff up on YouTube or in some other fashion, being able to have a shot at a moment of fame and some income, which is wonderful. The internet has been very positive and powerful that way. But the amount of music that’s being created by any form of an established group has diminished enormously..... I don’t think it’s as vibrant a marketplace as it was years ago. I think that’s a bad thing."

I know for a fact that my broadband connection has vastly increased the amount of previously unheard music I'm now listening to. Granted, my cd purchasing hasn't really gone up, but it certainly hasn't gone down.
I know for certain that, if I was somewhere with a good gig scene (and that somewhere isn't York, trust me), I'd be spending a lot more money going out to see bands I'd never heard of previously.
Paul's got it wrong. The marketing model for music is changing certainly. And to big record executives, that's a scary thing. But to say that there is less new music is just wrong.

But nice to see that DC's President has a reasoned take on the rise of the graphic novel.

Of course, this still doesn't stop him from being the complete bastard who stopped the UK getting copies of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier through our local comic shops.
Well done on that one Paul. What a great way to drive a wedge between the consumer, the retailer, the creators and the publisher. You horrible, petty little man.