Graphic novels continue to demonstrate tremendous growth potential in the Christian retail market. This popular art form combines the Bible, literature and evangelism. A breakout training session Tuesday morning at the International Christian Retail Show aimed to address key merchandising strategies as well as to look at what’s ahead for the $1 billion market.

CEO Art Ayris of Kingstone Comics conducted the hour-long talk addressing several key areas, guiding Christian retailers in product selection, merchandising and promotion.

“We want Christian retailers to understand the graphic novel genre as a whole," Ayris said. "We would also like to help them understand graphic novels individually, and we want them to position themselves to be able to make that cultural connection in the community with graphic novel buyers.”

"A lot of us as parents and families, we are hungry for good material," he said. "With Kingstone Comics, our product is very biblical, top-end quality, and the artists have been with Marvel or DC, so you can put the graphics up against anybody, and they are trustworthy.

The presentation was divided into four main areas, which Ayris referred to as “connection points.”  They were: “Cultural Connections,” “Merchandising Moments,” “Graphic Groupings” and Outreach Opportunities.”

He began by noting that graphic novels have been huge in the library market. Often, boys who are non-readers have furthered their reading skills with graphic novels. Female readership is also growing. Special-needs parents have been drawn to this format as well.

Based on traffic from her blog, Kailey Bradley, founder of Books for MKs (booksformks.wordpress.com) expressed a personal observation during the session. She said there needs to be more quality, faith-based graphic novels for tweens and teen girls.

“Anytime, I talk about a Christian novel on my blog, I often get back a response, ‘I was interested in the book you were talking about’ but in the end, you said, ‘Oh, it’s Christian fiction,’ and that immediately turns them off. About half of my audience is probably secular, they are completely unchurched, so to them, ‘Christian fiction’ is synonymous with boring, stupid or that you’re trying to tell them how to live their lives,” Bradley said.

Ayris suggested that retailers can take tips from comic stores, or send promotional e-mails to youth pastors. Facebook can be useful as well in promoting graphics and graphic-novel-related content.

“Graphic novels are a powerful medium when it comes to getting a message out,” said Ayris, who is also a pastor.

Ayris said Kingstone Comics is working on the Kingstone Bible, and that its 12 volumes will release between now and February 2016. There also will be a three-volume Bible set.

“It is the most complete graphic adaptation of the Bible ever done,” Ayris said. “As far as the Bible, I’m the most pleased about the comments we’ve received from parents, about how their children love it and how they continually read it.”

Readers are able to gain an understanding of the Bible narrative from reading the graphic novel. We are also seeing that people who don’t have much of a Christian background are able to begin to understand the Bible better by reading the graphic novel, but we are trying to drive people to reading the Bible. That’s why we put the scripture on the bottom, so people can understand it,” Ayris said.

• Prev
• Next