Boom in comics paints a brighter picture for the book trade – and for literacy

Vivid visuals and funny characters are helping to draw more children into reading books, say experts

- Vanessa Thorpe

The best route to learning to love words in print could well be pictures.

This, at least, is the hope of the publishing industry this spring, as it welcomes news that sales of children’s comics and graphic novels have reached an all-time peak of almost £20m in Britain.

While publishers are celebrating this boom for its own sake, the popularity of these titles is also being hailed as a good omen for novels, ahead of the London Book Fair at Olympia this week. “Over the last decade we've seen a significant rise in sales of graphic novels for both the adult and children’s markets,” said Philip Stone, media analyst at NielsenIQ BookData, as he revealed details of the latest trends, hits and flops this weekend.

“Superhero books have been a reliably big feature, probably boosted by all the screen superhero movies. A lot of manga series are doing well again, and this may also be linked to screen versions. What we need now is some deep-dive research into the impact of graphic and comic fiction as a gateway for young people into reading. We certainly suspect it's true.”

Among the major hits to lure the readers of the future with comic-style stories are paperback-sized titles such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, and Jamie Smart’s Bunny Vs Monkey books.