Last week graphic novels were the subject of a cover story in the New York Times Magazine.  This Sunday they received two pages of attention in the New York Times Book Review, the gold standard when it comes to publicizing books in America.  In an article entitled 'No More Wascally Wabbits,' John Hodgman singled out seven graphic novel collections for attention.  Fred Gallagher's Megatokyo (published by Dark Horse) got the most space and the prime spot with Hodgman remarking, 'It's the pleasure of watching what began as a lark, in the typical 'Bloom County' kind of four-panel gag, as it literally outgrows its borders into a lushly penciled full page, the story maturing into the exuberant, addictive soap operatics of the manga that inspired it, and becoming an unintentional whole.'

Hodgman also warmed to Brian Azzarello's 100 Bullets: Samurai (Vertigo/DC), finding that, 'The self-contained, beautiful and uncompromising little crime stories that are its vertebrae are often astonishing.'  Hodgman contrasts the gritty crime narratives of 100 Bullets with the existential sadness of the two shy Canadian brothers attempting to sell fans in the age of air conditioning in Seth's Clyde Fans: Book 1 (published by Drawn & Quarterly), finding Seth's quiet tales as compelling in their own way as Azzarello's hardboiled vignettes.

From Clyde Fans, Hodgman segues into collections of newspaper comic strips beginning with the Seth-designed Fantagraphics edition of The Complete Peanuts, but also including Dark Horse's Al Capp's L'il Abner: The Frazetta Years, Pantheon's collection of Mark Beyer's Amy & Jordan and Checker's third collection of Winsor McKay's Early Works, which contains his Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend comics.

Retailers who do well with graphic novels should consider using this exposure in the New York Times Book Review to their advantage in window or in-store displays.  Positive attention in the Times Book Review may not have the same effect for a graphic novel that it has for a mainline fiction title or political screed, but it certainly can't hurt either.