When going over sales reports to create our Top Ten Cool lists, nothing is more interesting than the anomaly, the item that tops the charts in one store while barely making the top ten in others.   Little Lit, the anthology of children's comics edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, is a perfect case in point.  This $19.95 trade paperback, published in the oversize Raw Magazine format by Harper Collins, proved to be an outstanding holiday season performer, even topping the comic chart in one store in December.

Little Lit made the Time and Newsweek lists for best children's books for the 2000 holiday season, but with full color comics from Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Joost Swarte, Walt Kelly, and a board game by Chris Ware, Little Lit is a volume that has considerable appeal to adults as well as kids.

With comics like Little Lit, Jimmy Corrigan and Safe Area Gorzade finally getting reviewed in the New York Times and other leading mainstream publications, some stores have been highly successful in expanding their store clientele.  Obviously not every pop culture store can sell big numbers of books like Little Lit, but all stores located in college towns should be carrying it, and if you think that you have anyone coming into your store who might be interested in buying a book that they will really enjoy reading, or giving, to a child, then you should have Little Lit in stock.