Minx (comics)

Minx was an imprint of DC Comics that published graphic novels aimed at teenage girls. It ran from 2007 to 2008.

History

Launch

Minx was announced in November 2006, following several years of planning. Senior Vice President Karen Berger and Group Editor Shelly Bond were supervising the imprint.

DC had contracted to $250,000. Berger said that the success of translated manga">lloy Marketing + Media to market the line's books, with a budget of $125,000 to $250,000. Berger said that the success of translated manga and Marjane Satrapi's ''Persepolis (graphic novel), Persepolis'' among teenage girls helped motivate the creation of the imprint.

Rachel Kitzmann, a Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles Public librarian, emphasized that the Minx imprint was focused "on real world, plausible situations" and that the "''MINX'' books are an attempt to contract two different formats: the content of YA literature with various types of art. ..The content of MINX diverged from the traditional aim as American comic books don't typically put the focus on an internal emotional journey, and even manga aimed at girls ( shojo) has an extraordinary element. MINX truly focused on the external and internal lives of teenage girls".

Initial online reaction to the imprint had some controversy over the sexual connotations of the name as well as the small proportion of female creators in the lineup, especially due to an emphasis on female creators in ''The New York Times'' article that broke the story.

Shutdown

In September 2008, ''Comic Book Resources'' (''CBR'') reported the confirmation of the imprint's cancellation. Some remaining projects would be published, while others were cancelled. ''CBR'' summed the situation up:

Of the imprint-closing titles, ''Emiko Superstar'', ''Token'' and ''The PLAIN Janes 2: Janes in Love'' were published. The sequels to ''The New York Four'' and ''Clubbing'' were all canceled along with
the nearly complete ''All Nighter''. ''All Nighters creator David Hahn said: "Over the past two-and-a-half years, I've ignored my other creator-owned projects to devote my efforts to 'All Nighter', so somehow, I will see to it that it eventually gets published".Minx Creators React to Cancelation
Comic Book Resources, September 29, 2008

Most of the explanations for the imprint's downfall focus on the failure of distributor Random House to place the books in the Young Adult section of major bookstores. However, creators who were questioned said they felt that this could have been achieved if given more time. Kitzmann highlighted that graphic novels have to fight for shelf space in libraries & that the Los Angeles Public Library divides its graphic novel section between American comics and manga. Kitzmann wrote that "this type of shelving is not conductive for the MINX titles to find the appropriate audience. A graphic novel is not picked up because no one know about it, and no one knows about it because it is difficult to find. Since it is difficult to find, people don't care to try, which leads to the format stagnating with only a few key publishers/characters that appeal to a devoted few. It is this cycle of exclusion that makes the ending of MINX a sad but almost inevitable lesson".

Lucia Serantes, in the book ''Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas'' (2014), wrote "the reasons for the imprint's cancelation are still unclear and it has received a rather unusual attention from the mainstream press, reflecting the opinions of readers, creators, and critics. Some consider that the female audience in comics was not as large and strong as expected; others criticized the lack of time given to the project to establish a name and audience and the fact that the imprint never made it into general bookstores where their target audience tends to shop".

Post-shutdown publications

Brian Wood and Ryan Kelley's ''New York Four'' had a sequel published under DC's Vertigo imprint, entitled ''New York Five''. It launched in January 2011. In 2014, Dark Horse "acquired several backlist titles by Wood originally published by Vertigo and Minx" as part of a push into the YA market. Dark Horse published "a new combined edition of the two-book series ''New York Four/Five'', created with artist Ryan Kelly, followed by a new edition of ''DEMO'', with art by Becky Cloonan".

Also in 2011, David Hahn's ''All Nighter'' was published as a mini-series by Image Comics.

In 2020, ''The P.L.A.I.N. Janes'' was reissued by Little, Brown for Young Readers. It also included a third new volume by the original creators Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.

Legacy

Graeme McMillan, for ''The Hollywood Reporter'', wrote, "Minx as a whole was an imprint significantly ahead of its time, with a number of its creators, including ecilCastellucci, Mariko Tamaki, Joelle Jones and Sophie Campbell, finding mainstream comic industry success in the wake of its closure". Brian Heater, for ''Publishers Weekly'', highlighted that the Minx imprint "targeted at a wholly underserved segment of the comics market: teenage girls. It was a bold and laudable creation, but a concept that was also a bit ahead of its time. Minx closed shop just over a year after launch. But in retrospect, the names on those Minx graphic novels read like a who’s who of comics creators, including such highly regarded artists as Derek Kirk Kim, Mariko Tamaki and Jim Rugg".

In 2017, Abraham Riesman, for ''Vulture'', highlighted that "up until recently, there was a near-total disconnect between kids and comics. Just ten years ago, DC tried to do a young-adult comics line called MINX, but it was shuttered after only a few months" and that the recent shift in audience for graphic novels didn't have to do with either Marvel or DC Comics. Riesman wrote that the "shift was the result of decisions made by librarians, teachers, kids’-book publishers, and people born after the year 2000. Abruptly, the most important sector in the world of sequential art has become graphic novels for young people. ..According to Milton Griepp of comics-industry analysis site ICv2, aggregated annual comics sales across different kinds of retailers for 2016 revealed that more than half of the top-ten comics franchises were ones aimed at kids. ..DC is hiring for a new division targeted at young readers, and has already done a bit of a stealth launch by publishing youth-friendly takes on their fabled characters like ''Supergirl: Being Super'' and ''DC Super Hero Girls: Finals Crisis''".

Timothy Donohoo, for ''CBR'' in 2020, compared the failure of the Minx imprint with the success of the more recent DC Ink imprint which also targets the YA audience. Donohoo stated: "One of the biggest changes DC has made with DC Ink titles, as opposed to the direction of Minx, is base the current line around familiar DC superhero franchises. ..The authors behind DC Ink, while typically being first-timers in comics, already have their own fanbases through pre-existing young adult novels. This gives them a built-in brand, while also allowing newcomers to bring their writing styles and world views into comics. The DC Ink books have also been accessible in everyday stores such as Wal-Mart, a benefit which most regular comic books do not have. On the other hand, the Minx titles struggled to be shelved in even dedicated bookstores, as sellers didn’t know whether to place them amongst the comics or the YA section. The current superhero and comic book movie boom had also not quite begun when Minx titles were published".

List of graphic novels

Notes

References

*

External links

DC's official announcement of the imprint's launch
*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080511172228/http://www.comixology.com/articles/55/-Mea-maxima-culpa A librarian's perspective on Minxby Columbia University librarian Karen Green a
comiXology

Interviews

Cecil Castellucci
November 30, 2006
Jim Rugg
December 1, 2006
Line Editor Karen Berger
April 5, 2007
Mike Carey
April 10, 2007
Louise Carey
May 23, 2007

''Publishers Weekly'', May 12, 2008

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minx (Comics)
DC Comics imprints
Defunct comics and manga publishing companies
Privately held companies based in New York (state)
2007 establishments in the United States
2008 disestablishments in the United States
2007 comics debuts