Minx
Posted by Sigrid.
“MINX is the first graphic novel imprint designed exclusively for teenage girls. Launched in 2007, MINX is an imprint of DC Comics, the second largest publisher of comic books and graphic novels in North America.”
— From the official Minx website
The Minx line of graphic novels recently ceased publication. Heidi MacDonald has an excellent comprehensive post about the end, here. I’m not going to replicate that. I am interested in something slightly different — did DC, in fact, publish what they meant to? Did they publish “smart, original stories about real girls in the real world … resulting in unexpected adventures”? I own and have read all the Minx titles. And I think the answer is yes, DC did publish exactly what they said they would.
There’s a rule — more of a guideline, really — in plotting stories that I have heard referred to as “the Joss rule of the supernatural,” named after Joss Whedon. The rule is, don’t figure out what the Big Bad will be in a given story and then write how the characters react. Figure out, instead, what the characters are struggling with in their lives. Then pick a situation or antagonist that will exacerbate the personal problem, or force the character to face the thing they are avoiding, or push the character to action. The Minx books follow this guide.
The world is vast, and I am the center of it. This is the point of view of many (though not all) Young Adult protagonists. Not in a particularly self-aware sense, but in a social and emotional development sense. YA protagonists are incredibly self-absorbed, reaching for the first time in their lives for true depth, for understanding, for a place in a world so much larger than themselves. This is one of the key journeys of adolescence.
The Minx titles each begin with a girl who has just suffered a change in circumstance. This external change is the mirror and catalyst of the internal change that needs to occur. Actual teenagers are a blend of sociopathically self-centered and profoundly altruistic. The protagonists in Minx — particularly in Confessions of a Blabbermouth, Kimmie66, and The Plain Janes — are jerked out of insular comfort by events that force them to recognize that they are connected to others in ways they did not intend or understand.
The events vary. In The Plain Janes, Jane’s life is turned over by an act of domestic terrorism and its consequences — her parents’ reaction, a move to a new town. Telly Kade, in Kimmie66, is searching for the truth behind a friend’s recent suicide. Tasha, the self proclaimed Blabbermouth, is forced to deal with her mom’s new boyfriend and said boyfriend’s irritating daughter. And for Lottie Brook (of Clubbing) the change is a move to the country and away from London.
The Minx books do feature real girls. The adventures have unexpected elements. But what makes these stories work is the Joss Rule. The plots of displacement, of new family, of loss are mere catalysts, interacting with the internal disruption the protagonists are experiencing to effect a change of state. Telly is isolated from the real world: her search for Kimmie is what leads her to connect with people. Jane is afraid and is worried that the world is irretrievably ugly after her experience with terrorism. She finds a way to be brave and create beauty and at the same time learns to trust people again. Brody (in Water Baby) has to learn how to be a whole person without a leg. The arrival of her ex-boyfriend gives her a chance to tell him she doesn’t need him.
The Minx stories are all tales of bravery. More importantly, they are tales of trying. Making an effort, failing, trying again or trying differently. They are stories about seeing something outside of yourself and knowing that this may be one of the most important things with which you will ever engage. They are stories of lowercase heroes, achievable courage, and the villainies next door.
These may not be the stories that interest you. If so, feel free to skip over the little graphic novels wedged in amongst the manga titles. But if you think this sounds good — if coming of age stories are your cup of tea, if you love to read about real people dealing with the actual problems of life amidst unusual circumstances, then ask your local comics retailer to order copies of the Minx graphic novels for you.
The Minx line was deemed a commercial failure. But it was an artistic success.
Nice post!
I’m glad you did this write-up — it’s easy to focus on the negative, with the line shutting down. But the books are still out there for people to discover; I think it’s heartening, really, that so many top line creators were willing to give Minx a shot. As were a lot of traditional comics readers. I think a few years from now someone will figure out how to market books along the same line — it may not be a traditional comics company — but these books are out there as an example of how the thing can be done well.
Also, I’ve probably mentioned to you that I adore that Mike Carey & his daughter worked together on ‘Confessions.’ I have an optimistic idea that all the daughters of comics creators out there are going to be the ones to revolutionize the industry in a few years. It’s been a fathers-and-sons industry for a long time, and I’m optimistic about the possibilities when people start to see that it’s a business for women, too.
Caroline
7 Oct 08 at 6:32 am
Congratulations. Your post is the first one to make me *actually interested* in reading the Minx titles. I’ll have to look into them now.
Shame the marketing didn’t pull that one off.
Margot
7 Oct 08 at 6:35 am
@Margot I’m surprised you haven’t read Minx! I think they’d be up your alley, definitely.
I think “Re-Gifters” was my favorite, along with “New York Four”. . .but I’m re-reading ‘Plain Janes,’ and I recall liking that one a lot too.
Caroline
7 Oct 08 at 6:43 am
I do wish that the marketing had been more successful. My LCR guys told me that 1) they had no idea where to *put* the books, and 2) people were buying the titles that had “names” on them, like Carey and Kelly. Clearly, clearly, somewhere along the line there was a Failure to Communicate, if guys who like Carey were buying the books for him, yet people like Margot (who really ought to love the books —
) weren’t lured to pick them up.
Honestly, the books are sort of YA confessionals, a genre I adore. The same people who like Uglies and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist should be reading these books.
sigrid
7 Oct 08 at 6:52 am
I read the McDonald article and was sort of annoyed by the comment that ‘it’s mostly 30 year old male bloggers who like these! There must be something wrong with them.’ Well. . .for the most part, that’s who reviews comics. Duh.
Caroline
7 Oct 08 at 6:54 am
To clarify, the comment was that “there must be something wrong with the comics if the male bloggers like them” (not there must be something wrong with the bloggers; though that may also have been implied).
Is there something wrong with the Harry Potter because adults like it? Jeez.
Caroline
7 Oct 08 at 6:57 am
@Caroline I guess I just have enough to read every week that I didn’t want to bother with them? When I was working at Borders I saw a few copies of Plain Janes, but I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm.
@Sigrid we had them not even shelved with the manga, but with the ‘graphic novels – other’ at Borders, so they were mixed in with 100 Bullets and Fables and the Star Wars comics. And if someone had said ‘for people who like Uglies’ I would totally have been reading them. *adores*
Margot
7 Oct 08 at 7:28 am
Great post, Sigrid! I appreciated the various analyses popping up last week, but I was really hoping someone would bring up the very point you raise: that the Minx line actually did have some quality books and it’s a shame it won’t continue. (I know that’s not your *whole* point, but that’s what kept occurring to me in reading a lot of the other post-mortems
) Sure, there were various issues with its conception and marketing and so on, but still: a shame.
Sarah
7 Oct 08 at 11:39 am
@Sarah
I, personally, particularly liked the Janes books, and Confessions of a Blabbermouth.
sigrid
7 Oct 08 at 11:43 am
Very nice write-up, Sigrid. Forgive me for invading your site with hype but I feel obliged to remind everyone that it’s not over quite yet. One of the final Minx books, EMIKO SUPERSTAR, hits stores today! Illustrated by myself and written by Mariko Tamaki (who just won an Ignatz Award for her other graphic novel, SKIM).
Steve Rolston
8 Oct 08 at 11:35 am
I am a librarian and graphic novel selector for a book distributor and for a reference publisher’s online database of graphic novels. I really enjoy the Minx books. I just read Janes in Love and Emiko Superstar, which are both great. Libraries have had mixed success with the Minx books, some librarians reported high circulations and others said the books wouldn’t leave the shelves. Again, part of it is marketing, how the libraries market the books. Comparing them to Uglies and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist rather than to manga is a much bette strategy, and one that perhaps not all librarians followed. Because, frankly, not every librarian likes graphic novels and reads them; they just get them for the library because they know the book format is popular. Minx definitely did NOT fail for lack of quality.
Kat Kan
8 Oct 08 at 12:31 pm
@Steve Rolston
Heh. That was already in my pull list, and I was picking it up while you were leaving this comment. I look forward to reading it!
sigrid
8 Oct 08 at 2:29 pm
@Steve Rolston
What she said. And you can invade our site with hype anytime.
Caroline
8 Oct 08 at 3:10 pm
I spent the last 3 years as a librarian working in an urban charter school, and I can testify that the minx books were liked by the target audience when they had a chance to come across them. I had Kimmie66, Good as Lily, and P.L.A.I.N. Janes, and they all seemed to do well, although since I wasn’t able to get them on the shelves until the end of the year, my sample of girls who read them was small. One thing I couldn’t tell was how many of the girls were already manga readers and how many were print fiction readers trying something different. I should also note that we had a couple of manga-esque graphic novels from another publisher, Queen Bee and Biker Girl, that did well with younger teens & pre-teens (i.e. 6th and 7th graders primarily)
and another one that I can’t remember the title of, that did well with the older girls.
I think that one reason that a lot of these books might
have got lost in the shuffle is that they were different from a lot of what was out there (look like manga, but not part of a series, etc) and they were also physically small. They are the kind of books that require a lot of hand selling–I was in a position to do that as a school librarian, because I had relationships with a specific group of kids, but not every librarian or comic book shop owner can do that.
erin b.
8 Oct 08 at 3:16 pm
I’d also like to add that I think they missed an opportunity by not using more established young adult authors (such as Cecil Castellucci, who wrote Janes) rather than comics industry pros (e.g. Mike Carey). Teens are tremendously loyal to their favorite authors and will pick up everything they write, no matter what format it’s in.
For example, I get the impression that a lot of teens who hadn’t read comics before picked up the White Tiger gn because Tamora Pierce was writing it.
Meg Cabot, an extremely successful YA author, wrote a romance with fantasy elements called Avalon High. That book was a standard print novel, but now she’s writing the follow-up series, Avalon High: Coronation, as a manga.
And Holly Black, another successful YA author, is teaming up with Ted Naifeh (who writes Courtney Crumrin) to do a dark fantasy graphic novel about fairies. I’m sure her fanbase will eat it up.
erin b.
8 Oct 08 at 3:21 pm
It’s really good to hear from the librarians — I know I always appreciated the work librarians did when I was younger, helping to steer me to books I might like. I know not everyone has the knowledge base or sheer time to learn about every book or genre passing under their noses, but I’m glad to hear that some did in this case. Getting graphic novels and tpbs the recognition and audience they deserve can be an uphill battle.
sigrid
8 Oct 08 at 3:36 pm
At Barnes & Noble, they’d shelve Minx books either with the Graphic Novels or at the end of the Teen books section with some of the manga. I could never remember to look there.
I also think they missed the boat by focusing so strongly on realism versus fantasy. The sheer number of supernatural/vampires/horror/fantasy related YA books out there is astounding, especially from the generation that had to struggle to find something besides Amethyst, Princess of the Gemworld to read.
Julia L.
9 Oct 08 at 7:50 am
You know, I never actually considered reading the Minx books, and I’m not sure why, since I do love YA fiction. I think, honestly, it’s that I just didn’t *see* them ever – which, as others have pointed out, was half the problem.
Jennifer
9 Oct 08 at 9:21 am