Competitors

I struggled to find graphic novel adventures that were similar in concept and target audience to my own, but I will analyse some competitors in the genre here:

Sherlock Holmes: International

For this specific graphic novel adventure, I have also expanded on it in my inspiration section.

Van Ryder Games targets those who enjoy puzzles, adventure and graphic novels. They have a wide selection of graphic novel adventures, and I feel that Sherlock Holmes would be apt to analyse in a competitor analysis since it is also based in the 19th century. It was also published relatively recently, in 2022.

The price is £22.00, which is relatively average when I compare it to other physical copies of graphic novel adventures, digital copies tend to be cheaper but Van Ryder Games does not have digital copies of their books. However, they do have free digital resources for their books that can be printed out, like extra character sheets (better replayability) and bookmarks with space for notetaking and and a summary of how to play, which makes for an easy quick reference when you start playing again after leaving for a bit.

While the time period and genre is similar to my project, it differs in the art style. The art style is much more cartoony, prehaps appealing to a younger audience. The format of the comic is split into three, with three different investigations of different crimes comitted in different areas of the world. This is therefore much less reliant on narrative and character, and much more reliant on contained investigations and puzzles. The appeal of this book is therefore different to my own book.

Meanwhile by Jason Shiga

While it released over 15 years ago in 2010, I think that this graphic novel is relevent to look at as it is very unique and a staple in the genre of graphic novel adventures. Unfortunatley, it’s revered status means that it might also be hard to compete against it.

This game costs £11.99, which seems to be cheaper than the average graphic novel adventure. This graphic novel is also plainly targetted at teens, having been placed in a ‘Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens’ list. This is in my opinion a unique take on the genre, which has been established since the 1980s. While a typical graphic novel adventure will have numbered panels and a branching but relativley linear storyline, this comic boasts it’s 3,856 story possibilities and uses tubes and tabs to create the sequentiality. However, because of this, there is not much in the ways of story, the gamified aspect being much more essential to its appeal. I also think that this is why it would end up appealing to a younger audience than my project, and Amazon catagorises the book at the reading age ‘8-12’.

I think, based on this research, that my own graphic novel adventure will stand out on the basis of topic and target age. The topic begin a bit more serious as it is take on the importance of academic open access, which will appeal more to an older audience, and the highlighting of narrative and character could also appeal more to an older audience.