The above is the cleanest camera phone shot I was able to get of where Borders is racking Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story, European cartoonist Frederik Peeters’ memoir about being in a relationship with someone who is HIV positive. Now, I’m not saying I know everything or anything about how to sell books across the nation, but is “Diseases and Conditions” really the section of the store where this comic is going to have the most impact?
I mean, I know that I’m already predisposed to looking for comics everywhere I go, but if graphic novels are the “growing category” we keep hearing they are, I’m going to bet there are more casual readers walking into Borders going “Gee, maybe I’ll see what this graphic novel thing is all about” than there are folks saying “Gee, I wonder if there’s a section with books of various genres that are all about AIDS.” And that’s not even counting folks who may have read a review of Blue Pills and then came looking for it.
