上周晚些时候，有消息称《****》将关闭其漫画小说和漫画畅销书排行榜，这是精简该公司每周出版图书销售汇编的更大努力的一部分。

具体来说，精装图画书，平装图画书，漫画类将停止从2月5日开始。展望未来，平面小说在进入榜单时，将分为更具竞争力的普通小说和非小说类。《****》与平面小说和漫画媒体的关系一直存在争议，直到2003年才有任何平面小说被列入畅销书排行榜。2009年，《****书评》（NYT Book Review）授予了平面小说和漫画自己的单子，一份对Beat的声明称之为“实验”

《****》书评编辑帕梅拉·保罗（Pamela Paul）上周在推特（Twitter）上为这一决定辩护说：“****并没有减少对这些体裁/格式的报道，而是以比榜单更能吸引更多读者的方式扩大报道范围。”她承诺未来会有更多的评论和特写聚焦于讲故事的媒体。

《边缘》杂志联系了漫画界的几位作者，想看看取消漫画小说排行榜的情况。大多数人对失去这份名单感到失望，他们指出，这份名单是读者和教育工作者发现新作品的一个有用机制，它有助于使出版界仍然经常看不起的媒体合法化。

Scott McCloud，漫画家和《雕塑家：

"I hope someday they bring the comics lists back. They were a much-appreciated gesture of recognition for an art form struggling to finally live up to its potential (and making significant progress in that direction in recent years)."

Ryan North，《无敌松鼠女孩》的作者：

“I'm sad to see the list go, of course: it was a great way for teachers, librarians, parents, and readers to find new comics. Just the fact that comics had a list of their own showed their legitimacy, and since we live in a world where the entire medium (the entire medium!) is sometimes still c***idered to be juvenile, just for kids, di**issible, and irrelevant — that was important. I've always felt that people who might di**iss a book just because it was a comic might give it a second look when it was a New York Times bestselling comic, which of course helped both readers and creators.”

埃里克·斯蒂芬森，图片漫画出版社：

"Given that graphic novels were the only growth category in the book market during 2016, the decision to discontinue the graphic novels bestsellers lists seems a little out of step with what’s actually happening in the marketplace. Graphic novels have been on an upward swing in bookstores since the turn of the century, even as other print categories have struggled, so it’s both puzzling and short-sighted, I think. It’s not like comics and graphic novels are going anywhere."

布莱恩·李·奥马利，《斯科特朝圣者》系列和《秒：

“It's a shame. It lent comics some legitimacy, and I think losing it will hurt the growth of comics not just as a bookstore category, but as an art form. I think to inspire a new generation of creators, you need good work in a dialogue with other good work, but you also need the lure of potential financial reward. The Times list offered both of those at once. The Times said, ‘Here are some good comics that people are spending money on.’ When the Times cares about comics, it says people should care about comics. When the Times stops caring, it says people should stop caring.”

On the flip side, why didn't we have hot new cartoonists battling for the top of the charts every week? Why was the list usually just a handful of reliable hitmakers? I hoped the Times list would be a beacon illuminating some sort of path for talented newcomers, but it didn't work out that way. Maybe we all need to be selling a lot more comics in order to truly merit an ongoing list. Maybe the list was wishful thinking all along.

Raina Telgemeier（她的小说《幽灵》、《戏剧》和《微笑》上周都登上了平装本平面小说畅销书排行榜的榜首）在Twitter上向我们介绍了她关于失去排行榜的评论：

有一些关于图形小说畅销书名单的损失值得注意的例外。作家尼尔·盖曼（Neil Gaiman）的《桑德曼漫画》（Sandman comics）系列是第一部在平面小说获得独立类别之前进入《****》小说畅销书排行榜的平面小说，他在Twitter上评论说：“当我们不得不为自己在排行榜上的位置而奋斗时，我更喜欢它。这总结了一种不同的观点，即把平面小说与其他小说和非小说作品放在同一个名单上，有助于使媒介合法化，而不是使其边缘化。其他主要出版商对此并不担心，正如《出版商周刊》（publishers Weekly）所报道的那样，IDW Publishing的首席执行官泰德•亚当斯（Ted Adams）表示：“我们喜欢说《****》（NYT）的畅销书，但我不知道它是否真的影响了销量。”

现在判断这将对未来的平面小说产生什么样的实际影响还为时过早。《****》只公布相对排名，而不公布实际销量，这使得我们很难确定漫画小说登上畅销书排行榜的频率。不过，归根结底，在平面小说的受众比以往任何时候都更为成熟和多样化的时候，我们还是很难不把《****》取消这一榜单的决定看作是艺术形式合法化的倒退。

更正：根据内容的不同，图画小说将同时被列入普通小说和非小说类的名单。这篇文章最初只提到他们有资格进入小说名单。