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April 13, 2007
Distinguishing Comic Strips, Comic Books, and Graphic Novels (Discourse Chronicle)
[Today I appeared in a colleague's class as a guest-speaker presenting about comic books, so I used an opening lesson about comics from my time as an undergraduate TA, which begins with distinguishing three genres of comics: comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels. All three are different and those differences are dependent upon length and content. For me, graphic novels are NOT "collections of comic books that are bound together in book form" because that is what I identify as a trade paperback since those issues are released individually in serial format first.
Defining a graphic novel in my mind only requires understanding the two words in its name: "graphic" (which describes content) and "novel" (which describes length and also means "new" in Latin). Therefore, a graphic novel is a new book-length comic containing graphic content not found within regular monthly comic books. I know a debate exists about comics and comix as well as some creators referring to their own works as "comic books" while others call them "graphic novels," but each category is uniquely different, so I do not know why addressing those differences is difficult.
During my trip to Boston, I launched this debate in a question and answer session after hearing a paper call Art Spiegelman's Maus a comic book, which is also how Spiegelman classified his own work. However, comic scholars and fans call it a graphic novel. I believe one reason differences like that exist is because Spiegelman (like Scott McCloud) is not a scholar and may not be aware of discussions resulting from scholarship, but we love their work and use them in our own projects. Now, some people argue back saying such knowledge is specialized I am inclined to believe it, but only if its context is a geek session.
Comic scholars and comic book readers are not some secret society holding meetings in the most remote places in the world. Non-comic scholars should probably be aware that scholarship exists on comics and that might reduce the number of dabblers in the field. BK]
Posted by kuechebj at April 13, 2007 04:40 PM