BOOKS

A graphic novel is a book made up of comics content. Although the word "novel" normally refers to long fictional works, the term "graphic novel" is applied broadly and includes fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work. It is distinguished from the term "comic book", which is used for comics periodicals.

 

Fan historian Richard Kyle coined the term "graphic novel" in an essay in the November 1964 issue of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha.The term gained popularity in the comics community after the publication of Will Eisner's A Contract with God (1978) and became familiar to the public in the late 1980s after the commercial successes of the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1986 and the collected editions of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in 1986 and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen in 1987. The Book Industry Study Group began using "graphic novel" as a category in book stores in 2001.

 

Definition

The term is not strictly defined, though Merriam-Webster's broad dictionary definition is "a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and presented as a book."In the publishing trade, the term is sometimes extended to material that would not be considered a novel if produced in another medium. Collections of comic books that do not form a continuous story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces, and even non-fiction are stocked by libraries and bookstores as "graphic novels" (similar to the manner in which dramatic stories are included in "comic" books). The term is also sometimes used to distinguish between works created as standalone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of a story arc from a comic book series published in book form.

 

Whether or not the Japanese form manga should be included in the term is not always agreed upon. Likewise, in continental Europe, both original book-length stories such as La rivolta dei racchi (1967) by Guido Buzzelli, and collections of comics have been commonly published in hardcover volumes, often called "albums", since the end of the 19th century (including Franco-Belgian comics series such as The Adventures of Tintin and Lieutenant Blueberry, and Italian series such as Corto Maltese).

 

THE CREATIVE REALM'S RECOMMENDED GRAPHIC NOVELS

 

1. Jeff Loveness - Groot 
2. Nathan Edmondson - Where Is Jake Ellis? 
3. Warren Ellis - Moon Knight, Vol. 1: From the Dead (Moon Knight)
4. Jacky Fleming - The Trouble With Women 
5. Jason McNamara - The Rattler