the.com/graphic novel
A comic book that went to grad school and got a book deal.
means A long-form narrative told in sequential comic-strip art and words, bound like a book and usually aiming at more literary or mature territory than a typical comic.
from 'Graphic' comes from Greek 'graphikos', relating to writing or drawing; 'novel' traces through French and Italian back to Latin 'novellus', meaning new. The specific phrase 'graphic novel' was popularized in the late 1970s, notably by Will Eisner's 'A Contract with God' (1978), which he marketed under that label partly to win comics more respect as literature and partly to land it a spot on bookstore shelves rather than in the spinner rack. The term stuck, giving an old medium a new, more dignified jacket.
- origin term
- Will Eisner popularized it to dodge comic book stigma
- first major example
- Eisner's A Contract with God, 1978
- pulitzer proof
- Maus won one in 1992, no category existed
- publishing trick
- same medium, just bound to sit on bookshelves