The Rise and Fall of the 'Graphic Novel'

Or: ‘Bam! Pow! Comics aren’t just for misinformed journalists anymore!’

It started innocently enough; a young jobbing cartoonist named Will Eisner needed a name for his long-form comic book works - novel-sized bound collections of picture stories. "Gasp, I have it," Eisner exclaims, thrilled. "This... is a graphic novel!"

A proud, promising start for our fledgling medium… like comic books, but longer! This definition remains the commonly perceived one for many years, usually referring to original comics works originally published in a single volume. Eisner himself publishes more extended comics stories in albums like these, such as the A Contract With God series and Life on Other Planets, to industry acclaim, but still fails to break through into mainstream publishing. A decade or so later, along comes Alan Moore and makes comic books well worth owning in a library edition. The first seven issues of Alan Moore’s reinvented Swamp Thing are rebound to form a trade paperback – forging new ground for the longevity and popularity of the comic book story!

Flash forward to the present day and graphic novels continue to sell by the bucketload. An entire division of the comics industry is dedicated to the production of collections, for the fans who prefer to ‘wait for the trade’. Rarely is a series released that isn’t eventually collected into a graphic novel. And very exciting it all is, too. The success makes comics far more accessible to the casual reader. For those too busy, or too far from a comic shop, to keep up with monthly issues, handy meal-sized chunks of story are released every few months. In particular, this benefits those readers for whom the comics world can seem exclusionary or intimidating: women. The comics medium evolves, transforms and broadens exponentially. Which is where things go wrong.

Now I’ll stop there for just a moment, to clarify: girls reading comics is no bad thing. Not at all. Not only does it do a power of good for the medium, it is also delightfully sexy. The more people in general read comics, the higher the standard they’re held to, and the more money the publishers can afford to pour into their upcoming talent. Everyone’s happy. ‘Where things go wrong’ happens in two diverging directions – 1: The numerous sub-standard cash-in titles pumped out to keep the funding in line with the demand. 2: The snobs. It is the latter that concerns us today.

The snobs were bred by a thousand newspaper articles explaining that comics are no longer ‘just for kids’ – they’re now for kids and extremely boring people. Now, I love Jimmy Corrigan, as every comic fan should – it’s a heart-rending, beautifully-composed comic – and alternative comics are certainly a good thing for the industry. Some of them are very, very good in fact. But not in any higher proportion than mainstream pulp periodicals. For every Ed Brubaker or Bob Fingerman chronicling their real-world adventures through compelling cartoon storytelling, there are several hundred untalented hacks who reckon they’ve managed to find an industry where the material scarcely has to be engaged with on an interpretative or constructive level. Stripped-down picture books for grown-ups. Worse – books by people who actually think that putting effort into something diminishes it! These make up the principal diet of the comic snob.

And what’s the term they wield to justify their interest? ‘Graphic novel’. “Please don’t think I’m an idiot,” the term seems to cry, “I don’t read all that superhero crap, I just read pretentious, poorly-drawn trysts, like the Times Literary Supplement condones! I don’t read comics, I read graphic novels.” And there we reach the downfall of the phrase. From a technical term indicative of a maturing industry, to a mumbled apology. How often do you hear people professing their love for ‘CDs’ rather than music, or ‘DVDs’ rather than films? Whether you’re reading Palestine, Daredevil or the Acme Novelty Library, you are reading comics. They’re not a different kind of novel; they’re a separate medium entirely. They represent a new way of reading and thinking – one you are party to. Admit it, enjoy it, and let ‘graphic novel’ occupy its proper place in the English language, before you give yourself a heart attack from the embarrassment.

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'Beat' Nick is deeply annoyed by wholly inconsequential things.