Graphic novels vs. comic books
Recently, a number of people in a number of places have been quite unwilling to say the words comic books and have said, instead, graphic novel. This is due to 300 coming out as a movie, of course.
I'm not pleased with it. Oh, it's not a big thing, it's just a burr in the back of my head whenever someone calls a comic book a graphic novel. Like comic book is a dirty word!
In particular, with 300 a lot of people - I'm not pointing fingers at any specific person - have called it a graphic novel. It's not. It was a comic book that was published after it's run as a comic in a trade paperback compilation. (The same is true of, say, The Dark Knight Returns, The Watchmen or V for Vendetta.)
I guess I should be glad people are reading comics at all, regardless of what they call them, and recognizing the talents of the artists and writers that make them - and, to some extent, recognizing the awesome impact that these iconic characters and narrative forms have had on American arts - but I dislike the need to distance the "graphic novel" from the "comic book".
I'm not pleased with it. Oh, it's not a big thing, it's just a burr in the back of my head whenever someone calls a comic book a graphic novel. Like comic book is a dirty word!
In particular, with 300 a lot of people - I'm not pointing fingers at any specific person - have called it a graphic novel. It's not. It was a comic book that was published after it's run as a comic in a trade paperback compilation. (The same is true of, say, The Dark Knight Returns, The Watchmen or V for Vendetta.)
I guess I should be glad people are reading comics at all, regardless of what they call them, and recognizing the talents of the artists and writers that make them - and, to some extent, recognizing the awesome impact that these iconic characters and narrative forms have had on American arts - but I dislike the need to distance the "graphic novel" from the "comic book".
Labels: comic books
