Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Comic Books or are they Graphic Novels?

The term "graphic novel" was first coined by Richard Kyle in 1964, mainly as an attempt to distinguish the newly translated works from Europe which were then being published from what Kyle perceived as the more juvenile subject matter that was so common in the United States.
The term was popularized when Will Eisner used it on the cover of the paperback edition of his work A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories in 1978. This was a more thematically mature work than many had come to expect from the comics medium, and the critical and commercial success of A Contract with God helped to bring the term in common usage.
Warren Ellis, in his Come in Alone columns at ComicbookResources.com, suggested that the term "graphic novel" should include collected editions of serialized storylines. To differentiate these from original comic book publications, he proposed the term "original graphic novel." These terms are still used as first suggested, although "original graphic novel" is not a popular term, particularly because so few are produced. Collected editions are more popularly known by the publishing industry term "trade paperback." This blog brought to you by http://www.thecollectorsbay.com/Comic-Books,category,1889,parent_id,categories

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