Another off topic
Call me a snob, but graphic novels are not 'books'. They are just slightly extended comics.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:02, 9 replies)

You're a snob!
Slightly extended is unfair - sometimes they are a lot extended, especially if you cram a whole series of comic books into one hard cover and dust jacket and sell it to people who've already bought the comics cos it's just so darn purty and there's a new foreword from the author in which he thanks us all personally for our kind letters of support whilst he wrote the next series.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:05, closed)

I watched Sin City recently
Worst screenplay I've ever heard. Nice pictures though.
(frankspencer, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:07, closed)

Plus
Why can't a comic be a book? Just because it's told with pictures as well as words doesn't stop it being a book (quite aside from the obvious fact that a book is anything with bound pages). Books can and often do have illustrations that are an integral part of the experience of reading them, it's not exactly a long step to a graphic novel. And of course even many famous novels were written in an episodic form.

Seriously, if you're saying this it sounds like you've never read a decent graphic novel. For a standalone example that doesn't come with superhero baggage, try Maus. For a more conventional example, try V for Vendetta or Watchmen. Then tell me they aren't literature.
( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:15, closed)

Sorry, I disagree.
I've read a few graphic novels, and I would consider them to be proper books. The main difference is that instead of describing surroundings and characters, they show them to you. So instead of Neil Gaiman describing Death as being a slender young woman with dark hair, he gives you this:



and instead of describing how he sat glumly on a stone stair talking to her, he gives you this:



The dialog is all there, and he gives voiceovers to convey what the main character is thinking- all of the elements of conventional literature are there. The only difference is that instead of using words to describe things, he uses graphics. It's just another means to the same end.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 20 May 2008, 16:40, closed)

I love Sandman
Got me through many a difficult evening, it did.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:43, closed)

I disagree
Jimmy Corrigan was given a literary award
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/dec/07/books.booksnews
there's not many books I've read that have expressed loneliness and loss as well as this graphic novel does

and like The Resident Loon demonstrates above there are things you can say in a graphic novel that you can't express quite as effectively in any other medium

it's a shame that to find a culture willing to give the graphic novel the respect it deserves you have to travel to Japan
(The Goat www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com, Tue 20 May 2008, 16:52, closed)

Television

But the argument about books being better than television for working your imagination, can equally be applied to graphic 'novels', couldn't it? The Resident Loon pretty much said it above.
You don't have to think or use your imagination with a comic, it is there in front of you.
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Tue 20 May 2008, 17:06, closed)

Nothing wrong with comics
But only closeted homosexuals who are ashamed of their reading habits and seek to dress them up in fancy phrases call them "graphic novels".

Those of us who are comfortable with our sexuality call them comics and enjoy them for what they are.

That reminds me; the third Ultimate Sandman collection should be out around now. Time to go shopping...
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Tue 20 May 2008, 21:07, closed)

...
*looking down front of pants*

*looking at nearest woman and noting her curves*

*noting that pants are now tighter*

Nope, I'm straight.

There's a big difference between a graphic novel and a comic book- a comic book is generally part of a serial, a storyline that keeps going and wandering. A graphic novel is pretty much self-contained, with a definite story arc. Also, graphic novels tend to be a bit longer than comic books.

Graphic novels are a fairly recent hybrid of two art forms. For some people they work well, while for others it's a format that annoys.

Me, I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels- I prefer the old-fashioned kind- but I do have a lot of respect for them as a new art form. I hope they continue. Many people can be excellent writers, and others can be excellent artists- but few can be both. It's a combination of talents that I envy.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 21 May 2008, 3:19, closed)