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Graphic Novels

Resources and information about graphic novels in the library's collection.

Welcome!

Welcome to the library's guide to Graphic Novels. Please use the information on this page to find resources about graphic novels and use the tabs above to find descriptions of the graphic novels in our collection.

Image from http://www.au.timeout.com

What's in a name?

"Graphic novel" is a format, not a genre. Graphic novels can be fiction, non-fiction, history, fantasy, or anything in-between.

 From GetGraphic.org

Graphic novels are book-length comics. Sometimes they tell a single, continous narrative from first page to last; sometimes they are collections of shorter stories or individual comic strips.

Comics are sequential visual art, usually with text, that are often told in a series of rectangular panels. 

From D. Aviva Rothschild, Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1995

 

Major Types of Graphic Novels

  • Fiction
  • Personal Narrative or Memoir
  • Nonfiction
  • Manga ("Manga" is the Japanese word for comic but in the US is used to describe Japanese style comics. Manga is read from top to bottom and right to left in the Japanese reading pattern).
  • Superhero Stories

Books about graphic novels and comics