I decided to explore the No Flying, No Tights graphic novel review website today. Several reasons prompted this. First, the Sunday, August 24 edition of the Washington Post had a lengthy article in their Style & Arts section about graphic novels, or stories published and printed in comic book format. The second thing that prompted me is recently learning that some teens are starting to dress with the style and make up that looks like they just stepped out of a graphic novel. This is happening in middle school, and perhaps earlier.
While everything on the No Flying, No Tights website is not current, many thigs are. I did explore some posts and blogs and found them informative and interesting, giving me more insight into graphic novels and the blogs that exist to share information and ideas about these.
The Washington Post article gave some history about the development of the graphic novel and how the the concept can no longer be ignored by main stream press. Many companies are now publishing these. The question still seems to remain- are these novels real books? Some 'authorities' say yes, some say no. What cannot be ignored is the increase in sales of these novels, and the content and subject matter, which covers any and all subjects. Also, these books are not just for teens anymore. Many are being published for adults and even young children. I think that anything that gets people of all ages reading is great. I just wonder if graphics will become so mainstream that novelists will no longer feel they can publish a prose novel and sell them. Who will buy them? Will libraries continue to increase their purchases of graphic novels for all ages and genres, and will this increase circulation?
rhythm rays
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Thanks for the heads-up about that website; I hadn't seen it before. Maybe a good one to send in for our recommended sites?
Graphic novels have had quite the battle to get accepted by the general publishing world. "Watchmen" by Alan Moore (see orangerful's comment too about that one) was the first and only graphic novel to win the Hugo award -- just after, people got so upset that it was a *graphic* novel that they changed the rules to make them ineligible for the Hugo. (Note: They're changing that, thankfully.)
If you want to try some good, non-comic sort of graphic novoels, you might read "Maus" (one and two), "Cancer Vixen", or maybe "Bone sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards". ...They're all nonfiction, too. ;-)
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