Defining the Genre

Managing Editor: Dustin Gashette


Welcome to the Defining the Genre webpage! Once widely derided as an immature medium, "comics/graphic novels/sequential art" have nonetheless grown as an artform and have been garnering larger and larger audiences. With the genre now finding its way onto college campuses, academics have set themselves upon the difficult task of defining the genre and trying to find just which discipline it neatly fits into. Are graphic novels, novels? Are they design techniques? Visual art? The annotated sources below were gathered by 4381 students and contain information and opinions that are useful to these questions. Other topics widely included in this discussion are the emergence and evolution of comics, the formal elements of comics, and their audiences' reception.

What do we call this genre?  Comics?  Graphic narrative?  Graphic novels?

Happy reading!


Baird, Zahra. "Got Graphic Novels? More Than Just Superheroes in Tights!"  
Children and Libraries: The Journal Association for Library Service to Children
5.1 (2007) 4-7. Print.

Baird discusses the growing popularity with graphic novels in this article. Baird backs up the idea that, "graphic novels use both words and pictures to appeal to readers of all ages; as the popularity of this format has grown, so had the genre's value, literary prowess, and role as a pathway to literacy".

This article proves helpful in providing a basic understanding of why graphic novels have become essential to the literary world. Different genres and themes are listed, as well as a guideline on how to choose a graphic novel for yourself or classroom.


Behler, Anne. "Getting Started with Graphic Novels." Reference User Services
Quarterly 46.2 (2006): 16-24. Print.

This article by Anne Behler, develops a basic, beginner's understanding on how the genre developed, who it appeals to, and a starting point on how to develop a graphic novel collection. Behler provides a list of suggested graphic novel and also background resource information titles. Behler states that the sophistication from graphic noels "reaches out to the education committee catering to young people's growing affinity for the visual rather than written media".

This article would prove most useful to teachers debating the study of this genre. Behler provides examples of good reads and also background reads on the genre. There is also a useful breakdown of the genre that a teacher would greatly appreciate and find useful.


Besel, Jennifer. The Captivating, Creative, Unusual History of Comic Books. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press,2010. 48.    Print. 

This book does numerous things. It details the origins, innovations, controversy and culture that surround comics we know today. A thorough description of the history and some strange facts you may of not know about once unpopular books we know now as graphic novels.

Besel introduces rich information and history that helps readers gain more information about the comics that are sometimes hard to understand. 



Boime, Albert. "Roy Lichtenstein and the Comic Strip." Art Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1968-1969). 155-159. JSTOR. Web.   20 June 2011
       
The start of comics is the main focus of this article. The comic 
strip has similarities with other pieces of art, but it is the use of ballooning 
that sets comics apart from other forms of art. Ballooning was used in the 1820s 
as a technique in political cartoons, but it was seen as childish was, 
“indirectly responsible for the revival of the balloon device.” Boime then looks 
at different pieces by Roy Lichtenstien and explains how and why he uses speech balloons. There are many characteristics that defines comics, but ballooning was the first characteristic to set comic strips apart.

This article can be used to help teachers, scholars, and readers the very 
basics of cartooning. Each person interested in reading or studying comics needs to have a foundation about the different parts of comics. Another useful part of the article is the use of pictures and an explanation of what the written word is saying about the different parts of comics. 
Campbell, Eddie. "What is a Graphic Novel?" World Literature Today 81.2 
(2007): 13. Print.

In this brief article by Eddie Campbell, the author quickly explains four ways the term graphic novel is being used: one used as a synonym for comic books, two to classify a format, three to represent a comic book narrative that is equivalent in form and dimensions to the prose novel, and fourth to indicate a form that is more than a comic book. Campbell discusses confusion and goals on defining the term, graphic novel.

This article could be beneficial to those who are new to comics, graphic novels, etc. It provides an insight to the complexity of the genre itself.
  
Eisner, Will. Graphic storytelling. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Pr, 1996. 164. Print. 

This books distills the art of graphic storytelling into principles that every comic artist, writer, and filmmaker should know. Eisner displays understanding on basic concepts that tied together make the sequential art we have come to know today in graphic novels. This is the instructional anatomy book about comics your local convenience store never showed you.

This book can help students, teachers and connoisseurs understand the basic principles involved in completing the very structured and methodological anatomy of comic books turned novel. This book is very rich in information and can be used by the masses for years to come to define the basic understanding of a comic book and its contents.


Gaudreault, Andre. “A Medium is Always Born Twice…” Early Popular Visual Culture. May 2005, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p3-15.   Humanities International Complete

This article is all about how different mediums originate and gain their identities.  While it discusses comics it also makes comparisons by discussing the emergence of cinema, photography, etc. All in all, the aim of the paper is to propose a model that contributes to the understanding of the act of defining genres.

The article will be useful to those exploring the definition of comics. The article does not focus heavily on the particular elements or features of comics, but primarily with their emergence and identification. As comics , for lack of better words, are the new kid on the academic block, such articles will be useful to charting the genre’s place in art and therefore may also be useful to educators seeking insight into the disciplines which may approach comics.


Hatfield, Charles. “How to Read a…” English Language Notes; Fall/Winter 2008, Vol. 46 Issue 2, p129-150. Humanities        International Complete.

This article discusses the field of comic studies. Unresolved in its identity, the field is open to many approaches. The article discusses the interdisciplinary required in any approach, as well as the author’s own 15 week survey course wherein he lectures on comics.  Included topics are structuring assumptions of literary studies, the work of Art Spiegelman, and comics as graphic design.

This article will be useful to those seeking more information on defining the genre, as well as to educators who are researching teaching methods. The graphics design discussion may also be useful to understanding comics in general.

Jacobs, Dale. "More than Words: Comics as a Means of Teaching Multiple Literacies." The English Journal Vol. 96.3  (2009): 19-25. JSTOR. Web. 9 June 2011. 

Historically, comics have been treated as the red-headed step-child of the literary world.  They have been viewed, according to Jacobs, “as a simplified version of word-based texts, with words supplemented and made easier to understand by pictures.” According to Jacobs that is just not so.

He gives convincing support for the argument that comics should be viewed as the complex textual environments that they are. Using Ted Naifeh's Polly and the Pirates as a touchstone, Jacobs convincingly demonstrates how comics can engage students on many levels, creating meaning in the classroom and beyond.   

   

Kuskin, William. "Continuity in Literary Form and History." English Language
Notes 46.2 (2008): 5-13. Print.

This article discusses in depth arguments of contemporary criticism of comic books and graphic novels. Kuskin explains that the basis of most criticism focuses on three different aspects: one that this art form is claimed to have originated in the early 19th century, two this medium is best read structurally, third that it makes up a new medium altogether. Kuskin addresses what makes up a graphic novel, referencing authors like Scott McCloud. Structural layout, details, and forms are also discussed.

This article would be essential to anyone attempting to fully understand how to read and analyze a graphic novel or comic. With examples and quotes from various graphic novelists and experts, this article proves to be an advanced technical side to the graphic novel art form.


Larsson, Donald. “Comic? Book? Or, Of Maus and Manga.” International Journal of the Book; 2007, Vol. 4 Issue   1, p 43-50. Humanities International Complete.

In Larsson’s words, this “presentation will examine whether current theoretical accounts of narrative texts and readers’ activities are sufficient to deal with the complexities of the graphic novel.  Larrson, for the sake of this paper, outlines how “comics” have been defined by authors such as McCloud and Eisner, and yet uses the word “comics” as shorthand to refer to the “communicative medium of the graphic novel.”

This article will be useful to those readers who are seeking more information as to how “comics” are defined and referred to, while also being a guide to techniques that should be applied to the reading of comics. Thus this source will fit either into the “Defining the Genre” or “Understanding Comics” category.


Martin, Elaine. “Graphic Novels or Novel Graphics?” Comparatist; May 2011, Vol. 35, p 170-181. Humanities International Complete.

This article explores the development of the graphic novel and also its innovative relationships between text and graphics. Interestingly, the author of this article distinguishes “graphic novels” from “comic books.” In addition, the article provides an evolutionary timeline, much like McCloud’s in Understanding Comics, that points out several landmarks in the history of “comics.”

The article will be of use to readers who may be gathering opinions and reasoning regarding the question of how to define the “genre” of comics/graphic novels/sequential art and of how to divide it into subgenres. It will also be useful to those seeking information on historical development.   

Meskin, Aaron. “Defububg Cinucs?” The Journal of Aethetics and 
Art Criticism, Vol. 65, No 4. (2007). 369-379. JSTOR. Web. 20 June 
2011.

How can comics be defined? Aaron Meskin researches all the 
components of a comic. He analyzes the opinions of Greg Hayman, Henry John 
Pratt, Will Eisner, and Scott McCloud. He talks about the brief history of recent attempts to define comics, the Hayman-Pratt definition of comics, comics and narrative, comics and history, and finally comics and definition. Eachtopic he t alks about he gives all the opinions of scholars and cartoonists.

Meskin does a great critique in the article because he gives 
lengthy backgrounds on each components of the definition of comics. Teachers, 
scholars, and readers can benefit from this article because it helps lay the 
foundation to what is defined as a comic. The information given to the reader is 
full of insight into comics.