Graphic Novels offer an entirely different experience where words are interwoven with picture to produce an effect that can’t be done by either of them alone. Graphic novels are not to be mistaken as comic books as they deal with matured and serious subject matter. The term graphic novel refers to one of the three formats - an individual story with graphics, paperback collections of comic-book series and anthologies. Comics primarily provide entertainment and are much shorter than graphic novels as the name itself implies that the storyline is of substantial length.
Graphic novels represent a format and deals with almost everything under the sun starting from contemporary social issues to urban legends. Although the graphic novels are sometimes without any superheroes, magic or fantasy, they invoke a feeling that is not found in comics.
The important graphic novelists who deserve special mention because of their distinguished style and content are - Ariel Schrag, Will Eisner and Lynda Barry. The graphic novels depending on the subject matter can be either non-fictional like War in the Neighborhood by Seth Tobocman; Awkward, Potential & Definition by Ariel Schrag, Maus & Maus II; A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman; The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom by Katherine Arnoldi; or fictional like Good- Bye, Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson; and Freddie Stories by Lynda Barry.
The books that tell more about graphic novels include - Graphic Storytelling by Will Eisner; a Century of Women Cartoonists by Trina Robbins and Dave Schreiner; Reinventing Comics & Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud and Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics by D. Aviva Rothschild.
