The way people call every comic a 'graphic novel' now drives me nuts

I was at my local shop on Wednesday and this guy picked up a random issue of Spider-Man from the 90s and called it a graphic novel. No, that's just a floppy comic, it's 22 pages and stapled together. A graphic novel is something like Watchmen or Maus that tells a complete story in one bound book. I know language changes but it feels like folks skip the history part. Has anyone else noticed this getting worse the last few years?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_brown5019d ago

Oh man, you hit on something I think about all the time. I mean, I get that language changes and all that, but it feels like people just grab the term "graphic novel" because it sounds fancier than "comic book." Are these the same folks who call every movie a "film" now? Like, is there a line somewhere where it actually matters to you, or is it just a pet peeve that sticks in your brain?

ryan_ellis19d ago

You really nailed it with that "pet peeve that sticks in your brain" thing, @xena_brown50 - but does calling it a "graphic novel" actually change how you judge the story inside, or is it just the label that bugs you?

robertgreen18d ago

So did you catch that article a few months back about how "graphic novel" originally meant something specific, like a longer standalone story in a book format, but now it's just a fancy label for anything that isn't a monthly floppy? I feel like @ryan_ellis is onto something with how the label changes how people judge the content. Like, you'll see someone call "Watchmen" a graphic novel even though it was published as 12 separate comic books first. That bugs me more than the word itself because it feels like trying to distance yourself from something that's actually legitimate on its own terms. And yeah, calling every movie a "film" is the exact same pretentious energy. If you're making a 500-page superhero saga that's printed like a book, sure call it a graphic novel. But if it's just a collected edition of issues, it's still a comic book.