Comics or Graphic Novels?

Okay, you know someone had to ask this question! Do you prefer "comics" or "graphic novels?" Do you tag with one or the other or both?

I use both tags and try to stick with comics for serials and/or shorts but graphic novels for longer coherent works. There is certainly room for some overlap, though. What do you think?

hey zhejw,

a long cohesive work i call a graphic novel. a comic i call a series of short...comics. yup.

overlaps - well, i suppose a series of shorts could still be a graphic novel if united by a central theme. and on and on, with so many variations. probably just depends on the work, eh?

I use comics for comic strips - daily, serialized stuff. I.E. my Calvin and Hobbes collection.

Graphic Novels for pretty much anything else.

The whole graphic novel thing is totally new for me as well! Even when I was a kid I really had a hard time getting into comic books. I'm not sure why. So, when I first took notice of manga I wasn't sure if I would like it at all. But, once I did try them I totally fell in love with them. I'm not sure why there seems to be a difference to me. I suppose it could just be a frustration at comics being too short, but I definitely have to say I prefer the graphic novels.

Generally, I buy both. I've been buying comics for 20+ years, and have a rather large collection. However, with the current trend of writing comics as a story-arc through several issues, and then releasing the collected trade paperback shortly thereafter, I have been purchasing the collected stories that I particularly enjoyed. It makes having them at my fingertips and re-reading the stories easier that way. All my graphic novels are tagged as both "comics" and "graphic novels", since the stories started out life as a comic book.

As said above, anything with an end in sight is a graphic novel.

I'm also likely to tag non-superhero stories with darker themes a 'graphic novel', even if it's a continuing series (e.g. Freakangels), though maybe that's eccentric of me.

I thought I'd throw my two-cents into the ring :)

In perusing the posts above (admittedly, some are rather old now, and so I'm not exactly sure where the group stands at the moment), I think it would be a good idea for the group to have a solid definition of what a Graphic Novel is. Having a clear and shared meaning for the term would definitely help when posting new threads, as well as in answering those already posted. (And maybe it would help with any questions vis a vis tagging, too, as mentioned in #1)

"Graphic Novels" has become the generic, catch-all term awarded to pretty much any comics work that has a spine and sits on a bookshelf, it seems. And I think, in general, its sufficient. But it's not really too precise. For at least our discussion purposes here, *real* graphic novels are original comics work created to appear in the graphic novel format, i.e, with a spine on a bookshelf. Many times, for clarity's sake, these works are referred to as OGN's, or Original Graphic Novels. As Cynara points out, they do "have an end in sight."

For example, Maus is a graphic novel, or OGN. Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad is also an OGN. As is Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. On the other hand, his Watchmen is not truly a graphic novel (although it is, of course, original -- though, to dissect things even further, it is not a creator-owned piece). Moore wrote Watchmen as a 12-issue limited monthly series for DC Comics, after which the the entire year's run was collected under one glossy cover. Since then, and probably largely due to Watchmen and Time Magazine, the generic term "graphic novel" has proliferated, however inaccurately.

More correctly, Watchmen is a Trade Paper Back, or TPB. TPBs have become the backbone of the comics industry, its primary source of revenue. As monthly, single-pamphlet comic book collecting has become something reserved for only the most die-hard fan-boys (like me), the fan-at-large follows the current pursuits of their favorite titles via the trades, a bookshelf-ready reprint that collects, generally by individual story-arc, the relevant issues from any given single ongoing (or limited) series, and sometimes, where larger stories are at work, inter-related series. Grant Morrison's The Invisibles or Final Crisis are both trades, whereas his The Mystery Play or Arkham Asylum are OGNs.

While "comics" is a catch-all term, too, I think its one most-used when referring to the monthy format of comic book publishing. So, "comics" and "comic books" are pretty interchangable words. "Comics" is also historically the catch-all word for "comic strips", which of course pre-dated their cousin the comic book by thirty-odd years. While related to comic books, strips, of course, differ in many ways. So, for something like a bookcase Far Side, which doesn't fit the parameters of the OGN (or even GN), the TPB, etc, calling the book a comic strip collection is, in my cursory opinion, probably the best bet.

And my two pennies are now quite spent...

Here's an article that tries to explain the difference.. But i'm still quite confused. What do you guys think?

Graphic Novel Article

I stopped buying comics once they went into the monthly continuem vs. the weekly one.
I just couldn't keep track.

I do love the graphic novels, which I consider a collected work of a comic book storyline (all issues of "Death of Superman",etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel#Criticism_of_the_term - Alan Moore's comment there especially rings true with the majority of pish you can get. It is a vapid marketing term used to good effect.

It is down to the format. What you pick up monthly is a magazine. What sits on the shelf is a book. These sort of things are decided by pages and layout usually. Anyway, if She-Hulk is a graphic novel as well as Watchmen, doesn't that just cheapen the term to the point of it being devoid?

I prefer graphic novel for longer works and more adult content.

Jeremy Short
Author of Atlas Black: Managing to Succeed (a business graphic novel)

I prefer using "comics" to refer to everything, though I only really collect "graphic novels" and "TPBs". I like to specify serial comics as "single issues", since I'm generally talking about bound collections or novels.

I think "graphic novel" sounds a bit pretentious (even though it really makes a lot more sense). I only use that term when I'm talking to somebody who isn't really familiar with "comics", so they know what I'm talking about and don't prejudge as harshly :p

I'm reading that we're talking about term, not format, right?

Issues = comics.
Collected issues, bound and sold together = trade paperbacks. I generally also say graphic novels for that.
Works issued in bound format (Fun Home, etc.) = graphic novels.