[IYAS9YAS]

The thing that bugged her the most, however, was the credit alluding to the movie being based on the "graphic novel." She heard others muttering "what the heck is a graphic novel?" She wanted to stand up and scream "It's a comic book, you morons!" She restrained herself and kept peace with her friends and classmates.

My wife had never heard the term "graphic novel". Last time I was reading any of them, they were called "Comic Books." I did know the reference only because I know people who insist on calling "Comic Books" "Graphic Novels."

As an aside, I'd just finished rereading four of H.G. Wells' novels (The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man and The War of The Worlds). All good reads, entertaining and refreshed my memories. I will have all the classics waiting for my son.

[discostu]

There is actually a distinct difference between comic books and graphic novels. GN's a longer and are generally not designed to go on indefinitely; there's a set plot with a beginning, middle and end it's an actual novel that has replaced descriptive paragraphs with pictures. Now the line gets blurred because often GN's are initially released as a series of comic books, and the line gets further blurred because now many comic book titles are doing graphic novels as a section of the ongoing series, but they are different. Really.

[Phsstpok]

I will have all the classics waiting for my son.

Don't forget to introduce him to Verne, Twain and Kipling as well. They require context to demonstrate that they were the enlightened ones of their times, and not the hopeless racists that they might seem to the uneducated. Setting the context is almost as fun as the stories themselves.

My first graphic novel, where I felt it deserved the name (as opposed to comic book, or comic book collection) was the Dark Knight re-invention of Batman. Excellent piece of work. Of course the re-issued pulps that my Dad introduced me to when I was a pre-teen (Doc Savage, the Conan books, John Carter of Mars) were just comic books without the pictures. I actually preferred making my own pictures, though.