The Graphic Novel and the World History Classroom |When someone
says 'Graphic Novel,' one of three ideas comes to mind. The
first of these is the 'comic book.' While indeed comic
books—"gaudy escapism, whether superheroic, fantasy-based,
science fictional," or fluff-driven comedy with "little depth or
humanity"1 —fit within the genre of 'graphic novel,' they do not
themselves define the field. Batman, Maus, and the Archie Comics
series all fall within the realm of graphic novels and thus the
term is far more flexible than 'comic book' may suggest.
Secondly, 'graphic' does not necessarily denote 'pornographic.'
As Paul Gravett in his 2005 work Graphic Novels: Stories to
Change Your Life points out, some graphic novels do fall within
the realm of erotica, but this does not hold true for all.
'Graphic' is, for our purposes, simply a designation of the
artistic style with which the story is written. The
illustrations in a graphic novel should be considered part of
the literature itself, read in conjunction with t