taaaaaa The Graph ic Novel : A Brief History

 In the 1890s several U.S. newspapers featured weekly drawings that were funny, but without indicated speech.  In 1897 Rudolph Dirks's Katzenjammer Kids, in the New York Journal, featured humorous strips containing words presumably spoken by the characters. Soon speeches in balloons appeared in other cartoons, arranged in a series to form a strip.  The comic strip arrived at its maturity in 1907 with Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff, which appeared daily in the San Francisco Chronicle.

 By the 1910s, the Sunday comics were so popular that newspapers would occasionally publish small books containing reprints of past strips, which they would distribute to promote the paper and gain new readers.  In 1934, Eastern Color Printing Company decided to sell these books directly to the public for 10 cents each.

 During the late 1930s and early 1940s, many now-famous superheroes made their first appearances in comic books, and comic book sales soared as good triumphed over evil.  Such heroes include:

 By the early 1950s, readers grew tired of superheroes, and some comic book publishers turned instead to crime and horror stories with graphic illustrations.  Some people felt this material was unsuitable for children, and the comic book industry came under public criticism and federal investigation in  In response, many comic book publishers banded together and issued the Standards of Comics Code Authority.

 In the late 1950s, superheroes started to come back into fashion.  The Silver Age of Comics ( ) brought about some of today’s most popular versions of superheroes.  They include:

 Though the term “graphic novel” had existed even in the early 1970s, it wasn’t until Will Eisner used it on the cover of his book, A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories in 1978 that it began to be used widely.

 A graphic novel is a work in which the story is given to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format.  The term is used in a broad manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories across a number of genres (sci-fi, horror, superheroes, humor, etc.).

 They are generally sold in bookstores and specialty comic book shops.  Graphic novels have even gained increasing acceptance as desirable materials for libraries which once ignored comic books.

 Most creators within the industry don’t like the term “graphic novel.”  They feel it is trying too hard to be something it’s not, which is a type of comic book.  Some have suggested using the term “illustrated novel” or “comic-strip novel.”

 We’ll explore how graphic novels are made.  We’ll investigate the types of graphic novels on the market.  We’ll also discuss the most influential graphic novels of the last twenty-five years.

 On a half sheet of paper, write down one fact that you found most interesting today: