The Graphic Novel

This book provides both students and scholars with a critical and historical introduction to the graphic novel. Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey explore this exciting form of visual and literary communication, showing readers how to situate and analyse graphic novels since their rise to prominence half a century ago. Several key questions are addressed: what is the graphic novel? How do we read graphic novels as narrative forms? Why is page design and publishing format so significant? What theories are developing to explain the genre? How is this form blurring the categories of high and popular literature? Why are graphic novelists nostalgic for the old comics? The authors address these and many other questions raised by the genre. Through their analysis of the works of many well-known graphic novelists - including Bechdel, Clowes, Spiegelman and Ware - Baetens and Frey offer significant insights for future teaching and research on the graphic novel.

Roald Dahl's darkly funny masterpiece, The Witches, now available as a graphic novel from Eisner Award-winning artist Pénélope Bagieu! Witches are real, and they are very, very dangerous. They wear ordinary clothes and have ordinary jobs, living in ordinary towns all across the world -- and there's nothing they despise more than children. When an eight-year-old boy and his grandmother come face-to-face with the Grand High Witch herself, they may be the only ones who can stop the witches' latest plot to stamp out every last child in the country!This full-color graphic novel edition of Roald Dahl's The Witches, adapted and illustrated by Eisner Award winner Pénélope Bagieu, is the first-ever Dahl story to appear in this format. Graphic novel readers and Roald Dahl fans alike will relish this dynamic new take on a uniquely funny tale.

A funny graphic-novel series by Aaron Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of Creepy Carrots! His grandpa invented fire. His dad invented the wheel. How will Caveboy Dave leave his mark? Dave Unga-Bunga has always been more scrawny than brawny. This is a major problem when your village expects you to become a meat-bringer. At age twelve, all young cave-people must stalk through the eerie mushroom forests for a prehistoric beast the village can feast on. But Dave would much rather invent stuff for a better life—like underwear to make loincloths less itchy and cutlery to make eating less filthy. Can Dave save his group by inventing the perfect defense against a bloodthirsty pokeyhorn? Or will he MEET HIS DOOM? First in a new series, More Scrawny Than Brawny delivers irresistible characters, big thrills, and even bigger laughs. "Imagine a prehistoric version of Wimpy Kid meets Captain Underpants." —Boys' Life

“Phelan’s noir-esque adaptation of the classic fairy tale is atmospheric, clever, and touching. . . . A stunning, genre-bending graphic novel.” — School Library Journal (starred review) The curtain rises on New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words: “Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL.”

Fall in love all over again in volume one of the graphic novel adaptation of the global phenomenon AFTER! Uncover Tessa and Hardin's love story as you've never seen it before . . . Anna Todd's original story comes to life with breathtaking illustrations by Pablo Andres. Featuring twelve pages of behind-the-scenes and character profile bonus content, After: The Graphic Novel is a great introduction to the bestselling series for new readers and the ultimate collector's item for fans everywhere! There was the time before Tessa met Hardin, and then there's everything AFTER . . . Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She's got direction, ambition, and a mother determined to keep her on course. But she's barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin Scott, with his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, and tattoos. Good looking, confident, and rather rude, even a bit cruel. For all his attitude and insults, Tessa should hate Hardin, and she does - until something about his dark mood grabs her, and it's only a matter of time before he ignites a passion in her that she's never known before. He will call her beautiful, then insist he's not the one for her, making excuses and disappearing, again and again. He'll turn away from her, yet when she tries to push him aside, he'll only pull her in deeper. Despite the reckless way Hardin treats her, Tessa is drawn to his vulnerability and determined to unmask the real Hardin beneath all the lies. A good girl . . . a bad boy . . . something undeniable . . . and everything AFTER.

Bestselling writer Daniel Abraham and acclaimed illustrator Tommy Patterson bring their stunning graphic-novel adaptation of George R.R. Martin's classic A GAME OF THRONES to a stunning finish that merits a place on the bookshelf of every fantasy fan alongside the majestic original. The death of King Robert Baratheon and the imprisonment of his Hand, Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, has set the great houses of Westeros at one another's throats. In Winterfell, Eddard's eldest son and heir, Robb Stark, has gathered an army and is pushing south, determined to free his father. Along the way, he pledges to marry the daughter of Lord Walder Frey in exchange for a military advantage that allows him to capture Jaime Lannister--a powerful bargaining chip to ensure Lord Eddard's safe release. But it is one thing to capture the Kingslayer and quite another to hold him. Meanwhile, in King's Landing, young King Joffrey has other ideas than an exchange of prisoners. Ignoring the advice of his mother, Queen Cersei, he throws oil on the flames of conflict and ignites a conflagration that seems likely to consume not only the Starks but all of Westeros--unless Tyrion Lannister, the Imp, can bring the mad boy-king to heel. Beyond the Wall, greater dangers are brewing, as a winter as brutal as any in history approaches, bringing with it unnatural creatures out of legend. There, Eddard's bastard, Jon Snow, must decide once and for all where his loyalties lie. And across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen will learn the true measure of grief--and emerge from its fiery depths transformed, hardened, and ready to claim what is hers by right: the Iron Throne.

Graphic novels, long stories told in comics format, have enjoyed the fastest-growing sales of any category of book in the U.S. over the last four years. This modern renaissance of comics has produced a library of substantial works, whose subjects are not confined to superheroes or fantasy but are as varied and sophisticated as the best films and literature. Graphic Novels presents an accessible, entertaining, and highly illustrated guide to the diversity of contemporary comics in book form. Featuring striking graphics and explanatory extracts from a wide range of graphic novels, the book examines the specific language of the comics medium; the history and pioneers of the form; recent masterpieces from Art Spiegelman's Maus to Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan; the impact of Japanese manga and European albums translated into English; how artists have overcome prejudices towards the genre; and the ambitious range of themes and issues artists are addressing, including childhood, war and survival, politics, the future, sexuality, and the supernatural.

AMERICAN GODS by international bestseller, and creator of Sandman, Neil Gaiman is an award-winning epic novel, highly acclaimed major TV series starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane and Gillian Anderson and now, for the first time, adapted in stunning comic book form. This is the second of three bind-up editions. 'Original, engrossing and endlessly inventive' - George R. R. Martin. The extraordinary road trip across America continues as our heroes gather reinforcements for the imminent god war. Shadow and Wednesday leave the House on the Rock and continue their journey across the country where they set up aliases, meet new gods and prepare for war. The Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy and Nebula award-winning epic novel and hit Amazon Prime Video TV series by international bestseller Neil Gaiman is now, for the first time, adapted in stunning graphic novel form. This volume collects the second nine issues of the seminal American Gods comic book series.