IN ALMOST ANY CHAIN BOOKSTORE, you are likely to see teenage boys and girls reading manga, thick black-and-white comic books imported from Japan. The sale of these books in the United States alone has doubled since 2002.
Recently, the Del Rey imprint, under Random House, and Scholastic books have both launched their own graphic novel lines, importing or adding color to existing work. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Kafka's books have already been adapted for this form, and publishers are releasing everything from Harlequin romances to The Babysitter's Club as graphic novels.
Often disliked by adults for their sex and violence, graphic novels have been embraced by teens to some degree because adults dismiss them or can't read them. But adolescents also enjoy the form for what it can accomplish; the immediacy and power of the best graphic work conjures up movies or music videos.
In their infancy as an artistic form, graphic novels are still developing as a genre. With their current popularity and their appeal to young artists, they hold infinite possibilities.
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The Sandman
16–18 • DC Comics • 1990–1997 • approximately 1,450 pp.
Illustrated by various artists. One of the first comics to be popular enough to be collected for a trade paperback, The Sandman, a dark and complex saga, was first published in seventy-five single issues between 1988 and 1996. Dream, otherwise known as the Sandman, and his siblings—Death, Delirium, Desire, Destiny, Destruction, and Despair—are collectively known as Endless. Their story ranges through a number of settings, including our waking world, dreaming, and hell. Each volume contains a distinct plot; in Preludes & Nocturnes, Dream must escape from prison and reclaim his realm, The Dreaming, as well as his helmet, pouch, and amulet. In creating this epic, Neil Gaiman drew on various human mythologies, religion, and the culture of the last three thousand years.
Over time, the story has gained a devoted adolescent following. Gaiman once wrote: "What I enjoy most is when people say to me, 'When I was sixteen I didn't know what I was going to do with my life and then I read Sandman and now I'm at University studying mythology.'"
DEREK KIRK KIM, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Same Difference and Other Stories
14–18 • Top Shelf Productions • 2004 • 143 pp.
Different offerings in this collection of a novella and short stories feature a young man in his twenties and another in his teens. The novella focuses on two friends and the consequences of dishonesty in romantic relationships, creating a tale of longing, regret, and forgiveness. Derek Kirk Kim's Korean background and his perspective of moving to the United States and living in an integrated family—with a white father—inform this graphic novel, particularly the story "Hurdles."
Kim originally serialized these stories on his Web site; then he received a Xeric Grant (established by Peter Laird of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" fame) and self-published the book in 2003. He continues to serialize his stories on his Web site, smallstoriesonline.com.
KAZUO KOIKE, AUTHOR GOSEKI KOJIMA, ILLUSTRATOR
Lone Wolf and Cub: The Assassin's Road
16–18 • Dark Horse Comics • 2000 • 303 pp.
Nine stories set in feudal Japan present the story of Ogami Itto the Lone Wolf, a masterless samurai, and Daigoro the Cub, his infant son. Although Itto still clings to the samurai code of conduct, he has become a ronin, a wandering sword for hire. Itto travels with his infant son, who becomes more than a prop as the series progresses. The violence of the Ittos' life and the frank sexual content make the volumes more appropriate for older teens.
Koike has become famous for this meticulously researched and fascinating epic set in the Edo period of Japan. Often hailed as cinematic, Kojima's artwork captures the motion of the swordplay and conveys a sense of the pastoral setting. He frequently develops the story by means of wordless panels, creating a tense and brooding atmosphere. Constituting 8,000 pages and twenty-eight volumes when originally published in Japan, the last volume was released in the United States in 2002.
SCOTT MCCLOUD, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
14–18 • Kitchen Sink Press • 1993 • 216 pp.
Narrated by the author, the book begins in his studio. In nine simply drawn chapters, Scott McCloud sets out to define comics as an art form, to explore their history, and to show how they affect readers. Understanding Comics demonstrates that like television and the movies, comics have emerged as a powerful and valid form of art.
Frustrated because people didn't give comics their due, McCloud wanted to show readers how they work aesthetically. In this volume he created the perfect title for any reader to gain an appreciation of comics, including those adults who want to understand why adolescents are reading graphic novels rather than Moby Dick.
FRANK MILLER, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
14–18 • DC Comics • 2002 • 224 pp.
Story cycles of superheroes rarely treat them as they age or die. In 1986 Frank Miller focused on Batman in his fifties. In the morally, spiritually, and financially bankrupt Gotham City, Bruce Wayne finds himself bored and restless in his retirement. With Batman long forgotten, violent gangs rule the streets. Deciding to don his cape once again, Batman returns to battle some of his most famous foes and some of his closest friends. Much like Alan Moore's Watchmen, the book explores morality, the use of power, and the legitimacy of superheroes. It also tackles the issue of motivation—why a multimillionaire like Wayne would fight crime as Batman. Ultimately, the novel shows the power of a hero to inspire others; in a sprawling, ugly city, one human being can truly make a difference.
With a series of scenes that happen only a fraction of a second apart, the images work like a high-speed camera or strobe light. The panels are often juxtaposed with the reactions on a character's face for dramatic effect. Although created twenty years ago, The Dark Knight still feels fresh, vibrant, and contemporary.
HAYAO MIYAZAKI, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind
12–14 • Viz Communications • 2004 • approximately 1,200 pp.
This seven-volume saga takes place a thousand years after a final war in which Earth's industrial society has destroyed itself and left the planet a wasteland. A gifted teenage princess, Nausicaä, lives in the Valley of Wind, a small place being threatened by a growing poisonous forest, the Sea of Corruption. There giant insects and plants emit spores that kill humans if breathed for even a moment. Nausicaä's complex ecological and adventure epic has been illustrated with lush, detailed art in an oversized format.
For a graphic novel that took thirteen years to complete, Hayao Miyazaki took the name of Nausicaä from The Odyssey, in which she is a girl who saves Odysseus, and combined her with the Japanese heroine of The Tales of the Past and Present, a young woman who loves nature. In the United States, Miyazaki has become best known for his movies— Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and most recently Howl's Moving Castle. But this graphic novel is considered a manga classic and a superb example of the form, particularly in a story with a heroine at its core.
ALAN MOORE, AUTHOR DAVE GIBBONS, ILLUSTRATOR
Watchmen
16–18 • DC Comics • 1986–1987 • 400 pp.
The only graphic novel to date to win the Hugo Award for the best science fiction work, Watchmen was first issued as a series of twelve individual volumes. It takes place in the United States around 1985, with flashbacks to the 1940s, 1960s, and 1970s. Some of the events also occur on Antarctica and Mars.
After the murder of Edward Blake, the superhero known as "The Comedian," it gradually becomes clear that a plot exists to discredit or destroy the remaining former members of the Minutemen and Crimebusters, two superhero teams disbanded by the government in 1977. Rorschach persuades his former partner, Nite Owl, to come out of retirement; however, in the process of following leads, they uncover a plan far more chilling in magnitude and scope than they could have imagined.
A legendary eccentric and self-professed anarchist, Moore explores the impact that superheroes would have on a society, both domestically and internationally. Are they righteous individuals or simply sadists, who use their opportunity to abuse others? In a text that contains excerpts from a variety of sources (novels, government documents, psychological evaluations, interviews, and memos), the artist juxtaposes panels from these different narratives for a powerful—even shocking—graphic effect. Sometimes called the Citizen Kane of comics, Watchmen has inspired graphic novel creators, musicians, and filmmakers for the past twenty years.
KATSUHIRO OTOMO, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Akira
16–18 • Dark Horse Comics • 2000 • approximately 2, 000 pp.
Otomo's science fiction epic takes place in Neo-Toyoko City in 2030, thirty-eight years after World War III. Once appearing as a monthly comic book, Akira has been reissued in six volumes. In the first one Kaneda, the male teenage leader of a biker gang, encounters a strange child with the features of an old man who possesses extraordinary powers. The story includes a lot of action: motorcycle chases, gunfights, and gigantic machinery. Kaneda finds himself enmeshed in a conflict between two agencies, fighting to save the world over something unnamed and terrifying, locked away, and frozen to absolute zero.
With drawings that explode across the page, the book has been successfully adapted into an animated film, which has developed a large cult following in the United States.
MARJANE SATRAPI, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Persepolis
14–18 • Pantheon • 2003 • 154 pp.
An Iranian girl, Marji Satrapi tells the story of her life from the age of ten until she was fourteen, in 1984, when the Iran-Iraq war caused her parents to send her to Europe for safety. Although her family favors overthrowing the shah, they soon realize that the new regime is proving to be much more restrictive than the last.
As an Iranian, Satrapi felt "that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists." She did not want the "Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom ... or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten."
Believing that if you have the talent to draw and write you should do both, Satrapi chose to put her political concerns into the form of a graphic novel. With bold lines and deceptively simple scenes, she presents a compelling portrait of a society in this New York Times bestseller that has been embraced by adolescents. The sequel, Persepolis II, has been equally popular.
JEFF SMITH, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Bone
12–14 • Cartoon Books • 2004 • 1, 300 pp.
Originally published as a series of comic books from 1991 to 2004, Bone has been gathered into both a one-volume collection and nine individual titles, which Scholastic Books is republishing in color. Winner of every conceivable comic industry award, the series takes place in "The Valley," a kingdom that stretches from the dragons' land in the north to the capital city in the south. Fone Bone, a Pogo-esque young creature, and his cousins, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone, come from Boneville, a place much discussed but never visited. The Bone family gets swept up in an epic conflict, in which dragons, monsters, an exiled princess, and evil forces try to conquer the world. Exciting, funny, and still scary, this series failed to attract a single publisher. Jeff Smith then started his own publishing house, living off his wife's salary. The gamble paid off, and by the sixth installment Bone was on its way to its position as a classic. Although deceptively simple, it grows darker and more complex with each chapter; the color editions from Scholastic have been produced with great care, allowing fans to see the subtleties of the art, printed with soft color on beautiful paper.
ART SPIEGELMAN, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
14–18 • Pantheon • 1986 • 160 pp.
Beginning with a quotation from Hitler—"The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human"—Art Spiegelman presents the Holocaust in graphic novel form as he relates the experiences of his father, Vladek, in Nazi-occupied Poland. Portrayed as cats, the Nazis gradually increase the repressive measures until the Jews, shown as mice, get systematically hunted down and sent to the Final Solution. By a combination of luck and wits, Vladek saves himself and his wife and settles in Rego Park, New York, but his experiences haunt him and affect his son's adjustment to life as well.
Spiegelman had created comics since 1960, so when he decided to tell his father's story, comics seemed a natural avenue of expression. As he tried to make sense out of his own history, the graphic form allowed him to approach horrible events with the metaphor of the cat and mouse. A few years later, Spiegelman published Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Such a powerful and troubling work often gets included in Holocaust units, but it also is picked up every year by devotees, who appreciate Spiegelman's genius and the importance of his message.
BRYAN TALBOT, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
The Tale of One Bad Rat
12–14 • Dark Horse Comics • 1995 • 136 pp.
Teenaged Helen Potter has run away from a sexually abusive father, and her journey to recovery takes her from London to an inn in the British countryside. Along the way she meets characters and situations derived from the work of her namesake, Beatrix Potter. In the end, she can confront her father about his actions and move toward healing. In brilliant full color, Bryan Talbot crafts a work often used as a resource in child abuse centers in both the United States and Britain.
CRAIG THOMPSON, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Blankets
16–18 • Top Shelf Productions • 2003 • 590 pp.
The author uses himself as a senior in high school as the protagonist in this realistic story of a young boy growing up in snowy Wisconsin in a Christian fundamentalist family. The story, told when Craig is twenty-something and looking back, includes images of his boyhood, when he and his brother, Phil, engage in boyhood pranks such as urinating on each other. But in high school Craig grows up, falls in love, gets sexually involved, and begins to understand the moral complications of his relationship as well as the limits of his faith.
This large, sprawling, realistic graphic novel is often appreciated by those with little exposure to the form.
CRAIG THOMPSON, AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR
Good-bye, Chunky Rice
12–14 • Top Shelf Productions • 1999 • 128 pp.
Feeling like a turtle that has outgrown its shell, Chunky Rice decides to move away from his home and his best friend, Dandel, a bug-eyed mouse. With this simple, ambiguous plot, the story moves between heartbreak and triumph. This meditation on loss reminds readers that leaving something precious allows something new to be discovered. In order to have beginnings, one must first have endings.
Fluid lines and dramatic brushstrokes characterize Craig Thompson's art. In this book he uses black in a dramatic fashion—as the color of the sea, between panels, and surrounding each page. His own move from Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon, before writing the book clearly influenced the action and tone of the story. Popular with inveterate graphic novel readers, the book also works particularly well for those new to the literature. Its universal themes and its execution allow parents, teachers, or grandparents to understand the appeal and charm of this genre.