This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics As Literature

As comics and graphic novels are becoming more popular than ever, literary critics now will now have a new subject to add to the mix. While many advocates of the medium have maintained that comics are a true art form, there have been no sustained and detailed comparisons among comics and "legitimate" forms of literature. Filling this void, This Book Contains Graphic Language examines different literary forms and genres in relation to their comic book counterparts. These literatures include prose memoir, Holocaust memoir, journalism, film, and - for lack of a better term - the "classics". Each chapter outlines the key issues of one of these forms and then explores how comic books have been able to reflect and expand upon those issues in unique ways. The point of each chapter - and of the book as a whole - is to demonstrate that comic books are as "literary" as those forms traditionally held in much higher regard.