G is for Graphic Novels and Neil Gaiman

It took me almost 25 years to discover the world of graphic novels, but to this day I am ever thankful that I did. Graphic novels are very special – they’re the place where comic books and more traditional novels meet. They’re a melting pot of art and literature, a place where writers and storytellers of all different medium unite in collaboration.

Almost everyone who's ever read a graphic novel – and many who haven’t – have heard of legends Frank Miller and Alan Moore. They were the masterminds behind famous works such as Sin City, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and 300 (Miller), V for Vendetta and Watchmen (Moore).They are perhaps the most recognizable names in their field and are credited with popularizing the “graphic novel” as an distinct genre separate from comic books and print novels. Watchmen even made TIME magazine’s “100 Best Novels List”, the only graphic novel to do so.

However, Moore and Miller aren’t the only big names in the industry. Art Spiegelman’s World War II inspired Maus made a huge splash, not only in the graphic novel community, but with historians as well. In fact, the first time I read Maus was for my Holocaust history class in college. It is to date the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Since Maus, graphic novels have continued to cross boundaries between various medias. Television shows have increasingly turned to graphic novels in order to expand on their plots and characters. NBC’s Heroes for example, offered a graphic novel version to supplement the show. And Joss Whedon, already a member of the comic book-writing community, developed and wrote several graphic novels to accompany his hit show Firefly. The first, Those Left Behind, was written to bridge the gap between the end of Firefly and its companion film, Serenity. Another entitled The Shepherd’s Tale, expanded on Shepherd Book’s previously unknown, pre-Firefly history. Furthermore, many famous literary texts have been turned into graphic novels, from classics like Frankenstein and Fahrenheit 451, to modern children’s favorites Percy Jackson, The Looking Glass War and Artemis Fowl.

One of my personal favorite science fiction/fantasy writers – Neil Gaiman – jumped fields to write The Sandman, one of the most highly praised graphic novel series of all time. I’ve long been a fan of Gaiman’s work, having loved his novels Neverwhere, American Gods, Coraline and Stardust, but when a friend of mine found out I’d never heard of The Sandman, she immediately raced out and bought me the first installment (called Preludes and Nocturnes). 

When asked why he enjoyed writing graphic novels, Gaiman said, “One of the joys of comics has always been the knowledge that it was, in many ways, untouched ground. It was virgin territory. When I was working on Sandman, I felt a lot of the time that I was actually picking up a machete and heading out into the jungle. I got to write in places and do things that nobody had ever done before. When I’m writing novels I’m painfully aware that I’m working in a medium that people have been writing absolutely jaw-droppingly brilliant things for, you know, three-four thousand years now . . . But with comics I felt like – I can do stuff nobody has ever done. I can do stuff nobody has ever thought of. And I could and it was enormously fun.”

__________________________________________________________________________________
This post is part of the Blogging A through Z Challenge 2012. My theme is (in case you didn’t already guess) science fiction. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you’d like to check in on the rest of the participants, simply click here.