The Ten-Cent Plague by
In the years between World War II and the emergence of television, American popular culture as we know it was first created - in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. No sooner had this new culture emerged, however, than conservative groups tried to suppress it.
Comic Book History of Comics by
For the first time ever, the inspiring, infuriating, and utterly insane story of comics, graphic novels, and manga is presented in comic book form! The award-winning Action Philosophers team of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey turn their irreverent-but-accurate eye to the stories of Jack Kirby, R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Fredric Wertham, Roy Lichtenstein, Art Spiegelman, Herge, Osamu Tezuka - and more! Collects Comic Book Comics #1-6.
Of Comics and Men by
Originally published in France and long sought in English translation, Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books documents the rise and development of the American comic book industry from the 1930s to the present. The book intertwines aesthetic issues and critical biographies with the concerns of production, distribution, and audience reception, making it one of the few interdisciplinary studies of the art form. A thorough introduction by translators and comics scholars Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen brings the book up to date with explorations of the latest innovations, particularly the graphic novel. The book is organized into three sections: a concise history of the evolution of the comic book form in America; an overview of the distribution and consumption of American comic books, detailing specific controversies such as the creation of the Comics Code in the mid-1950s; and the problematic legitimization of the form that has occurred recently within the academy and in popular discourse. Viewing comic books from a variety of theoretical lenses, Gabilliet shows how seemingly disparate issues--creation, production, and reception--are in fact connected in ways that are not necessarily true of other art forms. Analyzing examples from a variety of genres, this book provides a thorough landmark overview of American comic books that sheds new light on this versatile art form.
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet by
Graphic novels have exploded off bookstore shelves into movies, college courses, and the New York Times book review, and comics historian and children’s literature specialist Stephen Weiner explains the phenomenon in this groundbreaking book—the first history of graphic novels. From the agonizing Holocaust vision of Art Spiegelman’s Maus to the teenage angst of Dan Clowes’s Ghost World, this study enters the heart of the graphic novel revolution. The complete history of this popular format is explained, from the first modern, urban autobiographical graphic novel, Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, to the dark mysteries of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the postmodern superheroics of Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight, and breakout books such as Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis. It’s all here in this newly updated edition, which contains the must-reads, the milestones, the most recent developments, and what to look for in the future of this exciting medium.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a graphic novel is “a full-length (esp. science fiction or fantasy) story published as a book in comic-strip format.” Many resources, the above citation included, originate the term with the publication of Will Eisner’s A Contract with God: And Other Tenement Stories . . . a graphic novel (1978). When seeking a publisher for the work, Eisner called it a graphic novel, though in fact it was a collection of stories, not a novel. Though at the time Eisner believed he created the term, he later discovered he was not the first to use it. However, not until Eisner, with this new creation that on the outside did not look like comic book, did the term get much traction.
Since the term’s introduction, it has been subject to much debate. In Scott McCloud’s graphic novel exploration of the medium, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, he states that comics are "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence." Is a graphic novel more than just a mere comic? Is it merely a "big comic book that needed a bookmark," as Art Spiegelman, the writer of the only Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, once said? Were the two essential elements that defined it "speech balloons and narrative breakdown," as comic scholar Robert C. Harvey declares?
Stephen Weiner, author of Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Rise of the Graphic Novel, has an umbrella definition for all the formats graphic novels have taken over the years: "book-length comic books that are meant to be read as one story, including collections of stories in genres such as mystery, superhero or supernatural that are meant to be read apart from their corresponding ongoing comic book storyline."
While this term seems to cover it all, the graphic novel as it is known today is better served by the exploration in Michael Schumacher’s Will Eisner biography:
book-length works of sequential art expanded in scope [beyond science fiction and fantasy] to include biography, memoir, history, and other types of non-fiction.
However, even Eisner considered the term very limited, preferring "graphic literature" or "graphic story". As it is a continually evolving medium, especially in the digital age, the term is still subject to much criticism and debate.
References
Graphic novel. (n.d.) In Oxford English Dictionary online. Retrieved from www.oed.com.
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Schumacher, M.(2010). Will eisner: A dreamer’s life in comics. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA.
Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics by 
Comics and Sequential Art by 
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by 