Is anyone interested in the graphic novel form?

[Mark Ellis]

Since the graphic novel is the hot new medium in publishing for all categories, I was just wondering if anybody was interested in breaking into it with their own thrillers or mysteries.

[Margot Renne Payne]

The graphic novel isn't really all that new--but certainly has risen in popularity due to the interest in and reading of Japanese Manga. Max Allan Collins wrote Road to Perditon--I think around 1998--as a graphic novel, and continues with sequels. Since then many classics have also been reissued as graphic novels--Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and even Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Art Spiegelman wrote Maus : A Survivor's Tale in 1986--and won a Pulitzer Prize.

I think authors could reach a new -- perhaps younger-- audience with the graphic novel. But they need to be well written and not dismissed as merely comic books. If you're considering writing a graphic novel Neil Gaiman's work should also be reviewed, as well. I do think the graphic novel is here to stay.

[Mark Ellis]

The form is decades old, obviously...the term "graphic novel" was coined by Will Eisner back in in 1978.

(I co-wrote The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels, so I know a wee bit about it)

But as far as NYC publishers are concerned, graphic novels are the "hot" new form. I attended the BEA last year and brought with me a few copies of my recently printed (but not yet distributed) graphic novel, Death Hawk: The Soulworm Saga.

None of the editors I met with were very impressed with my novel writing credentials ("Created the Outlanders series, 42 of them over the last ten years, yeah, yeah, uh-huh") but they all got excited when I showed them my graphic novel.

Most of the bigger houses now have graphic novel divisions that cover all categories. Since graphic novels and even comic books are attractive to movie people (because the work is already storyboarded), I think it's a form that thriller and mystery writers should consider pursuing.

I know I am.

[PJ LOZITO]

Gil Kane's BLACK MARK from '71 was one of the first all-original "graphic novels" meant for paperback.

[Mark Ellis]

So was Gil's 1968 release, His Name Is...Savage!

So was Gil's 1968 release, His Name Is...Savage!

[PJ LOZITO]

Yeah, cool. Mea culpa, just because it was a small press vs. a Bantam Books release I shouldn't have forgetten that one.

[Margot Renne Payne]

I thought your name looked familiar! I work in a library. Can't believe I left out Will Eisner... I agree with you that thriller and mystery writers should pursue the graphic novel form. I've been trying to get our library book group--which I am responsible for--to read Maus. We are in the same town as DePauw University and one of the professors wrote a book on teaching Maus--would love for her to lead our discussion!

At our Festival of the BOOK this past fall we had a session on graphic novels. There is a visiting biology professor who also writes graphic novels--with a science theme--and eveyone--all ages loved it/him.

If you have any ARCs laying around here's my address!

Putnam County Public Library
103 E. Poplar Street, PO Box 116
Greencastle, IN 46135

Best of luck!

[Grant McKenzie]

I would absolutely love to pursue this form. I don't think my current novels would translate directly into it, although they definitely have strong movie potential, but I would love to start with writing some DC stuff first (Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Batman) and then a graphic novel when I felt I had a complete graphical story arc in my head. I actually just finished a new short story for a proposed anthology that I think would work wonderfully well as a comic arc.

[Mark Ellis]

Margot--you've got the perfect name for the heroine of graphic novel.

Grant--if it was only that simple to write "some DC stuff". Breaking into comics-scripting cold is tougher than breaking into Hollywood.

It's a closed and nepotistic set-up.

[Grant McKenzie]

Guess I need to find me some neps, then. Anyone adopting ;-)

[Margot Renne Payne]

Mark--

She'd have to be a klutzy heroine... I think my son, when he was about 11 (and is now 16) is probably the only kid who has ever recieved HELLBOY in his Easter basket!

MRP

[Mark Ellis]

Wish I'd had an Easter basket like that when I was 11...all I got was Jack Chick comic booklets about how I was such a sinner I'd go the juvie hell:(

[Mark Ellis]

Some of Raymond Chandler's work has been adapted into graphic novels:

One of my great unrealized (so far) ambitions is to adapt Hammet's Red Harvest as a graphic novel, casting a character much like Eisner's The Spirit as the Continental Op.