What's a Graphic Novel?

According to the authors of a site called, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, they define graphic novels as a 'long comic book' with other 'defining characteristics' on their home page--in a comic, of course!

But seriously, I really like how they included different perspectives of understanding graphic novels based the users' current interests and/or professions-- (Click on How to Use this Site, Tab)

• Educators; 
• Cartoonists; 
• Comic Readers; and 
• Students.

In my opinion, authors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden provide some excellent resources and even lesson plans for creating graphic novels.

The lessons provided have clear instructions and free online teacher's guides too! I really like how the lesson plans can be as short as a three day workshop or as long as a 15 week course. (Thank you!)

Honestly, I encourage you to check out this site!!

When I was working at my university book store, Maus was one of the first graphic novels I came across. 

This amazing graphic novel depicts the author's, Art Spiegelman's personal story of the Holocaust through the eyes of mice (Jewish people) and cats (Nazis) to represent the human characters.

Using animated characters, like the ones on this novel's cover, can evoke powerful emotions when reading this historical autobiography.

Image: http://mausgraphicmemoir.blogspot.ca/2012/07/art-spiegelman-graphic-style.html#!/2012/07/art-spiegelman-graphic-style.html

Some Useful Links: 

These links should give you a better understanding of graphic novels and their structure-- layout, characters, settings, etc.

• Definition provided by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel

• A great resource to give you tips on how to teach with graphic novels. http://teachinggraphicnovels.maupinhouse.com/

• Columbia Univeristy Libraries group comics and the like under their Graphic Novels Page. http://library.columbia.edu/eguides/graphic_novels.html  

Let's go learn about how the Japanese create graphic novels, such as Anime and Manga...