I love comic books. Every time I open one, it’s almost like holding a movie screen in my hands and watching the progression of action taking shape. However, lately I’ve found it hard to keep up with monthly titles. Too many of them are continued from one month to the next, stretching out least six months or more, and I only get a sense of completion twice a year. This is so the comic book companies can put out what they call “graphic novels.”
In the old days, graphic novels were illustrated stories that couldn’t be told in 22 pages (or 24 pages as when I was growing up). At that time, graphic novels were stand-alone stories that might or might not feature recurring characters.
Somewhere in there, graphic novels simply became a format for comic book companies to re-merchandise product. That form is one of the most successful in publishing these days. When comic book monthly sales were down, the sales of graphic novels were growing. Libraries picked them up. Collectors picked them up. Bookstores put them on the shelves and sold them.
And America, young and old, discovered a brand new love for the format. Graphic novels are published in all sizes these days. My nine-year-old reads pocket-sized versions of Teen Titans while I usually pick up the regular-sized editions of my favorites. If a story captures my interest and I know I will read it over and over again, and if it’s available, I buy it in hardcover.
While I was at Comic-Con in San Diego this year, I got the chance to preview a brand-new graphic novel that is a genuine exercise of the form. The actual book won’t be out until November 19, 2007.
Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman is absolutely amazing. Lappe is a Guerrilla News Network reporter that has provided extensive coverage of the Iraq war. He’s the author of a non-fiction book, True Lies, that was unflinching in its view of the existing war. Lappe isn’t a fan of how things are being handled in that part of the world, nor does he appreciate the slanted news coverage and lack of information that’s been given to the American people.
Article comments
1 - Old Mayfly
Attention, Anthony Lappe, love your work but--please make one correction if Shooting War comes out in another edition. About midway in the book (why aren't the damned pages numbered?) you have Dan Rather talking to Jimmy Burns and quoting from the novel Appointment in Samarra. As the real Dan Rather knows (and I know because I'm the same generation) Appointment in Samarra was written by the American novelist John O'Hara--not by Somerset Maugham.
One of the ideas I get from your graphic novel is that reality matters. So, please, fact check! It is neoCons who don't need to.
2 - Anthony Lappé
From Wiki: The title is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham's retelling of an old story, which appears as an epigraph for the novel.