Graphic novels have come a long way since Marvel Comics and Sunday comics. More than 35 million graphic novels were sold in 2022and is therefore one of the genres with the highest sales figures according to Publisher’s Weekly.
A common feature of the success of this genre is one word: connection.
“Comics and graphic novels are a really unique medium where you take a narrative and combine it with art,” says Stephanie Smith, youth librarian at the Avon Free Public Library. “You have this emotional connection and impact that you might not get from a traditional novel. You literally see the emotions portrayed in front of you.”
Smith spoke about Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live“ about the positive effect that graphic novels can have on children – and adults too.
Subcategories within the genre cover a variety of topics. Graphic Medicine, for example, uses comics to provide patient care, education, and social criticism of the medical industry. KC Councilor, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University and a transgender man, used this medium to express a conflict he faced while receiving treatment from a doctor.
“Instead of keeping it as a private shame, I could write it down. I could draw it as a comic and really tell the story, get it out of me,” Councilor said. “I then shared with the practice where this happened so they know not to treat people like that in the future.”
By visually recreating the situation, the councillor was able to process and reflect on the situation. In this way, other members of the same community with similar experiences came to them.
“I think that’s a big part of it, realizing that other people are going through the same experience, and I think that’s why I started writing these books in the first place,” says Maria Scrivan, a Greenwich-based author and cartoonist.
Scrivan is the creator of the Nat Enough book series, a collection of graphic novels for children that chronicle the ups and downs of a middle school student named Natalie.
She draws on her own life experiences. The first book – about losing one’s best friend to someone else – was a situation that Scrivan experienced in her childhood.
“I healed wounds I didn’t even know I had,” she said. “Nat … took on a life of her own and eventually became one of my best teachers.”
Scrivan also uses humor in her novels to lighten otherwise difficult moments and scenes.
In a graphic novel, comedy, narration, and the use of speech bubbles can help convey complex information in a visual panel, but this does not detract from the message.
“It’s not a simplified version,” Councilor said. “It’s often just as – if not more – complex to convey information in this way because you can really do so much with the technology of comics.”
Learn more
Listen to the full interview on Where We Live: Comics still have humor, but they tackle the tough stuff
Catherine Shen and Tess Terrible of Connecticut Public contributed to this report.
