Graphic Novels: A Guide to Comic Books, Manga, and More / Edition 2

by Michael Pawuk, David S. Serchay

Overview

Covering genres from adventure and fantasy to horror, science fiction, and superheroes, this guide maps the vast terrain of graphic novels, describing and organizing titles to help librarians balance their graphic novel collections and direct patrons to read-alikes.

New subgenres, new authors, new artists, and new titles appear daily in the comic book and manga world, joining thousands of existing titles—some of which are very popular and well-known to the enthusiastic readers of books in this genre. How do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This updated guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre.

Containing mostly new information as compared to the previous edition, the book covers iconic super-hero comics and other classic and contemporary crime fighter-based comics; action and adventure comics, including prehistoric, heroic, explorer, and Far East adventure as well as Western adventure; science fiction titles that encompass space opera/fantasy, aliens, post-apocalyptic themes, and comics with storylines revolving around computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. There are also chapters dedicated to fantasy titles; horror titles, such as comics about vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, and the occult; crime and mystery titles regarding detectives, police officers, junior sleuths, and true crime; comics on contemporary life, covering romance, coming-of-age stories, sports, and social and political issues; humorous titles; and various nonfiction graphic novels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598847000
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2017
Series:	Genreflecting Advisory Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	760
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.56(d)

About the Author

Michael Pawuk is librarian at Cuyahoga County Public Library. He received his master's degree in library and information science at Kent State University.

David S. Serchay is librarian in the Broward County Library system, where his responsibilities include selecting graphic novels.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1—Super-Heroes
Super-Hero Icons
Other Classic and Contemporary Crime Fighters
Cosmic Heroes
Super-Hero Teams
Team-Ups and Epic Events
Villains: Archenemies and Rogues Galleries
Alternate Time Lines, Elseworlds, and What-If Worlds
Slice-of-Life/Common Man Perspectives
Anthologies
Chapter 2—Action and Adventure
Prehistoric Adventure
Heroic Adventure
Adventurers, Explorers, Pirates, and Soldiers of Fortune
Fists of Fury and Sword of Steel—Fighting Adventure Stories
War Stories
Far East Adventure—Code of the Warrior: Samurai, Ninja, and Other Asian Influences
Spies/Espionage
Westerns
Western Genre Blends: The Weird West
Chapter 3—Science Fiction
Space Opera/Space Fantasy
Space Exploration
Science Action
New Wave Science Fiction
Aliens from Outer Space
Alternate Worlds, Time Travel, and Dimensions
Dystopian and Utopian Worlds
Post-Apocalypse
Computers and Artificial Intelligence
Psychic Powers and Mind Control
Robots, Androids, and Cyborgs
Science Fiction Anthologies
Chapter 4—Fantasy
Sword and Sorcery Fantasy
Fairy Tales and Folklore
Mythological Fantasy
Magic Portal Fantasy/Parallel Worlds
Contemporary Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Chapter 5—Horror
Supernatural Heroes
A Beastiary
Ghosts and Spirits
Demonic Possession, Black Magic, Witches, and the Occult
Slasher/Thriller
Anthologies and Short Story Collections
Chapter 6—Crime and Mysteries
Detectives
Crime and the Criminal Underworld
True Crime
Chapter 7—General Fiction
Romance
Coming of Age/Slice of Life
Sports
Food
Historical Fiction
Short Stories and Anthologies
Chapter 8—Humor
General Humor
Cartoons, Animation, and Media Tie-Ins
Funny Animals
Black Humor/Satire
Genre Blends
Chapter 9—Non-Fiction
Art—Comics, Comic Books, and Graphic Novels
Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
History
Science and Math
Miscellaneous Non-Fiction
Appendix I—Recommended Additional Book Sources
Appendix II—Publishing Companies on the Internet
Appendix III—Other Online Sources
Creator Index
Title Index
Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

The Genreflecting Advisory series remains the gold star for librarians who have to talk about books they haven't read, and this is a much-needed update from the first edition of Graphic Novels, in 2006. . . . Recommended for librarians who know their patrons like graphic novels, but they just need to know where to point them.” —Booklist Online

From the Publisher