SOURCE: Sabin, Roger. “The Graphic Novel in Context.” In Adult Comics: An Introduction, pp. 235-48. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

In the following essay, Sabin provides background on the development of the graphic novel in the United States, including brief summaries of the works of several significant graphic novelists.

If a comic is a melody, a graphic novel can be a symphony.

(Will Eisner, creator, A Contract with God)¹

Personally, I always thought Nathanael West's Day of the Locusts was an extraordinarily graphic novel.

(Art Spiegelman, creator, Maus)²

In 1986-7 the term ‘graphic novel’ entered common parlance with the success of the album of versions of Dark Knight, Watchmen and Maus. Since then, it has become emblematic of the comics renaissance generally, and the ‘adult revolution’ in particular. Overnight, it was claimed, comics had developed from cheap throwaway children's fare to expensive album-form ‘novels’ for adults to keep...