SOURCE: Dardess, George. “Bringing Comic Books to Class.” College English 57, no. 2 (February 1995): 213-22.

In the following essay, Dardess examines the unique critical and academic perspectives on the graphic novel genre in several analytical works, including Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Donald Kunzle's History of the Comic Strip, Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art, and Roger Sabin's Adult Comics: An Introduction.

If you've ever sent an adolescent in your household off to college—or anywhere else “in the world”—you'll be able to appreciate the attitude of us advocates of the “graphic novel” or “adult comic” or “sequential art narrative.” The uncertainty about how to name this new art form is symptomatic not only of the form's rawness but also of our anxiety that the form make the best impression possible. Will “graphic novel” make others think the form is somehow lewd or violent? And if that's...