SOURCE: Couch, Chris. “The Publication and Formats of Comics, Graphic Novels, and Tankobon.” Image & Narrative: Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative, no. 1 (online magazine), http://www.imageandnarrative.be/narratology/chriscouch.htm (December 2000).

In the following essay, Couch compares and contrasts the developmental history of the graphic novel genre in the United States with the album format of Western Europe and the “tankobon” or “manga” style in Japan.

Despite divergent histories of comic art publishing in the United States, western Europe, and Japan, in recent decades there has been an apparent convergence of publication formats: the graphic novel in the United States, the album in western Europe, and the collections called tankobon or manga in Japan. Although these three formats are similar in appearance, each is the product of a unique history that affects demographics of readership, patterns of distribution and sale, and cultural meanings associated with the formats...