by Joshua Pantalleresco

Created on: February 19, 2009

At heart, comic books and graphic novels are both forms of graphic fiction. Each of them uses the same techniques to tell a story. That said, if you asked the average person, books like Watchmen for example are considered a graphic novel. Whereas Teen Titans #23 for example is a comic. What is the difference? In form and function, not much. But in other, smaller ways, there are variables.

For one thing comic books are shorter than graphic novels as a rule of thumb. There are exceptions, but the average comic is approximately 20 - 22 pages each and every time you buy one, whether it's Superman, Spider Man, Thor, Justice League or any other title you'd like to name. Every time you buy a book, you have that much material to digest every month.

Graphic novels on the other hand can be much, much larger. One of my graphic novels I'm holding in my hands is blankets, which is approximately 800 pages. Kabuki: Dreams on the other hand covers approximately 96 to 128 pages. There is no standard size or printing. It all depends on the publisher and what limitations they choose to set out.

The other major difference besides size is serialization. Comics are serialized. The longest comic currently in existence is Action Comics, which is approaching its 875th issue. That means that this comic comes out around the same time once every month. That's a long serial. Each month you are guaranteed another floppy or single in comics, barring any delays on the publisher's or shipper's end. That is comic's one advantage. That serialization gives the audience something to look forward to every month, and gives them a fix.

Graphic novels don't have that luxury. They come out more like when a novel is published. Creators have a much bigger canvas to use in a novel over a serial, and as such it can take much longer for a finished final product to appear. It's very similar along the lines to when a novel is published. Hundreds of words can be taken apart and put back together again and again, much like the pictures in a graphic novel. Churning out hundreds of penciled, inked and lettered pages is not easy.

This lack of a set time does give graphic novels a huge edge over a serial: content. If you figure it out, 22 pages on average multiplied 12 times a year is approximately 264 pages a year. Impressive, but when you consider the numbers I've pointed to above, graphic novels can be so much bigger and contain so much more content and material, that you recieve more for what you are paying for. Serials cost four dollars an issue on average. Graphic Novels cost as little as ten dollars. That's not even three issues of a serial comic on a monthly basis.

Also, it is much easier for Graphic Novels to be displayed in bookstores. You will not see too many spinner racks in a borders or barnes and noble, but you will see shelves of Graphic Novels such as Blankets, Kabuki, Usagi Yojimbo, Sandman, Watchmen, you name it. For a consumer who never goes to a comic shop, it may be more worth their while to purchase one of collected editions of any of the titles mentioned above over say Green Lantern #35. Reading those novels may encourage other comics to be purchased, as the consumer gets a large sampling of material.

That said, no matter what you choose, at heart both are the same kind of artform; the only real difference is scope, size and how often you will see issues come out. Depending on your patience, the graphic novel is overall the better method to purchase graphic fiction. That said, at heart I'm a collector and cannot help but go to my comic shop and purchase the latest issue of my favorite characters.

Whatever your choice, both are amazing forms of storytelling which I cannot recommend enough. Enjoy.

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