This book analyses the way that changes in the comics industry, book
trade and webcomics distribution have shaped the publication of
long-form comics. The US Graphic Novel pays particular attention to
how the concept of the graphic novel developed through the twentieth
century. Art historians, journalists, and reviewers debated whether it
was possible for a comic to be a novel - debates that accelerated after
the term 'graphic novel' was coined by the comics fan Richard Kyle in
1964. This study underlines the proximity of the graphic novel to other
media, showing that this cultural form is not only the meeting place
between periodical comics and books, but that graphic novels are in
dialogue with films, posters and computer screens.