Graphic novels have come a long way since Marvel Comics and the Sunday funnies. More than 35 million graphic novels were sold in 2022, making it among the most best-selling genres, according to Publisher’s Weekly.
One common trait in the genre's success is one word: connection.
“Comics and graphic novels are a really unique medium where you're taking a narrative and you're putting it with art,” said Stephanie Smith, the teen librarian at the Avon Free Public Library. “You have this emotional connection and impact that you may not get with a traditional novel. You're literally seeing the emotion depicted in front of you.”
Smith spoke on Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live” about the positive impact that graphic stories can have on children – and adults, too.
Subcategories within the genre explore a variety of topics. Graphic medicine, for example, uses comics for patient care, education and social critique of the medical industry. KC Councilor, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University who’s a transgender man, used this medium to express a conflict he faced while being treated by a doctor.
“Instead of keeping it as a private shame, I could write it. I could draw that as a comic, and really tell the story, get it outside of myself,” Councilor said. “I've then shared with the practice where the thing happened so that they know not to treat people in that way in the future.”
By recreating the situation visually, it allowed Councilor to process and reflect. In doing so, other members of the same community reached out to him with similar experiences.
“I think that's a big part of it, that you realize other people are having the same experience, and I think that was why I started writing these books in the first place,” said Maria Scrivan, an author and cartoonist from Greenwich.
Scrivan is the creator of the Nat Enough book series, a collection of children's graphic novels that depict the ups and downs of a middle school girl named Natalie.
She pulls from her own life experiences. The first book – about losing your best friend to someone else – was a situation that Scrivan faced in her childhood.
“I ended up healing wounds I didn't even know I had,” she said. “Nat … took on a life of her own and ended up becoming one of my greatest teachers.”
Scrivan also uses humor to offset otherwise heavy moments and scenes in her novels.
In a graphic novel, comedy, along with narration and the use of speech balloons, can help convey complex information in a visual panel. However, this doesn't detract from the message.
“It’s not a simplified version,” Councilor said. “It's often equally – if not more – complex to be able to convey information in that way because you can truly do so much with the technology of comics.”
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Connecticut Public's Catherine Shen and Tess Terrible contributed to this report.
