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Comic Books or Graphic Novels?
    Comic books and graphic novels are really the same thing. The term graphic novel in “publishing shorthand” bluntly means “big fat comic with a spine” according to Scott McCloud.  “Graphic novel is a goofy term,” Scott McCloud tells a crowd at the ‘SPLAT!’ A Graphic Novel Symposium.  “The first graphic novel that got a lot of play was Will Eisner’s “Contract with God.’ The thing’s an anthology.  The next graphic novel that got a lot of play was “Maus,” and it’s a memoir.  There are few graphic novels that are actually graphic novels”(Thompson). 
    The term graphic novel was first coined by Will Eisner for his “A Contract with God” published in 1978.  Although the concept was introduced in the 1960’s Eisner claims he came up with the idea by himself.  Eisner’s publisher used graphic novel on the cover of his book with the idea in mind of making a more ‘serious’ comic book form.  Eisner wanted a book that “would physically look like a ‘legitimate’ book and at the same time write about a subject matter that would never have been addressed in comic book form”(Arnold). 

Comics in Media Ecology

References
Wertham, Fredric. Seduction of the Innocent. New York: Rinehart and Company, INC. 1954.
Kan, Kat ed. Graphic Novels and Comic Books. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. 2010.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Perennial. 1993.