# Difference Between Graphic Novel and Comic Book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474 "2016-02-07T21:08:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474/21 "2016-02-08T19:02:03Z")
It seems bizarre to draw a distinction based on how a book may have been previously printed. If I’m holding, say, a 160-page squarebound book, containing one whole story, and I don’t happen to know whether it was also published as a serial, what do I call it? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474/22 "2016-02-08T21:02:26Z")
I voted “Format,” but it’s really a combination of subject matter and marketing. Depending on how that’s handled, any comic book could conceivably be a graphic novel, and vice-versa. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474/23 "2016-02-08T21:04:35Z")
I don’t really consider there to be a difference, since most of the times the person trying to make the distinction is doing so in the “comics are for kids, graphic novels are for adults” way that **typoink** mentioned. Especially since many works constantly touted as “graphic novels” are just trade paperback collections of previously individual released issues. I kinda wish that “comic book” wasn’t the term for the whole medium, since most comic books aren’t actually comical. But that ship has sailed a looooong time ago. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474/24 "2016-02-08T21:17:50Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > They are printed on cheap paper with a thin cover. Even the monthly titles from the major houses (Marvel and DC, at a minimum) are now printed on high-quality (if thin), glossy paper. Compared to the cruddy newsprint-style paper from the 1970s and 1980s, when I first started reading, it’s a dramatic improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474/25 "2016-02-08T21:18:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > . . . relieved of any obligation to make the comic comical. . . . Fortunately, humor in comics is still alive and kicking! Fiction Squad was a delight, following in much the same paths as Fables, which, while more serious, had no shortage of whimsy. The new run of Doctor Strange is quite comical (most evident in issue #1, slightly less in subsequent issues.) Even the usually dour comics take delight in comic asides. Current X-Men comics, for instance, while bleating about the standard “Mutant, mutant, angst, angst,” will have charming side-dialogue, most often involving Bobby Drake, Iceman. (Then there’s Deadpool, which is pure comedy… Nasty comedy, and I frankly hate it, but it is comedy.) (Am I gonna get disembowled for that?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-graphic-novel-and-comic-book/745474.md?page=1)