The term is also sometimes used to distinguish between works created as standalone stories, in contrast to collections or compilations of a story arc from a comic book series published in book form. Collections of comic books that do not form a continuous story, anthologies or collections of loosely related pieces, and even non-fiction are stocked by libraries and bookstores as graphic novels (similar to the manner in which dramatic stories are included in 'comic' books). The term is not strictly defined, though Merriam-Webster's dictionary definition is 'a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book'. The Book Industry Study Group began using graphic novel as a category in book stores in 2001. The term gained popularity in the comics community after the publication of Will Eisner's A Contract with God (1978) and the start of the Marvel Graphic Novel line (1982) and became familiar to the public in the late 1980s after the commercial successes of the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1986, the collected editions of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in 1986 and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen in 1987. įan historian Richard Kyle coined the term graphic novel in an essay in the November 1964 issue of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha.

It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks (see American comic book). The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals.

A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art.

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