Tintin by Georges “Hergé “ Remi is internationally known and beloved. © Hergé/Moulinsart 2005.

The Ninth Art. That’s how continental Europe sees comics. If you ask me, it should be the Eighth Art — after drawing, painting, sculpture, music, literature, the performing arts and printmaking — because it preceded cinema by several hundred, if not thousands, of years. But the tyranny of celluloid has bucked it in the pecking order (and printing, to proclaim itself the Seventh Art), even though “sequential art,” as it’s known to the elite, dates back to cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Parthenon and even the Sistine Chapel. (The origin of the word “cartoon,” in fact, dates from the Renaissance, what the Old Masters called full-size drawings on paper; typically, studies for frescoes which allowed them to link the elements of a composition painted onto fresh plaster over several days’ time.)

In an ironic twist, Marvel’s mad rush to the box office may mean that the lowly comicbook, known as the “graphic novel” in Europe, may finally get the respect it’s due and a legitimate place among the high arts. Especially if the American interpretation of “graphic novel” (i.e., sophisticated, adult-oriented) sees the dark of day.

Meanwhile, back on the shelves... European “national treasures” are making their way to the big screen, too.

The long-awaited film adaptation of Thru the Moebius Strip by the granddaddy of the modern graphic novel Jean “Moebius” Giraud is due out soon. © 2000 and courtesy Global Digital Creations Group, Hong Kong.

If Nine was Eight
The “graphic novel,” the hardback book, oversized European version of American “comicbooks,” is venerated as an art form in Europe. It’s a long tradition, dating back to 1837, when The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, created by Switzerland’s Rudolphe Töpffer, was originally published in several languages in Europe (and, ironically, the first “comicbook” printed in America.) Pioneers of the graphic novel include not only Töpffer, but German Wilhelm Bush, Frenchman Georges (“Christophe”) Colomb and Brazilian Angelo Agostini. The origin of our “comicbook,” however, is usually associated with Richard Fenton Outcalt’s The Yellow Kid, which made its debut in 1896. (Outcalt not only synthesized the form, he invented the dialogue balloon with the pointed tail leading to the character’s mouth.) Although the modern comicbook as we know it, small, cheap and paperback, was invented by a Hungarian named Paul Winkler, who made a deal with King Features Syndicate to do an eight-page weekly version of Disney’s trademark Mickey Mouse called Journal de Mickey. And, well, 1938’s Superman by artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel sealed our north American fate where content is concerned.

In its contemporary incarnation, the graphic novel is just that — a long-form comic (or even manga), an illustrated prose novel or novella, often published as a series of comics or works in a book format. Usually between 48 and 100 pages, it can run to thousands. The term “graphic novel,” popularized by Will Eisner after describing his 1978’s A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories as such, implies more serious, adult-oriented content as distinguished from the superhero-in-tights and animals-in-pants “comicbook.” But in Europe, the majority of comics are slick, hard bound “graphic novels” and, like manga, encompasses the more mature as well as the typical juvenile fare.