200812050144NPR’s Laurel Maury has released her Best Graphic Novels Of 2008. There are five, and we won’t tell you what they are, so click on the link already! Let’s just say it’s an eclectic list and comics are great, you know?

Now that the first blush of wonder has faded, new fans are beginning to realize what comics buffs have known for decades: Comics and graphic novels have their own traditions and idiosyncrasies, and learning to understand them can be a rewarding lifetime journey.


One further note: In the comments section, someone coins the term “CAFKA” for the phrase “comics aren’t for kids anymore” and puts it on the banned list. Resolved: We hereby adapt this term and shall use it henceforth.

1 COMMENT

  1. You mean you’ll use the phrase?

    Fine… all be over here, reading “Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade”… (And don’t tell the kids that… they’ll be swarming all over the shelves, reading “adult” literature!)

  2. CAFKA. Right on.
    Keep comics off the newsstands, and out of the bookstores. Kids sometimes go to those places. Sell comics by special order through catalogs.
    Oh, and supermarkets. Keep them out of the supermarkets.
    Okay, I’m feeling cranky today.

  3. Heidi sez:
    One further note: in the comments section, someone coins the term “CAFKA” for the phrase “comics aren’t for kids anymore”

    That someone wrote:
    there’s a reason the graphics community knows that phrase as “CAFKA”– it only ever appears in other media and always, without exception, accompanies every story about comics and graphic novels.

    You say he coins it, he says “the graphics community knows that phrase” – who is he talking about? Graphic designers? Graphic storytellers (including graphic novelists, graphic non-fiction writer/creators, graphic novella-ists, graphic short story-ists, etc.)?

    I’m just a dumb ol’ member of comic-book fandom (For all I know, I fit into that charming category of “Babymen”). I’ve never heard of that acronym before.

    Heidi, are you a member of this “graphics community”? Do they have annual dues, homeowner assesments?

  4. I loved Skyscrapers of the midwest. have the issues, and the HC collection. and some artwork, too, just like Phil….the book was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time…really had a unique feel.

  5. I loved Skyscrapers of the midwest. have the issues, and the HC collection. and some artwork, too, just like Phil….the book was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time…really had a unique feel.

  6. “CAFKA. Right on.
    Keep comics off the newsstands, and out of the bookstores. Kids sometimes go to those places. Sell comics by special order through catalogs.
    Oh, and supermarkets. Keep them out of the supermarkets.
    Okay, I’m feeling cranky today. ”

    Whats a newsstand? Are those the dying places with dwindling numbers of print magazines and newspapers? Why are you speaking like its the 80s?