A life in pictures

摘要

It has been 26 years since Will Eisner published "A Contract with God", the first serious, book-length comic to describe itself as a graphic novel. But the medium is only now starting to earn respect in literary circles. The last few years have ushered several talented graphic novelists into the mainstream, such as Daniel Clowes arid Joe Sacco. Charles McGrath, a former editor of the New York Times Book Review, described the genre as "what novels used to be: an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal." Loyal readers sniff that graphic novels-sometimes described as sequential art or comix-are hailed as the next big thing every five years or so, but never quite catch on, and are often banished to areas of bookshops reserved for humour or science fiction.