A Building, A Soldier, A Conspiracy: Stylistic and Narrative Evolutions in Three Key Eisner Graphic Novels
By Diana Green, BFA, MaLS
"I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic-strip novel masterpiece."
John Updike, 1960. (Gravett)
Updike's speculation played out in a more substantial sense than he anticipated. However, the current spate of graphic novels was far from unprecedented, even at the time some saw Updike's remark as prescient. The graphic novel had its origins in the 1890s woodcut novels of Franz Masreel and the 1930 Milt Gross wordless novel He Done Her Wrong (Gross). The Drake/Waller/Baker sensationalist paperback It Rhymes With Lust billed itself as a "graphic novel" in 1950 (Drake).
(Read full paper: D. Green Eisner week 2010.pdf [1.2MB]
Diana Green (BFA, Comic Book Illustration MCAD; MaLS, Hamline University), has presented academic papers at Comic Scholars Conference, written biographical articles for Kay Worley and Vaugh Bode' and is a contributing editor for the forthcoming Greenwood Press Encyclopedia of Comic Books. As an educator she has taught Comic Art History and Humanities classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
