Yeah, the name isn’t great, which was a trend at that time and for most comics history. That book was The Yellow Kid in McFadden’s Flat, published in the UK in 1897, and the notable thing about it is that it actually acknowledged itself as a “comic book,” a terminology which wasn’t used until that point. However, the first-ever comic book was a simple collection of works previously published on a comic strip, marketed to kids due to its slapstick humor and short storylines. Yep, you heard it here first, Superman and Captain America are not apolitical, much less without an agenda. The Platinum Age of comic books owes most of its purpose to political cartoons and propaganda.
They should also not be confused with comic strips or cartoons, both of which tend to be formatted to fit a newspaper or magazine section, and do not always require serialization or a range of characters. Some comics are continuously written and illustrated by a wide range of artists, changing every few years, to give way to a new artistic concept or storyline. Comic books and trade paperbacks, on the other hand, are serialized stories, often contained in an already preconceived universe and storyline.
Many are also memoirs, which may be written and illustrated by the same person, instead of a team. However, the term includes ‘novel’ not all graphic novels are fiction.
What are graphic novels exactly, and how do they differ from comics or trade paperbacks? According to the Norman Rockwell Museum archives on illustration media, graphic novels are never before told stories, generally compiled into one single volume. Before we get into the specific art styles and evolution throughout time, I think it’s essential to go through some term definitions.