The popularity of graphic novels has increased worldwide in recent years, and a growing number of writers are choosing to publish books in this genre, according to experts in the publishing sector.
France publishes about 5,000 comic books per year, which is about seven times as many as 20 years ago.
One reason for the increase is the rise of graphic novels in the 1990s, when people began to realize that comics were not only for children, Angouleme International Comics Festival art director Stephane Beaujean said.
Graphic novels are generally fictional stories told using a comic format and presented in book form.
Representative works include Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, which portrays the author’s childhood and early adulthood in Iran, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which depicts the author interviewing his father about his Holocaust experience.
Graphic novels allowed artists to express emotion more freely than traditional comics because at the time of their emergence, traditional comics in France had already settled into a certain format, Beaujean said during a recent graphic novel forum at the Taipei International Book Exhibition.
German publisher Avant-Verlag founder and director Johann Ulrich said graphic novels are also gaining more recognition in Germany, even though, as in Taiwan, they do not occupy as big a market share as in Japan or France.
More German graphic novelists are having their work published, Ulrich said. His company, for example, publishes about 15 new works per year, compared with 10 works two years ago, he said.
Graphic novels are a more literary form than comic books and often address historical, biographical, political, social and cultural topics, he said.
“Economics-wise it is interesting to see that the graphic novel is one of the few areas of the bookshop market that has been growing in the last few years. So I am quite optimistic about the future of graphic novels,” he said.
In nations like Germany and Taiwan, which do not have a big comic book tradition, the best way to develop the popularity of the genre is to bring more local authors onto the market and offer more graphic novels that deal with social and political topics which people care about, Ulrich said.
He said that several German art schools are now offering courses in the genre and many of the graduates are women.
“I think it’s quite revolutionary because in my childhood, nearly all of the comics I read were by men,” Ulrich said. “So I think we will see a different kind of comic coming up in the next 10 years.”
Ulrich is optimistic about the German market, but Beaujean said it would depend on how the creative form is received in each nation.
However, whether it is in comics or graphic novels, the important thing is for artists to continue to express their emotions through their work and to be creative with their topics, he said.
Dala Publishing Co editor-in-chief Aho Huang (黃健和) said it remains to be seen if graphic novels take off in Taiwan, which is still heavily influenced by Japanese manga.
However, more and more young people are asking: “Can we have something different?” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and