h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So, I was at Barnes & Noble with some time to kill. I happen to walk past the graphic novel/collected comic book section (and despite what people may tell you, there *is* a difference between a graphic novel and a comic book), and notice, much to my pleasure, the Penny Arcade book: Attack Of The Bacon Robots.

Now, I'd resigned myself to not reading this book for a couple of reasons. While I read Penny Arcade, it's the type of thing that I never feel like I should admit to reading for fear that I'll impurify someone or something. I mean, they're language is saltier (to use a mild term) than any other webcomic (well, saltier than any other *good* webcomic), and they occasionally draw stuff I just don't wanna look at.

But dang it, they're funny.

So, I read the intro by Bill Amend (I'm a Foxtrot fan.) Then I read the "serious introduction" from Tycho. Then I start reading the comics and the commentary.

It's true, their old stuff isn't quite as funny as their new stuff. And back then, the drawings were far, far below the skill that Gabe has developed by now (they were still much better than anything I could draw today, of course, I'm just saying that Gabe's gotten tons better since he started.)

So eventually 8:50 rolls around, and I decide that I have to leave the book on the shelves and go to that bowling appointment that I had.

As I enter the car, I recall that I had given up webcomics for Lent.
































I'm not gonna get all choked up about this. I mean, I hadn't stopped reading comic books or graphic novels for Lent, and a collection of comic strips easily falls into that category.

Also, I'd still read Dilbert, Foxtrot and Sheldon on the computer since they are technically print comics.

So there's no real technical problem with me having read this book. My whole point in giving up webcomics for Lent was to give myself some more time to spend in other, more worthwhile, pursuits. And since I was just killing time in a bookstore anyway, this wasn't really problematic.

Had I been thinking, I wouldn't have read it. I would've waited the three days until after Easter to start flipping through it.

So I guess you could call this a case of breaking the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it. Or something.

*gives his best guilt-inducing glare*



So what is the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel?

A comic book is a serialized story intended to be read a piece at a time. A graphic novel is a story meant to be read as a whole, the same way that you would read any novel.

So if you read "Batman: Knightfall", then you're reading a collection of comic books since those were published serially. But if you read "Batman: Arkham Asylum," then you're reading a graphic novel because it's a single story meant to be seen as a whole viewpoint.

Alas, most people mistakenly call Vertigo books "Graphic Novels" because they think that the term "graphic novel" is supposed to imply it being more serious or that it's supposed to be a higher form of art, when this isn't really the case.

So I guess I'm saying that the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel is akin to the difference between a short story and a textual novel.

Aha. I think.

Keep up the good spirit.

I see, but where does that leave people like Charles Dickens, whose novels were first published as serials?

Serialized Collected Short Stories.

Great, now the Pedant in me is awakened to the inadequettely labelled Charles Dickens "novels" of the world. I can't sleep tonight.

My work here is done.