Tensions, prétentions et galvaudage

gains et écueils du roman graphique comme stratégie du cheval de Troie en Amérique du Nord

Abstract

This paper addresses the introduction of the term “Graphic novel” in the field of comic art and its usage as an agent of legitimacy in the North American context. Coined by Will Eisner in the late 1970s, the term rapidly spread to the vocabulary of editors, scholars and critics to designate, in a fallacious way, a form of comics with somewhat superior artistic merits. After a historical overview which aims to explain the causes and consequences behind the “bad press” linked to comic art before the arrival of the graphic novel, the author will assess that the term, despite its hackneyed and polemic usage, offers a rather useful terminology when used to describe a publication format, but can otherwise be perilous when deployed as a Trojan horse strategy, in which case it ends up as an aegis. The will to legitimate comic art, which was the initial intention of the “graphic novel”, is a noble cause, but it runs the risk of turning against its very objective if it in fact creates elitism among the readership that was recently acquired and conquered by the novelty of the graphic novel.