Just Do It

Graphic Novels Panel

by Dianca Potts

Thu., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org

Nadja Spiegelman

Sometimes perceived as comics for the literati, graphic novels marry the visual and textual on beautiful glossy pages. But they're much more than stories with pictures or X-Men for grownups. This misunderstood literary genre will be the center of attention at the Free Library's upcoming panel featuring industry hotshots.

Moderated by Chip Kidd, author of Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan (do tell!), the discussion will include insight from Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman (pictured). Author of the influential Maus, Spiegelman's latest, Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!, is an illustrated autobiographical work. Fellow panelist David Heatley also used a graphic novel-meets-memoir approach for My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, a collection of six lushly illustrated vignettes. Representing Philly will be illustrator and Black Hole author Charles Burns.

The discussion looks to explore the graphic novel as a unique narrative art form. For panelist Jessica Abel, author of La Perdida, the genre offers the author and the audience a wider avenue of connection with the story as well as its characters. "The ability to see chunks of narrative time at a glance and concrete information about the way characters physically relate to each other and to space — that all sounds pretty esoteric, but those are major advantages when working in a naturalistic narrative mode," she says. "I can communicate huge amounts of information about who characters are and what they think and feel without using a word."