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The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels
The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels is the ultimate companion to the expanding world of the “literary comic book”. Written by comic industry insider Danny Fingeroth, it includes the mediums history, from sequential art in Egyptian tombs, through the superhero boom of the 1940s to the birth of the graphic novel movement and the latest online offerings. All you need to know about the best and rest with 60 must-read graphic novels, including the genre-defining Maus and A Contract with God , plus modern classics-in-the-making Fun Home and Alice in Sunderland . The guide profiles the movements legends including Harvey Pekar, Chris Ware, Denis Kitchen and other amazing illustrators, writers and publishers who’ve helped win respect for this once marginalised art form. And everything else you need to know from “how to make a graphic novel” to Persepolis and the latest film and television offerings, manga, documentaries, conventions, books, magazines and websites.
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2008
4 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Danny Fingeroth
329 books24 followersDaniel Fingeroth (/ˈfɪŋɡərɔːθ/) is an American comic book writer and editor, best known for a long stint as group editor of the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 17, 2011
Whilst there's no doubt that The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels is well researched and covers certain angles of the comic book industry in great depth, I found it distinctly less exciting than I'd hoped.
There's something awkward about reviewing a primarily visual medium in text. Whilst I understand that, what with copyright issues and budgetary constraints, it's unlikely to have much in the way of illustrative examples, I felt that the absence of them negated the impact of the actually kind of interesting reviews.
I also had a bit of an issue (no pun intended) with the book focusing primarily on independent creator / writers / artists. Academic interest to this area is well overdue and I reacted well to that. However a "Rough Guide" is by nature suggested comprehensive, and to near wholly disregard the superhero genre created an awkward absence in the book. Whatever your feelings may be about this canon of comic book literature, you can't deny that superhero comics redefined and continue to define 'comics' to a great section of the world and not including biographies on Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee et al in the "Icon" section felt like a missed opportunity.
And do be warned, due to the lack of illustrative content, there's a whole host of adjectives thrown in to try and pep up a relatively dry text. Fingeroth works to describe a comic book well but there's only so much "brilliant" and "striking" a reader can take.
This book could have been very very good. It has the bones of something brilliant (see, it's catching). It's just not there yet. If you're new to the world of comics and want to learn more about the medium, I'd suggest Scott McCloud's seminal Understanding Comics and also a trip to the art section of your local bookstore instead of this.
There's something awkward about reviewing a primarily visual medium in text. Whilst I understand that, what with copyright issues and budgetary constraints, it's unlikely to have much in the way of illustrative examples, I felt that the absence of them negated the impact of the actually kind of interesting reviews.
I also had a bit of an issue (no pun intended) with the book focusing primarily on independent creator / writers / artists. Academic interest to this area is well overdue and I reacted well to that. However a "Rough Guide" is by nature suggested comprehensive, and to near wholly disregard the superhero genre created an awkward absence in the book. Whatever your feelings may be about this canon of comic book literature, you can't deny that superhero comics redefined and continue to define 'comics' to a great section of the world and not including biographies on Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee et al in the "Icon" section felt like a missed opportunity.
And do be warned, due to the lack of illustrative content, there's a whole host of adjectives thrown in to try and pep up a relatively dry text. Fingeroth works to describe a comic book well but there's only so much "brilliant" and "striking" a reader can take.
This book could have been very very good. It has the bones of something brilliant (see, it's catching). It's just not there yet. If you're new to the world of comics and want to learn more about the medium, I'd suggest Scott McCloud's seminal Understanding Comics and also a trip to the art section of your local bookstore instead of this.
August 22, 2011
A really interesting read, and gave me lots more graphic novels to add to my TBR! Great if you're interested in getting away from the superhero side of graphics.
April 6, 2022
This was an interesting read and an inside was an interesting but brief history and information on graphic novels and manga, including the different sections of manga so it is well worth a quick read!
February 14, 2026
Had the limited edition signed edition with alt art & slipcase. (cover and slipcase art is different to the standard cover art shown on all versions on goodreads)
Slipcase was pretty boring (mostly black with a fake band reproducing a sliver of the alt art and the title) but the fold out gatefold with the alt cover art by Kyle Baker was really nice.
Been a while since I read this but remember finding it useful/interesting, containing some good recommendations, but the authors opinions kept annoying me. The section on Manga really belongs in a separate dedicated book, & the section on webcomics at the end felt forced in to seem trendy / (then) current/'up-to-date' and several of the webcomics included broke the writers own introductory rules about what did and didn't qualify as a graphic novel, being closer to the newspaper comics they specify as not counting.
5 stars for Kyle Baker's alt cover art, useful recommendations with examples of panels (type print and art reproduction is small though) & the exclusive comic strip by Roger Langridge using comic/graphic novel art & narrative styles as a meta commentary on creating a graphic novel (Loved his work on strips for Doctor Who magazine & one of the characters is almost a visual guest appearance for his version of Izzy.)
Loses two stars for how much the writers opinions on some of the graphic novels & some of the themes/subjects kept pissing me off (iirc there's a pretty ableist comment re people with Neurodivergent conditions & epilepsy) + the small typeface & size of most the sample images.
Slipcase was pretty boring (mostly black with a fake band reproducing a sliver of the alt art and the title) but the fold out gatefold with the alt cover art by Kyle Baker was really nice.
Been a while since I read this but remember finding it useful/interesting, containing some good recommendations, but the authors opinions kept annoying me. The section on Manga really belongs in a separate dedicated book, & the section on webcomics at the end felt forced in to seem trendy / (then) current/'up-to-date' and several of the webcomics included broke the writers own introductory rules about what did and didn't qualify as a graphic novel, being closer to the newspaper comics they specify as not counting.
5 stars for Kyle Baker's alt cover art, useful recommendations with examples of panels (type print and art reproduction is small though) & the exclusive comic strip by Roger Langridge using comic/graphic novel art & narrative styles as a meta commentary on creating a graphic novel (Loved his work on strips for Doctor Who magazine & one of the characters is almost a visual guest appearance for his version of Izzy.)
Loses two stars for how much the writers opinions on some of the graphic novels & some of the themes/subjects kept pissing me off (iirc there's a pretty ableist comment re people with Neurodivergent conditions & epilepsy) + the small typeface & size of most the sample images.
November 30, 2014
This is a really well written and constructed guide to graphic novels. It is divided into eight clear sections, starting with what constitutes a graphic novel and the history of the genre with a 40 page graphic novel about writing comics as interlude before moving on to Fingeroth's selection of 60 best graphic novels, the writers, artist and publishers and finishing with a good informative section on Managa, a section on film adapations and resources. The layout is really attractive, with blue boxes in the margins providing information along the lines of 'if you like this, you might like...'. It is good but not great, and it isn't completely up to date, being published in 2008 it misses some of the major movements of the last four years, such as the rise of steampunk, and there are some puzzling omissions as to major writers and artists. However, a good starting point which has given me plenty of new information.
August 17, 2012
Sorry- really not a good critical guide. Considering the century of history and the global reach of comics it was astonishing that the 'canon' that everyone 'must read' were almost all mainstream English language titles of the early 2000s and sometimes not even the best work of their creators. I couldn't shake off the feeling that Fingeroth had chosen them by sitting in the cafe of a big chain bookstore and reading his way through the books that happened to be on the shelves. And the internal 'comic' about making comics was extremely trite and irritating in both text and art. To be honest you'd be much better off reading through the reviews on Goodreads or reading the vastly better guides by Paul Gravett.
February 13, 2010
If you're at all interested in graphic novels this is a good guide. This discusses the history of the graphic novel (aka 'comic'), a list referred to as the Canon with brief descriptions of the novel's merit, a brief overview of manga, and other related tidbits. I kind of started skimming near the end because I was feeling saturated, but this book has given me some good leads on graphic novels I might enjoy.
June 12, 2009
i picked this up at the ira convention thinking that it would be helpful in choosing possible graphic novels to use in high school classrooms. no dice. it does contain a graphic novel cannon, but few are really school appropriate.....
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews