This Day in Comic Book History: July 13
This Day in Comic Book History: July 13
July 13 is a day to celebrate the graphic novel — the format that expanded what comics could be and opened the medium to readers and critics who had never considered comics a serious art form.
Will Eisner and the Birth of the Graphic Novel
A Contract with God
Will Eisner's landmark 1978 work · First modern graphic novel · Stories of Dropsie Avenue tenement life · Changed what comics could be
In 1978, Will Eisner published A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories, a collection of interconnected stories about life in a 1930s Bronx tenement building. Eisner deliberately called the book a "graphic novel" to signal its ambition as a work of serious literature rather than entertainment for children. The book was semi-autobiographical, emotionally raw, and drawn with the mastery of a creator who had spent four decades pioneering visual storytelling. It did not immediately transform the market, but it established a vocabulary and an aspiration that shaped everything that followed.
The Graphic Novel Explosion of the 1980s
Watchmen, Dark Knight, Maus
1986–1987 changed everything · Watchmen · The Dark Knight Returns · Maus · Comics in mainstream bookstores · Pulitzer Prize
The years 1986–1987 were the most transformative in graphic novel history. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, and Art Spiegelman's Maus — published within eighteen months of each other — forced mainstream critics and publishers to acknowledge that comics could produce work of genuine literary and artistic merit. Maus won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Major bookstore chains began stocking graphic novels. The format that Eisner had named in 1978 finally had the commercial infrastructure to match its artistic ambitions.
The Graphic Novel Today
Graphic Novels in the 21st Century
Persepolis · Fun Home · March · This One Summer · Graphic novels win major literary awards and dominate bestseller lists
The graphic novel has become one of the most vital and commercially successful formats in contemporary publishing. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, John Lewis's March, and Raina Telgemeier's Smile have demonstrated that the form can address memoir, history, political trauma, and coming-of-age stories with equal power. Graphic novels regularly appear on bestseller lists, win major awards, and are adopted into school curricula worldwide. Will Eisner's dream has been more than realized.
🏆 Top 10 Essential Graphic Novels of All Time
- Maus (Pantheon, 1991) — Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust memoir in comics form; the most important graphic novel ever published.
- Watchmen (DC, 1987) — Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' deconstructionist superhero masterpiece; changed what comics could say and how they could say it.
- The Dark Knight Returns (DC, 1986) — Frank Miller's landmark dark Batman; alongside Watchmen, forced mainstream culture to take comics seriously.
- A Contract with God (Baronet Books, 1978) — Will Eisner's foundational work; the book that named and defined the graphic novel format.
- Persepolis (Pantheon, 2003) — Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up during the Iranian Revolution; one of the most powerful autobiographical comics ever made.
- Fun Home (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) — Alison Bechdel's literary memoir about her father and her coming out; a masterpiece of the form adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical.
- March (Book One) (Top Shelf, 2013) — John Lewis's graphic memoir of the Civil Rights Movement; a landmark work of historical comics and political witness.
- Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 1 (DC, 1987) — Alan Moore's groundbreaking horror run; first collected in the graphic novel format that his Watchmen would make famous.
- Blankets (Top Shelf, 2003) — Craig Thompson's 592-page coming-of-age memoir; a landmark of literary autobiographical comics.
- Building Stories (Pantheon, 2012) — Chris Ware's experimental graphic novel in a box; one of the most formally ambitious works in comics history.
Find essential graphic novels at Epic Panels Comics!