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Why does trade vs. Graphic Novel matter and how to tell the difference

So someone challenged me recently that none of this remotely matters if it is a trade paperback or if it is a graphic novel.. and someone else expressed frustration in not being able to tell what is reprinted.. This blog post is going to cover both.. so hang on to your seats.

Why does it matter? Well simple.. they're different terms and mean different things, just like Anime and Manga mean different things even though they are related and in the same industry. But besides that, there is a difference between say the Sandman graphic novel and the Sandman trades. How? OK.. So Sandman has 11 trades now (From Preludes and Nocturnes to the Wake and then the prequel/ending The Overture) and there are 2 graphic novels (Dream Hunters and Endless Nights) The trades tell the serialized story from beginning to end and recent beginning that brings the whole thing full circle again. That story is reprinted from the original series 1-75 and Overture 1-6. This is important to note because as readers it tells us it's a serialized story and that it works together. Dream Hunters and Endless Nights while great stand alone stories do not remotely fit into the over arching story series. They're different things and should be read separately. They add to the mystique and universe of the series, but are not directly part of the narrative of the series. Giving these books to someone and suggesting they read them in the order of the series will obviously derail them slightly since they aren't meant to be read this way. By the way, Fables does this as well with it's own graphic novel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall and Unwritten does this with Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice. The graphic novels in both of those are part of the series and in the same world and telling a story, but is not part of the over all narrative of the series. Marvel also used graphic novel as a term for stories for a while as well, so their graphic novels may not be connected to a series over all story or may be used as a launch for the series. So knowing the difference is important for reading purposes.

Next reason why it matters because fans want to know if it's a trade what comics it reprints. Why? Because it tells you where in the story you are and what comics are there. If someone is missing issues 6-10, but have the entire rest of the series, they need to know that that trade contains issues 6-10. It's also important because historically Marvel, DC, and others have not been great at numbering the trades and even when they do number, it can be confusing. Astro City for instance wasn't numbered until the recent reprints by Vertigo, so you had to know the issues to tell where it falls in the series over all (and it's been started a few times, so that adds another layer there).

The other reason is that until recently the idea of a story arc (or written for trade) hasn't been the common practice, so sometimes individual issues would fall out of the arc and be collected later. That means a collection could be a series of single issues, an entire story arc, or a random collection of issues. A trade may also skip issues because the story is part of another collection, so knowing that makes it easier.  The other thing is that crossovers tend to mess things up a little. Sometimes in the crossovers, they take a book that is relevant to another book and slam it into the crossover book because yes it goes with that story, but it makes things difficult to follow if you want to read every issue. For instance, Joker: The Death of the Family includes Catwoman 13-14, Batgirl 13-16, Suicide Squad 14-15, Batman and Robin 15-16, Nightwing 15-16, Detective Comics 15-16, Red Hood and the Outlaws 15-16, and Teen Titans 15-16. So if someone wants to read the complete run of ANY of these comics, guess what they have to read?

Now you're asking, rightfully so, "How do I tell?" Well.. this is where it gets interesting. Some of the more modern books are being nice and putting it right on the back cover like so:
From Superman: The golden Age volume 1


This shift is mostly because Marvel, DC, and others are realizing that it's important for readers (and librarians and a host of other people) to know what it is the book quickly and easily, but even today that's not always the case due to various reasons.

Some will be nice enough though to at least put it in the table of contents like so:
From Superman: The golden Age volume 1

This has come about for a number of reasons including the desire to credit the creators properly (or as much as it is possible since crediting was not common practice for comics until about the 70s).

And if the company isn't feeling so generous or it is an older trade before this became a standard practice, then you have to go to the lovely copywrite information on the first few pages of the book (yup, same exact place you'd have to check to give proper credit for citation) See an example below:
From Superman: The golden Age volume 1


A vast majority of the books printed before the recent trades for every comic will be like this. It will list every issue in there nicely, just in tiny tiny print. It will always be there. Oh and if there isn't a list of single issues in the copyright position, then you have a graphic novel.

Now all that helps if you have the book on hand, if you don't... well.. then it gets a little sticky. One place to check is a major retailer like Amazon.They are getting better and better about listing what is in the trade because again they realize that this is information the readers want to know.

The other places to check though are a little harder to navigate and are mostly fan created like The Comic Book Database or The Grand Comic Book database. They can also be good places to check creators if you need, but they're not always the easiest to navigate and use. If you need more help, let me know.. but I'll be doing a few posts about important web-based resources for comics soon, so look forward to that. 

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