Graphic novels serving as inspiration for movies

WACO, Texas—Those hoping to get a jump on what's coming soon to movie theaters may want to swap watching movie trailers for a visit to the local comic book shop or bookstore to scope out the latest graphic novels.

The graphic novel, a slick, artistic and upscale cousin of the comic book, has emerged as a new player in printed media.

Graphic novels serve as rich source material for film producers looking for ready-to-visualize stories, and they're viewed as product extensions of comic book publishers, video game makers and television series.

An 8-foot bookcase, flanked by shelves of comic books in a corner of Bankston's Comic and Sports Cards sums up the trend. Scores of graphic novels pack the free-standing bookcase's four sides, and while the majority have roots in comic book series, there are more than a few titles that found their first expression as a graphic novel.

Brent Bankston, owner of Bankston's, says comic book giants DC Comics and Marvel Comics have roared into graphic novel territory in recent years, finding new customers willing to shell out $15 to $20 for stories told visually in book form, printed on higher-quality paper.

"Two to three years ago, we wouldn't have the amount of trades (trade paperbacks) that we do now," he said.

Where comic book publishers once feared the dwindling numbers of their core audience, young men who bought comics on a weekly basis, they're finding new life in compiling those weekly releases into book form, often called trade paperbacks.

Doing so has broadened their fan base, as adult men, soccer moms and fans of the artwork found graphic novels a better fit for their time-pressed lifestyles, Bankston said.

Longtime aficionados of the graphical storytelling found in Japanese comics, or manga, whose American fan base is rapidly expanding, and French and Belgian comics also are drifting over to English-language graphic novels.

Marvel Comics has compiled the back stories of the company's superheroes and reprinted them as black-and-white books in its "Essentials" series, which boasts more than 30 titles—a handy reference for those introduced to those heroes in their movie manifestations.

DC Comics has a "52 Weeks" series that combines a year's worth of comic book releases into a stand-alone volume.

"The question in the industry is how fast is too fast to go into book form," Bankston said.