Graphic Memoirs Come of Age

Is William Bradley challenging that Graphic Novels do not exist? Although he breaks down different types of novels, he constantly brings up the fact that it is actually a memoir. From what I understood from one of his arguments is that all graphic novels tell a deeper story. While discussing Spiegelman’s “graphic novel” he writes, “While this is certainly true, applying the label “graphic novel” to a work like Maus ignores the fact that it is not, strictly-speaking, a novel. It’s a memoir. Or a work of literary journalism. Or an extended essay. Or some combination of the three.” This leaves me to the assumption that graphic novels have a deeper underlying meaning to it than the comic itself by referring to them as “literary journalism”, “extended essays”, or a “memoir”.

While discussing Bechdel’s  struggle of writing her narrative he writes, ““You have too many strands,” her mother tells her—too much of what Joan Didion might call “shifting phantasmagoria.” This is, ultimately, every memoirist’s dilemma—life doesn’t really follow a narrative pattern. You have to decide what to cut, what to emphasize, and what really mat- ters—what you want your reader to understand about yourself and your experience.” This insists that her narrative is more than a narrative; it’s a memoir. Bechdel struggled with developing her story because of trying to follow a structure without realizing that there is a deeper importance to structuring her story, which is holding on to the important parts of her story.

So, is Bradley saying that graphic novels all have hold some type of personal accounts that weave in-between the context of the stories as the writer develops the novel?