PB!A

                Almost everything that we have, use, and describe can be placed into a category called a genre.  One of the most peculiar written genres is a type of novel called graphic novels.  Graphic novels, have many different rhetorical features and conventions that can be analyzed and used that make this genre so unique.  So let’s start off with what are the main conventions that people think about when they talk about graphic novels.  So the first thing I thought of was the audience.  Comic books are mostly thought of by people to be for children or nerds.  Such as the big guy who owned the comic book store in The Simpsons.  It is also thought to be mainly used for action comics like Marvels and DC’s comics.  Also, another convention is that it is only used for the entertainment of others in short, intruging, and imaginative ways.  It is meant to be used for the action and the suspense that only a superhero comic can give to you.  The style of graphic novels also uses word bubbles and different points of view to show a variety of emotions between characters.  For example, from the first time superhero comics were made, they have been using expanded, huge, one syllable words to show the strength and overwhelming prowess of a superhero punching a villain.  Everyone has seen some form of comic strip with big words like, BOOM, POW, and ZAM! This is just another one of the common conventions that are portrayed by graphic novels. 

                However, this genre can also be used for other things besides a fun and entertaining story. This genre can also be used as a learning tool for kids as well as adults.  For all types of learners, this can be used as a different way to read and learn.  It can be used as a more interesting way to explain things.  One of the constraints of the graphic novels genre is that many people think that it is not a very formal way to explain things other than some sci-fi fiction story.  Another convention that some people think about graphic novels is that the transitions from picture to picture are sometimes choppy or hard to understand some times.  For example, between two scenes the writers of the comic might switch from one persons point of view, to another’s.  This can sometimes be difficult.  So writing a graphic novel has to be well thought out and planned so as not to confuse the readers. 

                As I list these different conventions, we got to figure out, what makes a graphic novel a graphic novel.  I think that the thing that makes a graphic novel a graphic novel, is that it is a different writing style than all other kinds of writing.  It appeals to everyone.  It is also very easy and fun to read.  Another thing that makes graphic novels so unique is that gives you a mental picture of what is happening.  It combines emotions with words and that is what makes it its own genre.  This is what makes a graphic novel, a graphic novel.