Lee: What are you reading?
Stan: It’s a graphic novel .
Lee: Graphic novel? You mean a comic book ? I thought you were too old for that sort of thing.
Stan: For your information, this is a graphic novel and it’s a literary art form . Graphic novels are written for mature audiences , not kids.
Lee: Really? I don’t know anything about comic books. I like reading the comic strips in the newspaper, but I’ve never read an entire comic book before.
Stan: You might want to check these out. Look at this bound collection, for instance. It has astoryline that’s as complex as a novel, and each panel is a work of art .
Lee: It is pretty impressive looking. I’m not that interested in superheroes , though.
Stan: The Superman and Spider-man comic books are great, but the graphic novels today are even more sophisticated . Some of them are still serialized like the old comic books, but many of them are self-contained like this one.
Lee: Are there ones without too much fighting?
Stan: There are as many genres of graphic novels as there are movies or books. I’m really surprised that someone who likes to read as much as you do knows so little about graphic novels.
Lee: I’ve come across them in bookstores before, but I had a preconceived notion that they were for kids.
Stan: I guess you were wrong.
Lee: I guess I was. There’s a first time for everything .