Graphic Novels

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Graphic Novels

• Julianne Beall
• Assistant Editor, DDC
• Library of Congress
• Saturday, June 25, 2005
• ALA Annual Chicago

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http//www.oclc.org/dewey/discussion/

• Graphic Novels in DDC Discussion Paper
• Supplement to Graphic Novels in DDC
• Draft schedule 741.5 Cartoons, caricatures,
  comics, graphic novels, fotonovelas available for
  testing
• Supplement to Draft schedule 741.5
• New (coming.) Graphic Novels - an Update

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Original Tentative Decision All Kinds Together

• Everything from single-frame caricatures to
  three-frame newspaper comic strips to comic books
  to graphic novels
• No good places to break the continuum so as to
  separate the material usefully into different
  categories

4
Response to Original Paper All Kinds Together
vs. Separate Categories

• For all kinds together 6
• Impossible to make workable distinctions
• For separate categories 5
• No response 9

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Supplement Proposed Two Categories

• (A) graphic works with narratives longer than
  jokes or anecdotes
• (B) graphic works with no narrative or extremely
  short narratives

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Category A Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and
Fotonovelas

• Astérix (by Uderzo and Goscinny)
• Astro Boy (by Osamu Tezuka)
• Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories (by
  Will Eisner)
• Dick Tracy
• Nikopol Trilogy (by Enki Bilal)
• Prince Valiant
• Spider-Man
• Tintin (by Hergé)

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Category A Some Comic Strips

• Comic strips that have an anecdotal quality and
  yet have continuing narratives longer than
  anecdotes
• Doonesbury (by G. B. Trudeau)
• For Better or for Worse (by Lynn Franks Johnston)

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Category B Caricatures and Single-Panel Cartoons

• Caricatures by Max Beerbohm, Al Hirschfeld, and
  David Levine
• New Yorker and Punch cartoons
• Far Side (by Gary Larson)

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Category B Some Cartoons and Comic Strips

• Cartoons and comic strips that have continuing
  characters and situations but lack narrative
  lines that continue for longer than anecdotes
• Cartoons by Charles Addams
• Family Circus (by Bil Keane)
• Garfield (by Jim Davis)
• Peanuts (by Charles M. Schulz)

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Responses to Supplement

• For two categories 7
• Against two categories 10
• Mixed responses 2

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Sample Responses (1)

• "Most generally, those in search of a complete
  and developed story (whether fiction or
  nonfiction) are not looking for the same material
  as those seeking single-idea representations.
  Therefore, dividing the sequential art universe
  at least into A and B is the beginning of getting
  it better than lumping any image-driven text in
  with all image-driven texts!"

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Sample Responses (2)

• "I do not find the split of comic strips . . .
  to be practical. This distinction may be useful
  in a few settings, but I believe more library
  users look at all the comics published in a local
  newspaper's comics section to be the same type of
  material. Thus books which republish collections
  of comic strips should receive the same
  classification. They should all be together in
  'category A'."

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Sample Responses (3)

• "I think the distinction is useful and generally
  would be practical.
• "I also think that the suggested 'if in doubt'
  recommendation for category A points catalogers
  in the right direction and should adequately
  cover the grey area that catalogers will likely
  find with comic strips that are anecdotal most of
  the time but occasionally have continuing stories
  for a week or two . . . ."

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Sample Responses (4)

• "To expect that even trained catalogers could
  consistently decide whether material in a given
  format such as comic strips contained a
  continuous narrative or was merely anecdotal
  seems to me obviously a recipe for trouble."

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Sample Responses (5)

• "The most popular approach sorts works according
  to their hero or the name given to the series.
  All other works that do not fit in this category
  are organized separately by artist. So, Bill
  Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes is filed at Calvin
  as a series, the Spider-Man books are together
  under this hero's name and Maus by Art Spiegelman
  is filed by the artist's name."

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DDC Editors Leaning . . . But Still Open to
Comments and Suggestions

• Leaning toward original tentative decision to
  treat all kinds alike

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741.59 Subarrangement by Country Original Manual
Note

• Use notation for country where first published
  for individual works where multiple hands (e.g.,
  writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, letterers)
  have contributed to the final work
• Use notation for country of the artist or writer
  for collections that feature the work of a
  particular artist or writer

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741.59 Subarrangement by Country Original Manual
Note (continued)

• If in doubt, try to determine which country's
  cultural tradition the work was originally aimed
  at, and use the notation for that country
• If still in doubt, prefer notation for the
  country that comes later in Table 2

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Concerns about Subarrangement by Country

• "In particular, the area of concern arose when
  the authors were clearly of a particular country
  of origin, but the first known place of
  publication differed. There was some comment as
  to the cultural bias in the material that might
  not be reflected in the use of place of
  publication."

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More on Subarrangement by Country (1)

• "This approach might facilitate things for works
  from the USA (comics) and Japan (manga), but
  things get much more complicated in the
  francophone market. Although one could try to
  distinguish works from Belgium, France or
  Switzerland, these distinctions tend to be hard
  to make and rather theoretical for the patrons of
  the library."

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More on Subarrangement by Country (2)

• "Jacques Martin, auteur français dAlix, qui a
  fait la quasi-totalité de sa carrière chez un
  éditeur belge doit-il être considéré comme un
  auteur belge?
• Rosinski, polonais dorigine, mais travaillant
  en Belgique depuis trente ans, doit-il être
  considéré comme auteur polonais ou belge?

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Subarrangement by Country Tentative Plan for
Revision of Manual Note

• Start by trying to determine the cultural
  tradition at which the work was originally aimed
  use the notation for that country
• Then, if in doubt, consider . . . .

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Next Steps

• Discussion paper Graphic Novels - an Update
• Comments and suggestions by August 19, 2005
• Proposed schedule to be mailed to Decimal
  Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC)
  September 6, 2005
• EPC meeting October 2005