Warning: graphic content

To the average reader, 'graphic novel' still seems like a pretentious name for 'comics' – a flimsy excuse for adults to indulge in something primarily enjoyed by adolescents. The term was popularised by comics legend Will Eisner when he pitched his work A Contract with God (1978) to an editor. '[The phrase] was kind of accidental,' Eisner said in a 2003 interview. 'A little voice inside me said, "Hey stupid, don't tell him it's a comic or he'll hang up on you."' A Contract with God was eventually published with the subtitle 'A Graphic Novel' – the first "sequential art' book to describe itself as such. Thus, a new breed of comics – not to mention a legitimate cultural movement – was born. 

Whether or not this qualifies as a proper artform or childish fantasy can be questioned. But there's no disputing the vigorous revival that graphic novels are experiencing thanks to Hollywood's ongoing quest for "new' script material. Since the cinematic breakthrough of Frank Miller's Sin City, the film industry has been awash with comic-inspired scripts from V for Vendetta to Persepolis, based on the life of Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi. Besides the numerous ongoing superhero franchises, graphic novel-to-screen projects in progress include Mark Millar's satirical Kick-Ass, Garth Ennis' deliciously offensive Preacher, and Greg Rucka's thriller Whiteout.

'The terms "graphic novels" and "comics" are pretty much used interchangeably these days,' says Edmund Shern, a local comics writer and president of operations at USbased Radical Comics, who splits his time between Singapore and Los Angeles. Radical's local partner Storm Lion produces comics styled as storyboards that can be easily adapted to other media – think games, film and television. After all, today's consumer isn't content with just one platform – these days, success is measured in how many ways an idea can be marketed. 'Today, content is king,' declares local journalist and Comics Mart co-owner Lee Han Shih. 'There aren't many new things out there today, so it comes down to a matter of recycling. The Spider-Man movie franchise helped to boost sales for Spider-Man graphic novels.'

The mutually beneficial relationship between comics and their films has been particularly successful for superhero series rooted in Americana and pulp fiction (think Batman and Superman). These promote universal values like justice and accountability with distinctly Western concepts – the 'self-made man' is a big one – and are best translated to non-Western cultures via fi lm. Besides the fact that graphic novels' inherently visual nature translates easily into movies, their appeal also lies in the marketability and versatility of film. 'American comics can't really travel well to Asia,' Shern points out, particularly in the case of Japan. 'Movies do really well, though. There's something lost in the expression of the form when you try and translate a comic. It's not just the language either. There's sort of a cultural bias – the superhero comics are hard to bring over because they're quite specific to their culture – American culture.'

Mainstream awareness of graphic novels isn't just limited to blockbuster movie adaptations – there's also an esoteric subculture of 'alternative' graphic novels based on literary classics. Writer/artist Eddie Campbell wrote about graphic novels as a movement, aiming 'to take the form of the comic book, which has become an embarrassment, and raise it to a more ambitious and meaningful level.' And so it has. Illustrator Peter Kuper has done graphic versions of Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Mikhail Bulgakov's magnum opus The Master and Margarita has been adapted into a striking graphic novel, helping to elevate this under-appreciated literary form to unprecedented heights. 'Graphic novels tend to reach a broader audience than comics,' says Shern. 'If your idea is to build a brand, then comics [are] the way. But often a comic detracts from the lofty aims and ideals of graphic novels.'

Nonetheless, we've come a long way since the days of mainstream perception of comics as lowbrow entertainment. Storm Lion/Radical plans to release an illustrated version of Shakespeare's As You Like It, targeting the growing number of consumers who like to experience classics in a more visual manner. In this instance, the graphic novel is an ideal format – most newsstands don't carry comics anymore, and consumers are more likely to buy trade paperbacks (bound collections) than flimsy individual issues. And with the advent of digital file-sharing and Amazon's new Kindle (e-book) service, some people are even choosing to download their favourite comics.

This month, fans are eagerly anticipating director Zach Snyder's (300, Dawn of the Dead) adaptation of Watchmen, considered by many as the greatest graphic novel of all time. Snyder, who is also involved in upcoming book-to-film adaptations Mage and The Illustrated Man (by Ray Bradbury), has remained as faithful as possible to the graphic novel, but the jury's still out on his ability to condense such a complex work into a three-hour film. Writer Alan Moore is notoriously anti-film when it comes to his work and has disassociated himself with previous adaptations of his work. 'There are things we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't,' he told Entertainment Weekly, describing the majority of comic-based movies as 'pointless'.

Whether Watchmen lives up to its hallowed namesake remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – the world of comics and graphic novels is no longer a matter of child's play – if anything, this overlooked artform is finally getting the critical recognition it deserves.

Read 10 Minutes with Warren Ellis - Time Out Singapore's interview with writer of FreakAngels.