The modern graphic novel is a combination of visual art and text that has been crowned by a special Pulitizer Prize in 1992 and exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Art Spigelman won a special Pulitzer Prize for literature with his two-volume "Maus- A Survivor's Tale," and "In the Shadow of No Towers" was listed by the NY Times as a Notable book of 2004.

"Stagger Lee" by McCulloch and Hendrix has won prizes for its literary and artistic merit. No comic book, it presents both the history and the legend.

The New York Times has printed a full page review of the graphic novel, "Asterios Polyp," by David Mazzucchelli, certain to be one of the best books of the year (NT Times Book Review, July 26, 2009). This is the latest of the graphic non-fiction and fiction books to be reviewed by NY Times literary reviewers.