History and Historical Fiction in Graphic Novels

Definition

History can take many forms in graphic novels. Based on the historicity of the depicted events, a work may fall into the category of nonfiction, historical fiction, or alternate history. Since history is omnipresent in many long-standing subgenres, overlap is inescapable; however, graphic novels that take place in distinct historical periods but do not offer any comment on humanity’s past or present may be excluded from the historical genre.

Introduction

The often cruel but intriguing course of human history has provided writers and artists working in various media with many stories that are frequently more fascinating than fiction. While the potentially usable historical material remains the same throughout these different media, how it is incorporated into the creative products varies widely. History is likely represented somewhat subjectively in graphic novels because of the comics-specific combination of words and pictures. With all the laws of the medium involved, even the most documentary, historically faithful graphic novel will seem less objective than a written report on the same events. Moreover, since realistically filmed pictures will always appear more neutral than the most truthfully drawn images, history tends to be perceived as more fictional in graphic novels than purely visual media.

Within this virtual impossibility of objectivity lies the particular appeal of the treatment of the historical in graphic novels. Not being the works of scholars, most historical graphic novels seek to show more than how things actually were. Nevertheless, creators of this type of graphic novel usually care a great deal about historical accuracy. Even those artists who introduce purely fictional characters or events tend to avoid anachronisms and other inaccuracies concerning the depicted historical setting and props so that if such inaccuracies do appear, they have a purposeful effect.

Several criteria can be used to break down the mass of historical graphic novels, the most obvious of which is the epoch in which the graphic novel’s events occur. More fundamental, however, is the historicity of the shaped universe, which allows readers to separate the category of historical graphic novels into the subcategories of nonfiction, historical fiction, and alternate history.

Nonfiction

In nonfictional graphic novels, all significant characters are generally historical, and most of their storylines can be verified in history or reference books. Despite its detractors, the comics medium has long been used to instruct children in national or world history, among other subjects. A highly realistically drawn story such as Jack Kirby’s “April, 1861: Fort Sumter” in Classics Illustrated 162a (1961) about the American Civil War outbreak is a fine example of such histories' educational and ideological purposes.

The lives of famous people are also a favored subject of nonfictional graphic novels. Graphic biographies drawn in various styles (as in the Edu-Manga series narrated by Astro Boy) have chronicled the lives of historical figures as diverse as Ludwig van Beethoven, Isadora Duncan, Anne Frank, Malcolm X, Mother Theresa, and Leon Trotsky. Such works, at times, offer too many facts at the expense of a satisfying plot; in other words, they are too much history and too little novel.

History in graphic novels is often mediated by an autobiographical narrator who is to be identified with the named comics creator, as in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2000–2003). The interweaving of individual experiences and personal linguistic and graphic styles with history inspiringly challenges the actual notion of nonfiction. The presence of an eyewitness emphasizes the near impossibility of reconstructing the historical truth. Of course, this booming subgenre (sometimes flirting with journalism, as in the work of Joe Sacco) is limited to contemporary events, the outcome of which the artists seldom know themselves.

Some examples of nonfiction graphic novels that have been popular in the twenty-first century include: They Called Us Enemy (2019) by George Takei and other contributors, which recounts the actor's experiences in a Japanese internment camp during World War II; The Forgotten Man Graphic Edition: A New History of the Great Depression (2008) by Amity Shlaes, which offers a social and political history of the Great Depression; and History Comics: The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places (2022) which recounts the history of the United States National Park system. 

Historical Fiction

In the historical fiction subgenre, graphic novels are less bound by historical fact than nonfiction comics. In such works, the main characters and even the very storylines may be entirely invented as long as the setting (and often some particular characters) is historical. As in historical prose novels, the interaction between a (fictional) hero and historical characters, events, laws, and customs attracts readers interested in the past. For example, during his wanderings, Hugo Pratt’s sailor Corto Maltese meets, joins with, or fights against historical figures such as those of the Russian Revolution (Corto Maltese in Siberia, 1975). Through their actions, such heroes seem to affect the historical events in which they become entangled; however, the artist will normally not let them change the course of history. The protagonist may also be historical, as in nonfiction, but in historical fiction, the historical protagonist becomes involved in events that could have happened but generally did not actually occur. Such historical protagonists can interact with fictional characters, as in Frank Miller’s 300 (1998).

In some works, historical characters are completely absent. In this case, the invented characters’ behaviors and social conditioning allow the novel’s creator to provide their unconstrained view of life in that period. The corresponding image of history may be romanticized, as in Hal Foster’s medieval Prince Valiant (1937- ), or it may be an indictment that transcends the time portrayed. Jacques Tardi effectively expresses the pointlessness of war in It Was the War of the Trenches (2010), a historically precise World War I graphic novel in which no character directly reminds the reader of concrete historical actors.

Graphic novels based on historical fiction continued to captivate readers as the twenty-first century progressed. MARVEL 1602 (2003) by Neil Gaiman is a graphic novel that transports popular Marvel characters back to Elizabethan England. Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel (2009) by C.M. Butzer adapted the infamous Civil War battle into historical fiction in graphic novel form. Redcoat (2024) by Geoff Johns is a graphic novel series that brings the American Revolution to life through fictional characters yet historical context.

Alternate History

During the creative process, practically all creators of historical graphic novels must omit, add, or slightly distort elements of their historical stories. Such small changes are understood to be necessary in creating a historical work. If, on the other hand, the artist makes the characters substantially divert the course of history or depicts a past that must be the result of a crucial event or decision that never took place in the real world—the so-called point of divergence—the graphic novel is a work of alternate history.

In this subgenre, the point of divergence (and the depicted period after that) must be situated in time before the first publication of the graphic novel in question. Otherwise, the work enters the realms of science fiction or fantasy, where the alternative worlds usually differ far more from the real world than the alternate history subgenre. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen (1986-1987) is a case in point: Whether the reader chooses as its point of divergence the advent of masked vigilantes or the “rebirth” of scientist Jon Osterman as superbeing Dr. Manhattan, both events precede the creation and publication of Watchmen. In contrast, although twenty-first-century readers may think of Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta (1982-1989) as another example of alternate history, the work takes place in the late 1990s and was conceived during the 1980s. Thus, V for Vendetta is actually an example of dystopian fiction.

Potentially more playful than nonfiction and historical fiction, alternate history can offer keen and original visions of human history's mechanisms and futile coincidences. This kind of graphic novel raises particular challenges for the creators because the alternate story world must be different from the real world but have a coherent history. Unlike Watchmen, most works in the alternate history genre reveal from the outset that they are “uchronical,” as in Éric Corbeyran’s Uchronie[s] series (2008–11).

Other Parameters

In addition to the degree of historicity, criteria used to subdivide historical graphic novels can include the period in which the action takes place. No historical epoch has been evoked in the comics medium, from prehistory through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Generally speaking, works about history from World Wars I and II onward are more likely to contain personal critical and political comments, especially autobiographical works. Historical fiction set against prehistoric backgrounds, such as Will Eisner’s story “Humans” in Will Eisner’s Quarterly 7 (1985), however, is just as able to provide the reader with insightful observations about the human race and its place in history.

Some graphic novels represent more than one time period. Probably the medium’s most notorious device to realize this is the time machine (as in Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe, 1990-2009), but the very nature of the medium aptly allows for less incredible time traveling as well. Art Spiegelman’s nonfiction work Maus (1986, 1991) presents scenes from his father’s life in the 1930s and 1940s and scenes depicting Spiegelman’s work on the novel in the 1980s. Further parameters that can also be used to break up the historical genre include style, narrative perspective, and function.

Impact

The influence of human history on the graphic novel cannot be overestimated. From Rodolphe Töppfer, the Swiss pioneer of the modern comics medium, onward, artists have made their characters interact with history. The merely instructional use of the historical genre is still practiced concerning young readers. Still, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, artists worldwide have conceived mature graphic novels about their individual, deliberately subjective thoughts regarding the past and present. Given the ever-improving status of the graphic novel medium as an autonomous and thoughtful art form, the hybrid combination of words and pictures will likely continue to be used to shape artists’ ideas about the often bizarre course of history.

History has influenced other genres as well, prompting superhero comics to comment on the state of the world following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for instance. In addition, how graphic narrative has depicted and interpreted the past has had a significant impact outside the medium. Scholars of popular culture, literature, and historiography have begun to analyze graphic novels as historical documents, calling attention to how such narratives shed light on bygone ideologies. Given the visual nature of twenty-first century society, the use of graphic novels to tell historical stories will only grow. Their ability to tell history's nuances, personal stories, and events in a creative way has only promoted their popularity.

Bibliography

Chute, Hillary. “Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative.” PMLA, vol. 123, no. 2, Mar. 2008, pp. 452-465.

De Witte, Melissa. “How Graphic Novels Can Accelerate Critical Yhinking.” Stanford Report, 10 Feb. 2022, news.stanford.edu/stories/2022/02/graphic-novels-can-accelerate-critical-thinking-capture-nuance-complexity-history. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

McKinney, Mark, editor. History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.

Pereira, Carina. “Why Graphic Novels Are Great for Learning About History.” Book Riot, 13 May 2022, bookriot.com/why-graphic-novels-are-great-for-learning-about-history. Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.

Witek, Joseph. Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989.