It's been a wild ride. But,
finally, we've reached the end of the rainbow. We think we've solved The Great Graphic
Novels Question. And to prove it, a revised and expanded entry for 741.5 Comic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas,
cartoons, caricatures, comic strips (replacing seven entries in
Edition 22 and four entries in Abridged Edition 14) was posted yesterday as our
monthly update for February 2006, available in PDF or Word format from
links on our New and changed entries page.
We've drawn a basic
distinction between comic books, graphic novels, and fotonovelas on the one
hand, and cartoons, caricatures, and comic strips on the other. As we explain in
a new Manual note, the former category is for "multi-panel works written to be
read in relatively long segments, like short stories or novels." If such works
were originally published in parts, "the parts are likely to have been issued
monthly or less frequently (occasionally weekly or biweekly as part of serial
anthologies), not daily." The latter category is for works "written to be read
in brief segments, like jokes or anecdotes." Such works "have a single panel, or
a few panels issued daily or weekly online or in a newspaper; consequently they
have an anecdotal quality even when the same characters appear in many segments
brought together in collected works."
The comprehensive number
for comic books, graphic novels, and
fotonovelas is 741.5.
Individual works, collections of works, and historical, descriptive, and
critical treatments of works in this category by an individual artist or writer
are to be classed in 741.59, where notation from Table 2 for geographic area can
be added. Works in Hergé's series The
Adventures of Tintin,
for example, go at
741.59493, adding T2—493 Southern
Low Countries Belgium to 741.59. The comprehensive number for cartoons, caricatures, and comic strips is
741.56. Individual works,
collections of works, and historical, descriptive, and critical treatments of
works in this category by an individual artist or writer are to be classed in
741.569, where notation from Table 2 for geographic area can be added. Books in
Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury
series, for example, go at
741.56973, adding T2—73 United
States to 741.569.
To help classifiers with
this new distinction, we've also created a list of more than 80 titles of comic
books, etc., giving the DDC number for each title. This "Sample Title/DDC List:
741.5 Comic books, graphic novels, fotonovelas, cartoons, caricatures, comic
strips" (a Word file) is available here,
or from a link on our Discussion papers
page. Although the list isn't meant to be exhaustive, we'd definitely welcome
suggestions for additional titles: let us know if your favorite isn't there! In
the meantime, everyone at Dewey Manor -- especially Juli Beall, our resident
Queen of the Comic Books -- would like to extend hearty thanks to the many
people who gave such thoughtful responses to our series of discussion papers
about the treatment of graphic novels in the DDC.
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