Comics have had a hard time through the ages but they are fighting back! Bookshops have graphic novel sections and, for many young people, combining text and images in their own comics and zines is a powerful form of self-expression. People of all ages are discovering the joy of a new form of reading.

Frequently viewed as lower forms of literature, as crass, corrupting, stereotypical and ungrammatical, comics have nevertheless remained the preferred form of reading for many children, especially boys. Manga (comic books), anime (animation that is made in Japan, for example, Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and my childhood favourite, Kimba the White Lion), the cartoon creations of Hanna-Barbera, Disney and Pixar, and series like Superman, Tarzan, Wonder Woman, Asterix and Tintin, have always had a passionate following. Now graphic novels (comics in book form) and manga of all varieties are making their presence felt in the mainstream – comics are cool, and a much wider audience than just young boys are reading them.

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth taken from the Pantheon website. Copyright © Chris Ware 2000.

Graphic novels, like Art Spiegelman’s Maus books and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth have won major literary awards: Maus the Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992 – the judges couldn’t decide whether it was fiction or biography - and Jimmy Corrigan the 2001 Guardian First Book Award.

Like film, graphic novels employ cinematic techniques to great effect. Picture the opening of your favourite film or graphic novel without the images. Then look at the images without sound or words. Drama is created by the interplay between words and images, the tone and mood of the text and pictures, the gaps between the panels. Graphic novels in black and white evoke the richness of colour; they often have stark tones, yet convey the most subtle characterisations; imagery is simplified, yet presented through a variety of sophisticated points of view.

Graphic novels can tell big stories in original and exciting ways. They can play with narrative in ways that are impossible in conventional novels. Concurrent, intricate storylines, shifts in time, place and mood, different voices and expressive artwork are all managed through the careful sequencing of words and pictures in panels. Graphic novels tackle big issues and are frequently autobiographical and political, like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis books, which tell the story of her childhood and teenage years during the Islamic revolution in Iran; Joe Sacco’s Palestine, an eye-witness account of the Palestinian experience, described as setting ‘the benchmark for a new, uncharted genre of graphic reportage’; and David B’s Epileptic, the powerful, impressionistic biography of the author’s development as an artist, against the background of his brother’s illness. Bruce Mutard’s The Sacrifice tells the story of a young man struggling with his socialist, pacifist ideals in WWII Melbourne and The Silence wrestles with ideas around the meaning of art. Nicki Greenberg’s graphic adaptation of F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, while faithful to Fitzgerald's plot, mood and characterisation, surprises and delights the reader as familiar players are depicted as an array of fantastical creatures. Look out for her brilliant adaptation of Hamlet to be published later this year.

A scene from Ethel and Ernest taken from the Pantheon website. Copyright © Raymond Briggs 1999.

Graphic novels are a logical transition from picture books and many picture books appeal to older readers too. Raymond Briggs was one of the first to bring the genre of comics and children’s books closer together. Ethel and Ernest is a perfect example of visual storytelling fusing in a tender, evocative memoir that is also a social history. Briggs’ When the Wind Blows remains a potent and controversial study text in secondary schools. See also Neil Curtis’s poignant memoir of his London childhood, The Memory Book and Nathan Jurevicius's psychedelic Scarygirl.

Neil Gaiman, described by Stephen King as 'a treasure house of story … we are lucky to have him in any medium’ is also a master of the genre and his books with Dave McKean - Wolves in the Walls, The Comical Tragedy or the Tragical Comedy of Mr Punch and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish all reward multiple readings and rely on a deep engagement with their images as well as the words. At the other end of the spectrum, relying entirely on their images to carry the narrative, are Shaun Tan’s masterpiece, The Arrival, and Gregory Rogers’ joyous and inventive The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard and its sequel, Midsummer Knight.

To really appreciate the beauty of graphic novels you have to let yourself go, and allow words and images to fuse, as your eye dances over the page and takes in both together - even the gaps in the panels can supply sound effects, drama and movement. If you want to find out how they do it then Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, the Invisible Art (a comic book about comics) are invaluable and enlightening.

An earlier version of this article originally appeared in Right Book, Right Time published in 2007.

In support of the Wheeler Centre's Drawing Out, Drawing In: Spotlight on Graphic Novels events happening this weekend, Readings has guest bloggers talking about Comics and Graphic Novels online every day this week. Tomorrow: Melbourne comics stalwart Bernard Calleo.