«Sa soltanto quello che non è». Un'ipotesi di mappatura di generi e pratiche di mercato del graphic novel italiano contemporaneo

This article aims to provide an overview of the current state of the graphic novel in Italy, offering an investigation of the medial object through an internal mapping of genres and through a commodity-based definition. The first paragraph of the paper constitutes an introduction to the characteristics of the graphic novel and its genesis and canonization, as well as its relationship to classic comics; in this section, the provisional scope of the pamphlet is presented. In the second and third paragraphs we discuss how both mapping genres internally and classifying the graphic novel on a commodity basis highlight flaws in the construction of a national media narrative around this format that would have it as the leading sector of the comics industry. Eventually, the multifaceted variety of genres on the one hand and the constraints in finding and interpreting production and sales data on the other hand assess the difficulties of agreeing on a clear, common definition of what the graphic novel is nowadays, therefore advocating for a more porous definition that could present this typology as just one of many realizable possibilities in current comics production.