Non-Fiction Graphic Novels

The A to Z of Wonder Women by Yvonne Yin contains 26 powerful, strong, and historical women, starting with Ada Lovelace and ending with Zaha Hadid. Each of the first 26 introductions and biographies also contains an illustration that frames the Woman as both powerful and influential. Each miniature biography contains a date of birth, and death if applicable, an influential quote, and small explanation regarding the accomplishments of the featured women. After going through the alphabet, Yvonne Yin also includes 22 other strong historical women figures.

Yvonne Yin’s reason behind writing the book stems from the idea surrounding strong male roles in illustrated novels. She stated that women need strong role models to look up to as well. She recognizes that men have many super heroes, and powerful figures within media and literature, and yet often times the female figures get left behind, misrepresented, or simply are not portrayed the same as the male figures.Yvonne created this illustrative nonfiction historical biographies in the hopes that it reminds young women of the inner strength and the power they posses. Yin aims to remind young girls that they to are wonder-full women . This text serves as a great reminder and reference for anyone researching influential female figures and serves as an easy read for young children who need an extra reminder that many women are indeed wonder women.

I believe graphic novels and comics are held to the same level of truth telling as other forms of literature. If one chooses to present a non-fiction or biography based piece of art then it needs to be just that. Non-fiction. I think there is a divide where many people will aim to believe scholarly reviewed articles and written literature over comics as primary sources. I do not think that there is any problem with that. However, if there comes a time where a non-fiction comic or graphic novel is published and reviewed to be accurate, and the details to be true, then there should be no issue accepting it as a solid secondary source. I do not think it would be a bad idea for any sources to be cited within these works so further research can be done. Overall, if listed as non-fiction and reviewed as such then I do not see any problem with the integration of these novels and comics into school systems and everyday life as cite-able sources. In fact, I believe graphic novels in the school system could be as influential as the study of theater, or any other form of media literature.