Too much real life in the graphic novel section

When comics really started showing up in bookstores back in the 80s and 90s, they were just full of absolute brilliance - the best books, of the highest quality. And while the big mainstream publishers still tried to pass off half a dozen issues of Spider-Man as a graphic novel, they hadn't flooded the marketplace, so the great stuff really stood out.

And I can't help but feel that things have devolved on this front, even with the best stores showing the best of intentions. There are still shelves devoted to graphic novels in all good bookstores, but it all seems a little thin.

My local regular bookstore is full of excellent stock, and I've happily bought books from there for years. I get my one-person book club from there every month, but apart from the more recent Luther Arkwright misadventure and a book about a pinhead, I've never really got anything from its graphic novel collection.

They will still stock solid works like Kate Beaton's most excellent Ducks, but sometimes it feels like the really interesting stuff is getting slowly pushed out by acres of bland non-fiction and biographical books important people in history.

Comics are an easy sell for non-fiction, because it's the best medium to learn anything, but as much effort goes into nailing down the facts, the art is often completely perfunctory. No dynamism, no style, just thin-lined sparseness, the vast sweep of time relegated to the simplest of shapes, and figures stuck in the stiffest of lines.

I want to like these books, I like learning about history and the comics form is a great way to do it, but when half of the production is treated as a secondary form, they can just be a weird chore to read, and slightly patronizing.

There have been some wonderful bios in the comic field by artists with distinctive styles, and interesting storytelling chops - far too many to mention here - but sometimes it feels like it's just easy publishers cashing in on the fad. But I need art to come with some distinctive style, even when it's about the real world.