One of the more interesting trends to surface at this year's San Diego Comic Convention is DC Comics' newfound emphasis on original graphic novels.  These are works that appear first in graphic novel form, skipping the 32-page comic format entirely.  While there have been original graphic novels from the very inception of the long form comic story -- and DC has done a number of them over the years -- the publisher reportedly has an unprecedented twenty or more such projects under way at present. 

Over the past several years sales of comic trade paperbacks, mostly collections of issues that first appeared as 32-page comics, have taken an increasingly large share of the total retail comic market and simultaneously created a beachhead for the comic book medium in traditional bookstores.  DC's current emphasis on original graphic novels will allow creators to explore the narrative possibilities of long form comic narration without the storytelling demands of serialized chapters of relatively equal length.

Three Vertigo projects, Bigg Time, Barnum!, and Lovecraft are among the first DC original graphic novels in the current wave, but the trend is not limited to the Vertigo imprint.   Readers can expect to see original graphic novel projects across the full breadth of the DC line and all its imprints.  Of course DC will continue to publish trade paperback editions collecting story arcs from hit series as well as mine the archives for collections of classic golden and silver age comics.  The superbly produced (and pricey) DC Archives editions are often at the top of our Top Ten lists ('see Top Ten Cool Comics').