Books vs Graphic Novels

What follows is a conversation I had on Goodreads regarding

Troublemaker: Book 1 (Alex Barnaby #3) byJanet Evanovich (Author), Alex Evanovich, Joëlle Jones (Illustrator)

I DO NOT like graphic novels. I DO like Ms Evanovich and enjoyed the Barnaby & Hooker books. I was looking forward to a continuation of the story but this was what was offered. I purchased it depite my misgivings. Not only is it a graphic novel it only contains the first four chapters. At these prices I think I'll skip the rest. Let me know when you bring them back to book format. For the price of four chapters of graphics (Oh lets just call them what they are Comics) I can get the whole story in words and let my imagination do the drawing.

Jack Baur

What's wrong with calling them comics? There's nothing wrong with comics, and in fact that's exactly what they are. I understand your resistance to the form, but your derision seems kind of extreme. AND what would you think about the fact that Evanovich originally conceived of this whole series as graphic novels? I don't mean to be challenging, but as someone who is personally very interested in comics in general and professionally interested in promoting comics in libraries, I'm really curious about your reaction.

I did state that I didn't like comics or graphic novels at the start. My reason is that if an author is good (and Ms Evanovich is) I can picture the characters in my imagination. Have you ever read a blog where folks try to cast a story? It is amazing the different ways people see the same character. It is all about imagination. I don’t have any problems with comics in libraries. To each their own. As for the proposition that Ms Evanovich conceived of this whole series as graphic novels if she hadn’t published the first two as novels we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I simply wouldn’t have picked it up. But she did and for the price of a fifteen chapter novel I got a four chapter comic book. Price is an issue

He did not reply.  I now see some of my favorite authors doing the graphic novel thing and I still don't get it.  Laurell K. Hamilton, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher & C. E. Murphy to name a few.  I guess I will vote with my dollars and let those who enjoy that kind of entertainment have it.  As for me I still want the whole novel and my imagination.