His Name Is... Savage is a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern graphic novel. Created by the veteran American comic book artist Gil Kane, who conceived, plotted and illustrated the project, and writer Archie Goodwin, who scripted under the pseudonym Robert Franklin, the black-and-white magazine was published by Kane's Adventure House Press, and distributed to newsstands.
His Name Is... Savage #1. Cover art by Robert Foster
Splash panel. Art by Kane.
Fantagraphics' 1982 reprint, Gil Kane's Savage! Kane altered the protagonist's features to avoid the original edition's unauthorized use of actor Lee Marvin's likeness.
A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.
The digest-sized "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust (1950), one precursor of the graphic novel. Cover art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin.
Detail from Blackmark (1971) by scripter Archie Goodwin and artist-plotter Gil Kane
Bloodstar (1976) by Robert E. Howard and artist Richard Corben
Sabre (1978), one of the first modern graphic novels. Cover art by Paul Gulacy.