Alright, I hope this goes in this section versus in the Manga section. I was reading Persopolis the other day and something dawned on me. While I had read very few graphic novels in comparison to manga, the ten or so that I had read all had a similar theme; there was never a happy ending. Or at least not a happy ending such as one would expect from a manga.

I first thought that it was because of American society, but Persopolis was written in French so I didn't really think about that for a long time. But has anyone stumbled upon any graphic novels of real merit, and not a book made into a graphic novel, that has an ending which isn't the character just accepting their life or something? Because, I know that the world's really like that, but people read manga to escape from their own life? Why are graphic novels so different?

What's up with that???

Well, I think a lot of manga are genre oriented, which are more apt to have happy endings.

How many straight --not genre-- novels have you read that have true happy endings?

Also, the graphic novels tend to be longer. If you read something like the anthology Flight, you'll see many happy endings, as they're shorter stories. You'll see ambiguous and unhappy endings also, though. I think a longer tale leads to a more open ended or ambiguous ending.

Hmm. I hadn't really thought about it, but now that you mention it, my favorite graphic novels (Watchmen, say, or The Killing Joke) have endings that could be interpreted as kind of downers, yes. I don't know why, unless it's that they're pointed at grown-ups, and grown-ups live in that kind of world, most of the time.

But a lot of adults in Asia read manga. So why do graphic novels just assume that English-speaking readers would want stories that are downers?
Honestly, I think that people could get a bit of good from reading pointless, happy manga-like comics and graphic novels.

Okay so I'm sitting here trying to think of one that has a happy ending, there's gotta be one, right? My husband just said Constantine, I mean he tricked three devils so he could be immortal, that's happy right?
We both agree that e don't read for a happy pappy escape, we read because we love a good story no matter how it ends.
For example, steven spielberg ruined A.I. by extending the ending because he thought that american audiences couldn't take the stanly kubricks original ending.
Some one just said Sandman because he doesn't accept his fate, he changes it to the fate he wanted.
I really don't like endings that feel like they are forced by ending happily, It just makes it feel fake.

once i finish a graphic novel story, i'll let you know. xp
all the ones i read are currently printing or i just haven't gotten them all yet.

but i must say, not every manga has a happy ending.
the demon ororon actually made me cry at the end.
as did president dad, but that is technically a manhwa.
darkside blues was just kind of a... "what just happened?" ending.
paradise kiss was a little ambiguous, depending on what you were hoping would happen.
and that's just me glancing at some of the finished series on my bookcases.