If I pick up the new #1 will I be jumping in right where I just left off?

No. The new #1 picks up following the events of The Sellouts. After that was a storyline about Christian's history which isn't essential to the current plot. The Previously in #1 will get you up to speed without really giving away the specifics of The Sellouts, (though I have an inkling Deena might spoil it somewhere in the issue, and the ultimate effect the storyline had will of course be obvious).

Granted, you will get the most out of The Sellouts if you don't read #1 now, but you won't get less from #1 by not having read The Sellouts.

If it was published just the once, in book form, is it a graphic novel?

I believe so.

IIRC, the difference is that a trade is a collected run, and a graphic novel started out in that form.

I also feel like I should use air quotes around difference there for some reason.

I also feel like I should use air quotes around difference there for some reason.

Because it's a vague distinction at best. It's pretty standard that a GN started out that way, but since TPB is also just a name for a publishing format, it's a lot less clear -- if you're talking to a comics collector, they're most likely referring to a collected run of a serial title; if you're talking to a bookseller, it could be that, or the paperback edition of the GN....

I can't find consensus. The terms are used so erratically on the web. And everything sounds so plausible.

Watchmen was notable as being the first collected series graphic novel, spinning out of a new comics vehicle called the limited series, which were designed to only last a finite number of issues. This limited series concept would prove to be a major factor in today's collected series graphic novels.

See? Why not. I'm down with that, as well as with the usage in the NYT article.

I interpret "trade paperback" as a term used by the industry to describe the format of the product, while "graphic novel" is a vague to meaningless term used to market the product to the masses.

amych: bittorrent is great for picking up big runs of books (like: Every Ultimate X-Men Ever! style) but seems to be very sporadic with releases of individual books. As I'm not currently in reach of a comic book store (god, this town sucks), I need my individual fixes until i can pick them up in real form...

"graphic novel" is a vague to meaningless term used to market the product to the masses.

For "masses", substitute "people who like to say they don't read comics".

graphic novel

The joke is how many years librarians have been fighting over what to call visual print works of non-fiction. That goes double when it's a not-funny visual print work of non-fiction, like Maus, because then 'comic book' is also ruled out.

The other joke is how many people look at the term 'graphic novel' and think it means, by definition, some kind of hard core sex or violence.

I think the word 'graphic' needs a take-back-the-night rally.

I think 'graphic' needs to take back the day. It seems very at home in the night.

As noted, "graphic novel" was part of a marketing ploy on the part of the comics industry to get bookstores to carry their products. It was tied with the pushing of comics-are-art agenda and the early examples published as whole works, rather than series collections. (Things like, Will Eisner's Contract With God - which is where I first saw the phrase "graphic novel.") Anyway, Sandman kind of blew that distinction out of the water since they've been successfully marketed in bookstores for yonks now, have the imprimatur of ART and are collected trades.