A memoir is a written account of an author’s memories or personal experiences. Prior to taking the Graphic Novel course, I had only experienced traditional books, or even one or two film interpretations under this genre. I hadn’t considered a graphic novel to be a medium used to convey personal experiences, mostly because I hadn’t read many to begin with. It wasn’t until reading Alison Bechdel’s Fun… Read more →
Though I haven’t read many graphic novels, I have always been drawn to manga. I think the art was what I found most notable; large eyes and defined facial outlines were the subject of several doodles as a ten year old. I realize we’ve moved past Akira and manga in general, but it stimulated some very interesting discussions, and I couldn’t help but compare… Read more →
Visual expressions of emotion are a large contextual component in most graphic novels. If we were to rely solely on dialogue and narration with expressionless characters, the tone of the story would drastically shift. We may generally consider the depiction of emotions to be a simple task of manipulating the shape of or space between facial features. However, it’s interesting to note that there… Read more →
I entered this class knowing little to nothing about comics, so I was rather intimidated by the idea of producing one myself. Creativity is a huge factor in such a process. I didn’t know where to begin. As a young girl, I read a lot and would often write my own stories. I also loved to draw. But as I grew older, my interests shifted;… Read more →
Would you consider yourself a creative individual? It can be difficult to exercise creativity when faced with the stress that comes with daily routine and obligations. However, Emily Humberson mentioned in a reflection post that “creativity encourages the ability to think in innovative and original ways- which is absolutely crucial to being successful both in academia and ‘the real world.’” It seems that being creative is beneficial,… Read more →
Our recent Disassembly assignment shed some light on the details authors consider when creating a graphic novel. The conclusions I came to focused on pretty basic aspects, such as the importance of speech bubbles, shadows, and character placement. All of these things play a large role in allowing the reader to understand the narrative. After reading and discussing Watchmen in class, I realized many… Read more →
The first aspect of a comic that most people notice is the visual artwork. In polychromatic comics, color usage is a significant component in engaging the reader and effectively communicating key features of the story. One of the important functions of color is to identify characters and distinguish objects from each other. In comics, the fictional world exists in panels. By ‘assigning’ specific colors to each… Read more →
It’s easy to be caught off guard by the lack of unity throughout Die Stadt. I (almost frantically) flipped through the slides several times just trying to find consistency. I assumed the novel was intended to be a continuous narrative and was met with a wide variety of scenes. I began to understand that the series of woodcuts were not intended to tell one particular… Read more →