When reading most of the graphic novels for class I do not spend much of my time ogling the actual drawings, but instead tend to wrap whole attention around the story and the growth of characters. I tended to look at the art as I would the diction of any other writer; if it was appealing and well done, I… Read more →
You wouldn’t have to look very hard in any book store for the romance section, replete with half shirtless men and lovely ladies wilting against their chests. However, the concept of romantic graphic novels seems to be rather neglected and unexplored. One of the most popular romantic novels in the US is the graphic adaptation of Twilight, and recently there… Read more →
I think the very concept of trying to define what an image is, results in the same problems that arise when trying to define what language is. How and why we try to define these concepts are just as important as the questions themselves. Why does it matter what an image is, and what do we get out of the… Read more →
Colors are important; perhaps the understatement of the century and certainly for a graphic novel class. Colors are more than just important; they add a level to reading that while immediately perceptible to the eye, the mind does the true evaluation of the page. Color has a heavy impact on how a reader will understand every other element of the… Read more →
While Watchmen does not provide the full (or correct) story of Kitty Genovese, it does, however, show characters who seem to have been affected by this phenomena. If the Bystander effect, or apathy, were practiced by the main protagonists of Watchmen would hardly be prevailed upon to act in heroic ways. In fact, the entire cast of ‘heroes’ seemed to have formed based… Read more →
I remember when I first learned to read avidly pulling down from every library shelf an assortment of Dr.Seuss books, equally excited over both the stories and the pictures. While books like Watchmen and Fun Home may be a far cry from those more innocent stories, there are some similarities. Namely, both sets of books follow a narrative with the… Read more →
While I would never pretend that Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman appear very similar, I could not help but think of how both authors depict the “dreamworld”. In class we talked about panels that we found to be disturbing or ‘trippy’, and I couldn’t help but make comparisons with how dark and haunting both graphics are. Sandman, a far more modern spin… Read more →
Hearing the words “banned book” nearly always brings about the comparison to Fahrenheit 451, and how closely banning and burning seem to be. Graphic novels are no exception on the long list of literature that finds itself each year on a library’s chopping block; perhaps, often, more so do to the very medium in which it represents its entire story.… Read more →