The Graphic Novel
ENGL 375TT [@UMW]
Ender’s Game: Internal Dialogue in Color
Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game is best known in its novel format. Recently, Ender’s Game made its debut to a visual medium: comics. Script writer Christopher Yost outlined the structure of the comics and decided the content that had to be added or omitted. Artist Pasqual Ferry needed to capture the rich details of the characters' inner dialogue, observations and thoughts that make Ender's Game so compelling into still images. The artistic elements of the panels, including but not limited to colors, shading, and composition of the pages, all come together to successfully present Card’s character's in a different and unique medium. Two pages in particular stand out in issue #1 of Ender's Game: Battle School for the use of these artistic devices to convey aspects of the different characters: page ten introduces the Wiggin children and on page fourteen conflict escalates between the three siblings. Read more . . .
Eisner's Visual Aids
Fimme Hersh finalizes contract
Frimme Hersh contemplates contract
Frimme Hersh has heart attack
End Narration
In Will Eisner's A Contract With God, he tells the story of Fremme Hersh who has just lost his daughter and blames God. Eisner does not just tell the story through a series of character images and dialogue. Eisner tells his story through more than just mere plot lines. Will Eisner encompasses every visual aspect as an aid to further portray the storyline. Read more . . .
Are the Pictures Even Necessary?
In Will Eisner’s comic Contract With God he makes use of not only panels with actions and speech bubbles, but text at the top of the page giving descriptions as well. There are times when he gives such detailed descriptions at the top of the page that it seems unnecessary to even look at the pictures. This use of printed narrative is similar to the technique Winsor McCay used in the early issues of Little Nemo in Slumberland. There are benefits to using this technique, such as clarifying points that wouldn’t otherwise be made clear through the use of just comic panes, but it also somewhat defeats the purpose of the actual drawn story.
For much of Eisner’s story he makes use of descriptive dialogue in addition to drawings and speech bubbles. In the first eight pages he only uses panels on two occasions, only one of which actually features a speech bubble. On the pages that focus more on the descriptive background text, the picture becomes almost secondary and falls to the wayside. A reader can even begin to question if Eisner has revealed too much information, making the pictures unnecessary. Read more . . .
References
- Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue. W.W. Norton & Co., 2005.
Story-Showing in Calvin and Hobbes
Bill Watterson, renown author of the famous Calvin and Hobbes series of comic strips, is well known for employing a mixture of strong visual cues with well-written dialogue to portray an often-times amusing story and, usually, a point. The purpose of this essay is not, however, to discuss the strong dialogue that is often used in Watterson's strips, but to analyze his use of visuals—visuals so descriptive that dialogue is not even needed for him to tell and simple, yet heart-warming story and to make a point.
The first panel of the comic is a prologue of sorts—it does not set up the scene that the rest of the comic resides in, but it does give some explanation to the context behind what is to come. Calvin is obviously exuberant about something, which we must assume is either the dresser (probably not—it is just a dresser, after all), the lamp (that could not be it either, since there is not anything particularly interesting about it—it is not even on), the bird decoration (again, doesn't really seem like anything special), or the window to outside. In the end, one comes to the conclusion that the thing Calvin is excited about is most definitely the snow outside, since kids classically love snow, the objects next to the window, while well-drawn, are not particularly interesting, and, finally, history tells us that calving loves snow. Read more . . .
References
- Watterson, Bill. The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson. Calvin and Hobbes. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992.
The Loss of Innocence in "The Gunfighter"
The father of the Graphic Novel, Will Eisner, laces every page with meaning. There is nothing arbitrary or random or purely aesthetic in is work. Within A Life Force, Eisner introduces a new character, a young boy, in a short vignette entitled "The Gunfighter." Seemingly, this delayed introduction and distinct shift in tone, from rather macabre to wholesome and cute, is a bit off-putting. This small boy, however, speaks to the vital "force" driving A Life Force , which is the inevitable loss of innocence and, consequently, the impossible quest to regain it. To fully understand the significance of "The Gunfighter" it must be analyzed in two parts: as it exists independently in it's own narrative, and how it functions within the greater narrative of A Life Force. Read more . . .
Eisner's Use of Shading in "The Super"
In The Contract with God Trilogy, Will Eisner’s drawings are heavily influenced by his use of shadowing. Since his graphic novel is in such detailed black and white, the absence of color is a particularly eye-catching method of highlighting important scenes and characters. This is most prevalent in “The Super,” where the scheming niece is always depicted with the light facing her, despite where she is in relation to the light source.
When first introduced on the second and third panels if page 104, the niece is seen wrapped in a towel walking out of the bath. Her features are drawn simply, as if to imply a certain innocence about her, which of course we can later attribute to her age. This simplistic innocence is also suggested by the cartoonish eyes of the on-looking Super, as his eyes dilate greatly once she enters the story. By the fourth panel of the page, the niece is shown with the light coming both from behind her, highlighting her silhouette, and from in front of her, exposing her figure to the Super. This use of lighting helps to amplify the niece as a crucial element to the story. By having her avoiding the shadows, Eisner is misleading the reader into thinking that she is pure and innocent. Read more . . .
Its Black and White In "The Contract With God"
In the third story, “Dropsie Avenue,” of Will Eisner’s “The Contract with God Trilogy,” Eisner uses lines to demonstrate shadow and light, in defining race, instead of color, which has become heavily relied on in media today. Race plays an overall large factor in this part of the story and Eisner is still able to create a social commentary on the subject. In the previous pages, Mr. Svensen wins the lottery and decides to buy the building from Mr. Cash. But beginning on page 440, Mr. Svensen has fallen on hard times and is dealing with the departure of too many of his tenants and his only friend seems to be the African-American worker, Jim. In the first panel that Jim appears on, he is on a ladder and sketched lines are used in the background to show shadow. Yet in this panel does not use any shaded in lines to indicate Jim’s skin color and he appears to be the same race as Mr. Svensen; the only way readers can possibly tell his ethnicity are through distinct African-American facial features. The following frame then shows Jim behind a wall that has been filled in with black ink and then black lines and stitching are used to indicate Jim’s race.
Jim almost falls into a stereotype of the African-American male imagery, as he is portrayed as a loyal worker to Mr. Svensen. While trying to fix the boiler, Jim tries to warn Mr. Svensen that the boiler is not working and that they need a new one, but Mr. Svensen tells him that he doesn’t have the money and that Jim should just do his best to patch it up. In the following panels, Mr. Svensen is ambushed by his tenants about there being no heat, leaking toilets, and on page 441, some of the tenants make racist remarks such as “Besides… you let dirty little niggers live here!” or “And then gypsies… they got 3 families livin’ in the same flat… animals!” [1] Read more . . .
References
- Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue. W.W. Norton & Co., 2005.
Cookalein: Sex, Love, and Drama
[1] Cookalein is a part of a collaboration of stories set in the Bronx in the 1930s. Cookalein especially brought out the tension and desperation of so many people. They would spend money to travel 150 miles to go to a farm to get out of the city life confinement. It was a place for kids to have adventures milking cows and doing chores around the farm. It was a place for grownups to reaffirm their loyalties to one another. It was a place to find love and romance. It was by far the best vacation ever for anyone looking for adventure. Read more . . .
Will Eisner, the author of Cookalein and many other stories, is very unconventional in his setup of Cookalein. He does not portray the panels like most people would display them. He relies on imagination to think outside the box and make panels one page or borderless. An example of this occurs on page 158 where the panel is borderless and thus adds more dimension to the page. The conversation bubbles come out of the house in so many separate ways. In the background of the panel there is darkness inhibited by clouds and the conversation bubbles. The one page panels occur when the scenery takes up too much space and needs one page just to fit to the right proportions.
References
- Eisner, Will. The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue. W.W. Norton & Co., 2005.
Homosexuality and X-Men
Ever since Stan Lee and Marvel Comics have began to write and publish the X-Men anthology, questions of the inspiration for the X-Men and the message that they send have always been a prominent issue in comics and in comic culture. Given the nature of the X-Men, their leader Charles Xavier, and the nature of their enemies, namely anti-mutant humans and the organizations that they create to oppress and harm mutants and their constituents, the perpetual search for equality became the main priority of the X-Men. Ever since theories regarding the motivation behind the creation of the X-Men it has been said that the X-Men serve to send a message for civil equality, and for the past couple decades, the X-Men have said to be a “gay-parable.” With Professor Charles Xavier often compared to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Xavier build the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in order to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit and protection of all of man kind, and non the less fall under constant scrutiny from the majority of the known world. Read more . . .
Fearful Symmetry
Since its first appearance Alan Moore’s Watchmen has been said to stand alone within the graphic novel medium. It has been hailed as “groundbreaking” and “revolutionary”, a challenge to the norms of the industry. The story is darker than a superhero comic normally would be; due to its drastically different model of “superhero,” Watchmen is hauntingly real. However, since Watchmen is so revolutionary in that aspect why does the layout of the novel appear to be so regular? The arraignment is precisely what one might expect of the normal superhero story: a series of rectangle boxes varying in size filled with colorful pictures and word bubbles. One of the beautiful things about the comic medium is its ability to translate meaning through visuals and not just conventional pictures but also layout. The well-written comic almost always manipulates the layout and framing of the story to further the plot or make a point. So why is Watchmen only a series of rectangles? Its regularity is strange enough that it itself becomes something to take note of. The framing and layout emphasizes and furthers the critical themes of symmetry and balance within Watchmen. This is best illustrated in chapter 5, “Fearful Symmetry”. Read more . . .
