Forum - View topicThe Significance of the Graphic Novel
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Full_Metal1923
 Posts: 312 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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The following was written as an assignment between myself, and a friend to demonstrate the significance of the graphic novel for our Writer's Craft class. It's essentially the guidelines we used for our presentation. I'm interested to see what all of you think in regards to the advantages provided by graphic novels, or in this case - specifically manga.
.::The Significance of the Graphic Novel::. What is a Graphic Novel? Graphic novels are not comic books – they try to tell a whole story, rather than just a sequential part. They spend more time developing characters and story, often making them more relatable than that of a comic book. In fact, graphic novels tend to carry much more mature stories than comics, and actually have more potential to set up big jokes throughout any given volume. However, what really set the graphic novel a part from comics, novels, and film are the detailed illustrations. That immerses the reader, and provides a more valuable connection to the characters, and story. The Advantages of the Graphic Novel: - Like movies, things can be shown rather than explained. However, unlike movies (and like novels), the writer has the option of narrating everything he wants – thoughts, motives, explanations of things the readers doesn’t know, explanations of things the character doesn’t know – anything’s fair game. The artistic style is important in the telling of the story, and distinction of characters both in the layout of the graphic novel, and the content. - Panel Size – Small panels subconsciously imply things happening quicker, big panels are usually a more detailed look at a few or significant event. - Colour Scheme – Warm colours for happy things, greys, and browns for gritty, etc. - Character Designs – In the matter of manga (Japanese comics) where there’s a general art style, the manner in which characters are drawn often reflect that character’s personality or potential role in the story. However, characters in manga tend to be illustrated more gracefully in shoujo manga (manga intended for young women - Fruit Basket)) than shounen manga (manga intended for young males - Fullmetal Alchemist). Outside of manga though, the author, or illustrator (if it’s a joint effort) can take advantage in how characters are drawn to symbolize deeper meanings. A great example of this is Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a tale of his Jewish father’s life during the second World War, where: - The Jews are represented by mice. - The Germans are represented by cats. - The Americans are represented by dogs. - The Poles are represented by pigs. - The French are represented by frogs. - The Swedes are represented by reindeer. - The child of a Jew and a German is shown as a mouse with cat stripes. (Refer to page 131 of Maus II) This freedom as a whole also extends into how the author is able to play with the reader’s imagination - since readers can browse pages at their leisure, the time constraints of movies don’t apply – meaning they can convey all sorts of information by not showing what happens. Examples include: use of shadows, the expressions of on looking characters, the headline of a paper blown by the wind, and scenes of the surrounding landscape – a trait that famed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has used in both his films, and manga. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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The only problem I can see with this is the assertion that graphic novels are not comics, considering a lot of what is generally considered to be graphic novels (for example, V for Vendetta) did originally come out as one-issue comics. Lots of comics are put together into collected volumes, all of which I would consider to be "graphic novels."
It's a tricky term to describe, but by saying it doesn't include the traditional North American comics means you're limiting it quite a bit. And I'd say it's rather insulting to the comic book industry to say that manga can be graphic novels when they can't, since in so many ways the two do the exact same thing. |
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Rika-chama
 Posts: 87 |
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I'm agreeing with this. I owuld consider manga to be comics but a different type of comic. Other than that I would say you did a fine job 
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Yeah to be honest, as I understood it graphic novels and comics are essentially the same thing. People just use "Graphic Novel" because it doesn't carry the kiddie connotations that "Comic" often does. People's choice of terms does tend to depend on the criteria you mentioned here. However, I don't think that is an actual definition.
The only time I would say a comic does not qualify as a graphic novel is in the case of comic strips since they are too short to meet the "novel" aspect. |
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Full_Metal1923
Posts: 312 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Interestingly enough, my partner is the one who wrote that. I think perhaps he's making more of a point on the novel side of graphic novels, in regards to their length. However, I'll let him explain that. For the most part, my contributions particularly surround the notation of anything related to manga. He gave me what he had on North American graphic novels, and I combined the two essentially.
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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And even with those, there are some which I think are on the border. For Better or Worse, for example, certainly has storylines as intricate as those in comics (sometimes more so, depending on what you are comparing it with). |
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KyuuA4
 Posts: 1361 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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Graphic novel is simply a novel using graphics (with dialogue) as a predominant means of telling the story. Cannot be more simple than that. Hence, you can cram "manga", "OEL manga", and the entire "comics" section under a single section "Graphic Novels" in a bookstore.
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Full_Metal1923
Posts: 312 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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Well if it matters, the presentation was a great success.
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I argue that comics can and can not be a graphic novel. Kinda like rectangles and squares. If you collect a serialized comic into a single volume or even series of volumes, you get a graphic novel. A periodical like a 'comic book' wouldn't be a full graphic novel, but a collection of them could be.
Stuff like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and even non-Alan Moore works of genius that are comics known well as graphic novels have almost all been published as periodicals first. I had to look to double check this, but even Maus was first published in periodical form. Actually, V for Vendetta failed in a British publication and was later finished at DC / Vertigo in the US. I've even heard Warren Ellis call ome short graphic novels of his as graphic novellas. Even manga like Chobits are graphic novels. TokyoPop actually used to advertise them as such when they were first selling to comic shops. 
Personally, I think that's what the whole section should be called. Not the manga section, not the comic book section, Graphic Novels. If that's too graphic sounding, then go for the high art terminology by Will Eisner and Scott McCloud and call them sequential art. As for art style, I don't think even shonen and shojo is fair to lump manga into. Didn't that Apocolypse Meow even do something similar to Maus? Anyway, good luck on your paper. If you haven't read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, I suggest you rush out and pick it up yesterday. |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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You'd like Chapters/Indigo then, the main chain of bookstores in Canada, because that's exactly what they call it. Though they do separate manga from the North American stuff, but I think that makes sense (and just plan looks nicer). It's been so fun to watch this section get bigger and bigger during the last five years, both because of manga and because of other types of graphic novels. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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I'm guessing it's mainly done by book size? Most US books are almost double the standard 5x7 standard size for most manga. Though a number of US books, Scott Pilgrim for example, could fit on those shelves too.
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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The bookshelves are all the same size, so that really wouldn't make a difference. I think they just realize that the demographic buying manga and those buying graphic novels might not necessarily be the same, though of course there is a fair amount of overlap.
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Ambrogino
 Posts: 57 Location: York, England |
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I think there's often a confusion between Original Graphic Novels, such as Pride of Baghdad (sorry, I'm not aware of any manga equivalents though I'm sure there are some) and Trade Paperbacks, collecting serialised stories. Both of these tend to come under the catchall of Graphic Novels. But I'd have to dispute most of the points in the first post - the only difference between a serialised story and one originally written for publication in one place is the lack of need for reguarly spaced chapter breaks. There's nothing about original graphic novels with regards to pacing, art quality and direction or maturity level that's not replicated in dozens of serialised stories in different comics across the world.
FWIW, Maus was originally a short strip in a regular monthly comic, before being published as an expanded original graphic novel. |
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