Final Exam

Graphic Novel Final Exam

Using p126 of McCloud as a reference/ guide, define the line style of one of the graphic novels you have read SINCE the midterm. How does the line style impact the storytelling of that specific GN?

Based on McClouds description of line style l am going use GN Ethel & Ernest as an example of creative line style that impacts the story and grabs the reader. McCloud gives an example of Graphic Novelist Eisner modern work of full range of lines styles captions a full range of moods and emotions. The example shows a character with a much defined features and iconic. In Ethel & Ernest the graphics are a combination of the particular styles with a mixture of R Crumbs (neurotic quill lines of modern adulthood) The line style depict a calmness (McCloud pg 124) In Ethel & Ernest (pg 18-21) the line style is steady left to right and easy to follow and the facial features are somewhat more obscure but as the characters age their faces take on the aging lines and the thinning hair.

#3
I believe that using first person narrative voice has a stronger impact on the reader and the material. When the author is first person point of view he is using his own voice. Because he is using his own voice it creates an immediate bond with the reader. The reader feels that they are involved in intimate conversation with the narrator and privy to their inner most secrets. In the GN Fun Home, Allison Bechdel takes the reader into her private domain of her dysfunctional family. As the reader l feel she is using her voice to share with me perhaps things she has only divulged to her therapist. On pg 94-95 Bechdel describes her Fathers peculiar relationship with young, good-looking neighborhood boys who he hires as yard workers and babysitters. You can sympathize with her as a young girl smart enough to really know what is going but the family ignores the elephant in the living room and is reluctant to connect the dots.
The one drawback of first person narrative is you have to wonder if they are telling the whole truth or their version of the facts. Are they a reliable narrator? In my own family of six sibling we often reminisce about childhood events and all of us have differing opinion on the same thing. So you have to weigh it against what might have really happened. In GN novel Ethel & Ernest again the same issues arises is Raymond Briggs a reliable narrator since he is an only child and both parents are deceased? I would say yes because how you view things is your own personal truth. The memoirs might be subjective to the narrator but the world history events are reliable because their facts for example in Ethel & Ernest on pg 74 he describes with humor his parents reaction to getting their first telephone. I believe it happen the way he described it. Overall l am in support of first person narrator as a reliable source when telling a story.

#4 Using McClouds description of creation l will explore American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

1) Idea/Prose: Yang idea is to use a style similar in Aesop Fable where he uses a mixture of human’s and animals to tell his story around self-acceptance and prejudice.
2) Form: Yang uses comic’s book style and format. He also has three stories that appear to be unrelated although of a similar theme but he skillfully connects all three stories together to make a great Aesop morality fable.
3) Idiom: The genre is fable or beast tale.
4) Structure: McClouds definition is bringing it all together and how to compose it. As l read the GN I and the feeling that Yang structure started out as a regular comic book with simple sequence and it later metamorphosed to include the animals and the theme around transformers. He was able to take three stories and merge them into one big story. Personally l dont think when he began writing that was his intent but he used his creative energy to pull it all together.
5) Craft: (Include applying skills, practical knowledge, invention and problem solving) In a nutshell this means to me that the writer has to pull it all together to male it work.
6) Surface: McCloud uses an apple as a example of what he means by surface. Apples look good on the outside their shiny and waxed to look attractive so the consumer will buy them. However you can bite into one and yuk its hollow and no taste. Just a pretty package but nothing more. A GN can be glossy and made to look enticing to the buyer however it has no substance no literary value. The writer failed to concentrate on the craft, idea and form. It’s not a complete package. American Born Chinese has it moments. Originally l wasn’t impressed at all with the story. My thoughts were ok this GN about Asian American youth looking for self acceptance. However Yang took time to cultivate all the steps (1-6) which drew me the reader page after page. The GN actually had multi-layered messages on morality and self acceptance.

Are GN/Comics literature?

Literature is defined according to Webster Dictionary as:
All writings In prose or verse of an imaginative character.
All such writings having permanent value, excellent form.
All writings of a particular time, country.

Using the Webster definition I would say yes some GN are considered literature. In this class almost all the GN I’ve read would fall into the category of literature. I have read Ethel and Ernest and using the Webster definition this is literature. The GN is based the memoir of Raymond Briggs parents. The story evolves against the backdrop of world events. I also read Persepolis another memoir of a young woman coming of age in Iran.
Although these GN are in comic book genre is definitely not light weight fluff. Novelist Sara Ryan (The Rules for Hearts) pointed out there has been many forms of art that have not received proper respect. I am of the school of thought that if a person picks up a classic novel or comic book their engaged in reading and its an opportunity to broaden their horizon and who are we to judge what constitutes “real” reading or fluff. Those that argue against GN as literature are guilty of being literaturey snobs. As young adult novelist Cecil Castelluci wondered, why cant comics are both. It is literature and it’s taught in literature, and it is fine art, and taught in fine art department.