Part 1: I Want to Tell you a Story - The L.A.W. GraphicNarrativ Seminar Series

During this lecture we looked at the following sources of inspiration and academic guidance:

In the first Lecture we looked at how Biography is used to shape a story. The discovery of a person’s life through the medium of the graphic novel. We looked at how academics have elevated the public appreciation of what this medium can deliver and why it should be respected. Books were used to illustrate my points in the lecture and links to these can be found below. 

 

During the lecture I proposed the idea that the truth was immediately affected by the observer as soon as analysis occurs and that the facts can be influenced by the agenda of the storyteller. As soon as you observe the facts, they become something else. The researcher can affect the results of an experiment just by looking at it or at the very least explains the results as an interpretation. Do graphic novels provide us with a slower way to observe truth and therefore provide more time for reflection and inspiration?


Academic and Curators of the format who you can check out in the UAL Libraries or online

Nina Mickwitz
Documentary Comics Graphic Truth-Telling in a Skeptical Age – Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Roger Sabin
Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art

Paul Gravett
GRAPHIC NOVELS: Stories To Change Your Life

Scott McCloud
Understanding Comics, Making Comics and Reinventing Comics 

 

Publishers of Graphic Novels 

Self Made Hero 

Draw & Quarterly 

Jonathan Cape 

Fantagraphics 

 

Graphic Novel Creatives

Alison Bechdel – Fun Home which was adapted by the author into a stage play 

Sue Coe – Malcolm X 

Thomas Ott – R.I.P. 

Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis which was adapted by the author into an animated feature film 

Reinhard Kleist – Castro and Johnny Cash  

Catel Muller and José-Louis Bocquet - Kiki de Montparnasse: The Graphic Biography 

 

Joe Sacco - Palestine, Safe Area Goražde and Footnotes in Gaza 

References

Gravett, P. (2005) Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. 1. publ. edn. London: Aurum Press.

McCloud, S. (2010) Understanding comics. 1. HarperPerennial ed.; [Nachdr.] edn. New York: Harper Perennial.

McCloud, S. (2000) Reinventing comics. 1. ed. edn. New York, NY: Perennial.

McCloud, S. (2006) Making comics. New York, NY: William Morrow.

Mickwitz, N. (2015) Documentary Comics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.

Sabin, R. (2008) Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels. Repr. in pbk. edn. London: Phaidon.

 

Proposition Time
 

A new graphic novel about Malcolm X is proposed by me but my graphic novel wouldn’t feature Malcolm X at all. I’d only look at his influence. The gravitational force of his existence and how that impacts on the events of my story. 

I’m reminded of the film ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ (1946) where the protagonist gets to glimpse the world as it would be with out them. Look at your own life and consider the impact that you make on the lives of others or maybe look at a sibling and imagine the world without them.  

Telling a story of your own life, where would you start? We know that we were born but we don’t remember this event. So, where exactly would you start the story of your life? How would you introduce the concept of the gravitational force of one’s own life? 

Here are some exercises that will help you to begin to think about how you might construct a biographical story it would great to see the results too:

• Write a short story using your earliest memory as a starting point 

• Please write your story in the third person. 
Writing in third person is writing from the third person point of view and uses pronouns like he, she, it, or they.

• 300 words maximum (you might wish to support this with your own drawings) 

 

• Please break your story into 3 paragraphs (a beginning, middle and end but not necessarily in that order) 

• Finally select an image that you feel best represents the meaning of your story (this can be original or secondary source) 

To help you construct your story look at these resources:

http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/the-hero-journey-mythic-structure-of-joseph-campbell-monomyth.html The Hero Journey

the heroes journey A story of three orphans

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09vdpzw/imagine-winter-201718-4-philip-pullman-angels-and-daemons Imagine... Phillip Pullman: Angels and Daemons

Block, B. (2008) The visual story – creating the visual structure of film, TV and digital media. Oxford: Focal Press.

Booker, C. (2011) The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Madden, M. (2005) 99 ways to tell a story: exercises in style. London: Penguin Books.

Feedback on my MA Show from the Private View in September 2013

From: Ian Barraclough
Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2013
To: Karl
Subject: MA SHOW VISIT

Hi Karl,
As the man in demand last night I didn't get a lot of chance to chat to you but it was a great show, and was also good to see Jack, Barbara, Clive, and Gil again. Camberwell seems to have a more skills-based philosophy than LCC, for the good in my opinion. Very much enjoyed your animation, which really did represent a lot of focussed thought and masses of hard work. It was like you had invented a world then lived in it, like an actor inhabits a role. Stylistically the black and white was classy with tiny hints of colour, and I loved the flying figures. Intriguing to see all the various disembodied image parts come together, and with a jazz soundtrack too. John Surman is my favoured baritone sax player, although Tony Kofi is more experimental.What you were probably not aware of is that I've decided to leave LCC at the end of September, mainly to avoid the long commuting and to spend more time doing artwork. I do have some money to tide me over for a while, with the intention of eventually finding some AL work on the south coast nearer to where I live. I am generally just interested in downsizing my current LCC activity, which though part-time, can run over a lot into unpaid overtime and working from home. Eventually I will have to change my LCC email, so I'll be sending out new details after September.
Hope you had a great night, just reward for all the effort. I tend to agree that PhDs sound impressive, though the reality is often snappy writing and pressure to get published (there are 3 doctorates in the Barraclough family already). So maybe the MA is enough for the time being.


Kind regards,
Ian



From: Roger Sabin
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 12:47 PM
To: Karl Foster
Subject: RE: MA Major Project

Hey Karl,

Congrats on finishing the MA!

Your storyboard is terrific! Really nice abstract citiscapes, an involving SF story, and a soundtrack that's perfect. I also like the way it's so varied, and packs so much into the time-frame. It's futuristic, but recognisable - and disturbing but accessible. I really liked it.

I can also think of a place where it could be seen by a broader public, if you'd be interested in that? I happen to know one of the organisers of the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, which will be in London. http://www.loncon3.org/

She is keen to promote the visual side, and has 30 exhibition spaces to fill. The up-side: There will be 7000 people from all over the world, many of whom will have a serious interest in your film. In terms of 'impact', this is good news, and there will be a professionally produced catalogue and website, etc. My contact, Farah Mendlesohn, is a Professor at Anglia Ruskin.

The down-side: this is not an 'art event' by any means. The fans will be fans - with all that implies (yes, I would expect people dressed as Mr Spock). The venue is not a gallery, but will be an aircraft hangar-like monstrosity (at the Conference Centre, ExCel, in Docklands). And the organisers have no money - though they do have equipment, etc.

Anyway, if you want to ask if you can be included, please drop a line to Farah: farah.mendlesohn@anglia.ac.uk

Oh, and of course, I'd be delighted to have you along to the UAL comics network events.

Cheers,

Roger


Check out this link to see what they are both referring to http://vimeo.com/73864183?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfGExMTQ5OTFkMWNjYjY2MTE0NTM1N2JhZTBjMThmYjI2ODc2fDIwNjUwNDE1fDEzNzgzOTQxNzY%3D

Karl