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 onlineNina MickwitzDocumentary Comics Graphic Truth-Telling in a Skeptical Age – Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels
Roger SabinComics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art
Paul GravettGRAPHIC NOVELS: Stories To Change Your Life
Scott McCloudUnderstanding Comics, Making Comics and Reinventing Comics
Publishers of Graphic Novels
Graphic Novel CreativesAlison 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.
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