Do you know what a graphic novel is? When explaining to my friends and family that I was working on a graphic novel, they seemed to be a bit confused as to what a graphic novel actually is. Some of them understood the concept, but others were a bit confused about the terminology. One of my friends simply thought of the term graphic novel and emphasized the word novel. So, he basically thought that I was writing a novel, and that there would be lots of pictures on some of the pages. A member of my family thought of the concept of a graphic novel and emphasized the word graphic which lead them to believe it was simply a comic strip. Before this project was fully explained, I thought of this as basically a standard comic book.
Upon beginning this blog, I researched the definition of a graphic novel through two highly revered sources. According to Merriam-Webster, a graphic novel is "a fictional story that is presented in comic-strip format and published as a book." This is a very vague definition by any means, and I disagree with the word fictional being included. A graphic novel can definitely be a non-fiction account of a story. The second definition I found was from Encyclopædia Britannica, which defines a graphic novel as "a type of text combining words and images—essentially a comic, although the term most commonly refers to a complete story presented as a book rather than a periodical." This is a much better definition.
In my opinion, a graphic novel is truly a combination of words and images. Without communication through words, a graphic novel would basically be a picture book. In contrast, without images, a graphic novel would basically be a standard book. Graphic novels combine both words and images in order to better communicate action and the sequence of events in the narrative.
Graphic novels are a very viable method of communication and can create very interesting texts. With a story being told entirely by words, such as a standard novel, they often become tiring to read because the audience must take the words and create their own images of the events being described. In some cases, due to vocabulary issues, the audience can read the story but have no idea what certain words mean. This can lead to a complete breakdown of communication. Sure, some readers may search for the definition of a word they do not know in a dictionary, but many readers may simply put the novel down and dismiss it.
On the other hand, it is very hard to tell a story through images alone because they are open to an enormous amount of interpretation. For example, expressions and actions can be misinterpreted. Also, in a book strictly portrayed with images there can be no dialogue. This creates a very limited amount of communication that can be made from the creator to the reader.
Being able to combine these two methods of communication creates a very interesting and rich experience of a story. Action can be conveyed as well as dialogue, and it is much easier to understand the events that are taking place. Scenes are mapped out and depicted which helps the reader grasp the message much faster. Setting can also be rendered through the images, which can be very beneficial to the story. Graphic novels are also very inexpensive to produce in a digital format. In my opinion, graphic novels are an amazing way to tell a story. I am simply astounded that they are not more popular are more widely used as a method of communication.
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