The Best of Both Worlds

Though the definition of the term “graphic novel” is extremely vague, the use and purpose of such a genre is very clear. Such an invention bridges the gap between a book and a movie. A book leaves its reader free to create images and illustrate stories in his head. Two readers of the same book generally have entirely different ideas about how characters and scenes are visually represented. In a movie, nothing is left for the audience to create or imagine in their head. They have lost their freedom to have any input into the movie or any influence on how it appears. Perhaps this is why films never live up to their book form. The reader has created a flawless world of how things “should” look and then must undergo the trauma of seeing this same world come crashing down as the “error” in their imagination is exposed.

A graphic novel is the genre that fills in the gap. It is the happy medium between perfect freedom of imagination and a visual dictatorship. A graphic novel provides a loose structure for the reader to build on. It is the perfect way to satisfy both audiences—that of books and that of movies. While the reader is given enough of a general idea of how things appear to satisfy the movie buff, the ambiguity of the pictures leaves enough freedom to satisfy the book monger.

Another way that a graphic novel provides common ground between movie-lovers and those who prefer books is in regards to time required. A movie is quick and thrilling while a book may span days. One fifteen-minute scene in a movie may require two hours of reading in a book. The graphic novel uses pictures to convey many things that would ordinarily be described by words in a book. This enables the reader to spend a little less time receiving the same message or provides the movie buff with a slightly more time consuming alternative.

From the previous three points it is easy to see why the graphic novel is such a great literary addition. It bridges the gap between books and movies by allowing freedom to those who love books and providing structure for the movie buff. It also gives the avid reader a means to spend a little less time doing what he loves to do, while at the same time providing a more lengthy alternative for the impatient movie critic. Clearly the graphic novel is the best of both worlds!