Saturday, September 15, 2007

Comic book vs. Real book

In graphic novels such as V for Vendetta I feel like the pictures limit your imagination. What you see is what you get with a graphic novel. Although some may consider them more visual and interactive, I must disagree. I believe that graphic novels constrain the reader leading him to not imagine beyond the illustrations laid out on page. The author cannot rely on the reader to fill in pictures he is describing, he has to fill those pictures in for us. Graphic novels are more concentrated on dialogue in the actual text and not many narrative lines. Some may argue that this gives the reader a better idea of what is happening in the story, especially those ‘visual learners’ who need a picture to accompany their text to really understand it. However, I disagree because picture books were meant for little kids who did not have the matured imagination adults have. Graphic novels are obviously not one of my favorites, solely because I think they are more closely related to comic books rather than actual novels. I may also add I was never a kid who enjoyed reading comic books.

I contend that The Hours was a more graphic novel than V for Vendetta. Yes, you may think I am an idiot, but I can draw tons of more pictures in my head from a paragraph than any illustrator will ever be able to put on paper. Some say that a picture says a thousand words, but I say when words are already on a picture what does it really matter what it could say. On the other hand I do agree that a larger number of readers will understand the story with pictures, but where is the challenge in that. Overall I think graphic novels should stay in the comic book store.

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