2. Graphic novels
What are graphic novels?
Graphic novels are story's that are usually told through progressive illustrations and
compared to comic books graphic novels are longer and likely to cover a story from start
to finish, instead of ending with the a traditional cliff-hanger seen in comic books. Within a
graphic novel, the artwork can be very creative and experimental or can simply follow the
more traditional comic book layout. Graphic novels are most likely to be sold in special
bookstores and comic book shops instead of your local newsagents. A graphic novel
holds a lot of illustrations, which is hugely important, and very little text.
3. What do they look like?
A graphic novel normally
consists of a huge amount
of illustration, this helps
tell the story, set the scene
also it helps set the tone. a
graphic novel will have
very little text but this is
because the text is
normally kept for a short
description or dialogue.
Graphic novels can vary
from black and white to
very experimental colours
and collages. There are a
lot of different methods
used to create the
illustrations for graphic
novels for example;
drawing, painting,
photography, collage,
digital art and even
sculpture.
4. Methods
There are quite a few methods used to illustrate graphic novels; drawing, painting, photography,
collage, digital art and even sculpture.
• Dave McKean is an English illustrator and a good example of someone who incorporates a
wide range of methods for illustrating a graphic novel. Some of his work that includes these
methods are; cages, batman Arkham asylum, Mr punch, signal to noise and violent cases.
When graphic novels popularity increased, layouts changed from being in a grid format to much
more creative layouts. Some of the early comics were always set up in a grid format positioned
within white boarders and would usually take up a 9 square grid layout.
5. Text
Text is also very important within telling a story, it works with the images to help move the story
on. The amount of text within a graphic novel can differ depending on how much is needed
to say. The reason why there isn't a lot of text in graphic novels because the point is that the
story is told through the illustrations. When reading a graphic novel you read from left to
right plus down. There are many different tools for understanding the different meanings for
example; balloons tails, connectors, burst balloons' and thought balloons.
6. X-Men
Very modern style
layout that is bursting
with creativity.
Colours separate
the illustrations to
keep the images in
order.
