Graphic Narrative

Hayley Roberts

Children's Books• Picture books (0-5 years) – When the child is 0-5, they won’t be able to really read and when they reach 5 they will

only be beginners and will only know limited vocabulary so it’ll be harder for them to understand really. When you’re a baby, the book will only be images to express the story so they will be used with illustrations so that it’s visually interesting for the child and so they can see the images properly. It will also be more cartoons when the child reaches 5 so that it’s fun and interactive for them. By having images, it will tell the story as well as the words so they are vital for the child when they start reaching 5 to have mainly images over the writing so that they can understand the story with the images.

• Early reader books (5-7 years) – When you get to the age of 5, you start to read some words with basic grammar and nothing too complex so you can understand what the story is about with maybe some words that you struggle with. The books are designed with images and this is what the books mainly contain but they also have some words alongside the images that are there to explain the story.

• Chapter books (7-12 years) – When you reach 7, you are starting to read books with a lot more words in it but they will have shorter chapters so that it breaks the words down for the child. But now with limited imagery so there won’t be as many images in the book now so it’s mainly reading the writing to understand the story. When you reach 9, this is when the child will be reading books with longer chapters and there will be only a few images within the book and this will help their reading skills.

• Young adult fiction (13-18 years) – When they start reaching the age of 13, they will be able to see what style of book they like (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, fairytale, sci-fi) and they can judge what books they want to read on this. They will be able to understand character plots and the setting and style of books and so they will be then reading books with a lot more writing and hardly any images to no images within the book. They can read the books without having the images as a guide to help them understand the story and their vocabulary will grow with the age and once they reach 18, they will be able to understand the books completely without struggling.

Traditional Literature • Traditional literature involves myths, legends, folklore and fairytales. Most of these include using the following

techniques to appeal to the audience:• Anthropomorphism – This is when objects or even animals will share human characteristics that wouldn’t appear in

everyday life and you would not see. This is something that makes it more interesting and fun for the children and makes really cute animals, act like humans and this is something that doesn’t happen today. For example, in the film Shrek, the cat walks and talks and it even wears clothes and this is something that doesn’t happen in real life. It also does human activities which isn’t possible but it makes it enjoyable and really fun to watch.

• Magic – Magic is always a good element to have in a book because it makes the children believe in it and it always has a positive and exciting element to the book so they don’t get bored. It’s really common to have magic in fairytales and there isn’t a fairytale out there that doesn’t have some form of magic in it. In the fairytale Cinderella, the fairy godmother actually uses magic to change things (such as a pumpkin and mice) and this turns them into really nice things that will help her get to the ball and has a happy ending and positive outlook on the whole book.

• Happy endings – When reading a book for children, there is always a happy ending to it to make the book happy and to solve all the issues that had happened in the book. This stops the child from having such a scarred effect from reading the book and so they can have a positive outlook on the book and not feel too unhappy reading it. With them being so young, having an unhappy ending would really effect them because they may carry this experience on with them when they grow up.

• Stereotypes – Stereotypes are added to the book so that the book has a realistic effect to the book as there is a lot of stereotypical elements in life. In fairytales, the stereotypical elements are that the mum and dad of the princess will be married and happy and then there will always be somebody there to try and take over the princess’s life because they think they should be able to rule the kingdom. Then that person will be killed and the princess will find true love and they again will live really happy and this also links with happy endings.

Fonts Used• The common fonts that are used for a book are Times Roman, Garamond

and Baskerville. These are all really easy to read and have a very traditional feel to the fonts and they work really well for books. Also with the curves and the very clean lines in the text, it helps it stand out and flow better on a whole for the book. Children’s books will also have a serif font which has really clean and easy lines that don’t look too complex and stand out on the page. When you are writing a book, you need a font that is going to be really easy for the children to read and see without struggling. If they start to struggle they will lose interest and won’t be bothered in reading it. When you read a serif font, the lines in the font guide you to the next letter and word so it flows a lot easier too and then the children won’t struggle as much to understand the words and will help their reading skills. Arial is a font that should be avoided for the main text because it’s really bold and doesn’t flow as well as other fonts so it could become confusing for the children and harder for them to read the font.

Examples of Children’s Books

Books By Age

A book designed for the ages between 0-5 years

A book designed for the ages between 5-7 years

A book designed for the ages between 7-12 years

A book designed for the ages between 13-18 years

Graphic Novels• There is no actual set age for graphic novels so it can be children all the way up to

older adults that read the books. They come in a wide variety so there is some for children and some for teens and adults and they can be bought by anyone too. They have them for a range of genres too so depending on what you like to read there will be a graphic novel for it and will be a different and fun way to read it compared to a book. The imagery for graphic novels are quite experimental and sometimes sketchy and not exactly perfect because they are mainly drawn by people. But then sometimes they can follow quite a traditional comic book look so they look really old and vintage and the style of the drawings are slightly different to a more modern one, but it still can be very experimental. They are accepted in libraries quite a bit now whereas before they wouldn’t allow this so there is an increasing demand for graphic novels and people find them really interesting to read because it’s reading the images rather than the text. They are quite long are graphic novels and they use the same printing methods to books and go through the same technique. They are sold in comic book shops rather than newsagents and a lot can be sold in bookstores (such as WHSmiths).

Layout of a Graphic Novel• Illustration in a book is really important in graphic novels because you are

relying on the images rather than the text to tell the story. It also helps set scenes and tones in the images because you can see the tones in the imagery and the different scenes. You don’t want a lot of text when your working on a novel so you need to make sure the images tell the story for you and the scenes are right and it’s all in the correct order. The text is just for description and dialog so there shouldn’t be much room for it and should be a majority of the room left for imagery.

• There are a range of styles of illustration that you can have for graphic novels. You can have black and white imagery and it can be sketched and have a very rough but accurate look on the scenes and the setting. It could be a really bold black and this will create a real strong contrast in the work. Collages can be used for the imagery so there is a lot of imagery so it will be one after another and will work really well. It can be in colour too so there can be coloured imagery too.

Examples of Graphic NovelsSome people start to write graphic novels when they get inspired by certain films or

TV series and so this is why so many graphic novels are released. They then continue to write them to create a series of different graphic novels and so that they all link together and have a theme through them. There are a range of different graphic novels out but the main well known examples are:

• Watchmen• V for Vendetta• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen• Batman• Superman• Spiderman• The Walking Dead• Scott Pilgrim• 300• From Hell

Examples of Graphic Novels

Doctor WhoSpiderman

Superman

The Walking Dead300

Watchman

Batman

David McKean

• The work of Dave McKean is some of the most experimental work in graphic novels. He works with a mixture a different mediums including drawing, painting, photography, collage, digital art and sculpture.

His work includes:• Cages• Batman Arkham Asylum• Mr Punch• Signal to noise• Violent cases

Different Text Layouts• Joining balloons with connectors – You can use this in two scenarios if it’s needed to be used and it is

done when there are two separate thoughts or speeches said one after another one. Then it can also be used when there are two characters are speaking in a panel and the conversation is flowing and constantly being thrown back and forth. This is what

• Balloon tails – When using balloon tails, they need to be put so the end of the bubble should be placed so it is coming out the characters mouth. If there isn’t an end to the bubble against the character’s mouth, it wouldn’t show who is talking and it would confuse the reader. Balloon tails are used for speech bubbles and this will need to end at the character’s mouth. Burst balloons – Burst balloons are express when someone is screaming their dialogue and this is something that needs to be emphasised so that it expresses the emotions they are getting across in the burst balloons. By highlighting certain words in a bold font and this will help the word stand out if it needs to be stood out. Sometimes the words can be enlarged and even underlined to help the words be emphasised even more and this helps it stand out more on the page too. Thought balloons – Thought balloons aren’t used as much now as they used to do because there are normally narrative captions now so they don’t really have the room for the thought balloon with the captions. But they can still be used and the end of the thought balloon is similar to the speech balloon and it needs to end where the characters head is so that you can see it is their thought and who is thinking it, rather than leaving it in mid air. It shouldn’t trail back to the characters mouth as it isn’t a speech balloon but needs to end at the persons head. It also has three smaller bubbles trailing towards the head of the character to make it seem like a thought is occurring.

Different Text LayoutsThere are four types of captions in comic books:Location & Time – These are placed in captions and are generally the same font as the

other dialogue in captions and can sometimes be italicised. Internal Monologue – The internal monologue are the inner voice of a character and they

are normally italicised. They can be in captions and sometimes used in thought bubbles but with captions taking over thought bubbles, they are mainly used for captions now.

Spoken Captions – The spoken captions are the speech from a character that isn’t seen in the book at that point so they aren’t italicised. They have special use of quotation marks so

Narrative captions – This is when the voice of the writer or the editor is expressed and is telling either some of the story or a situation and again this can be italicised.

Layout• The really early comic books were just the standard set up and was really

simple and easy. It had a grid format which had boarders around them to create panels and boxes. It was always reading left to right so it had this format to make it easier for the audience to read because they could follow the story as if it was like reading a book. On a page, it is normally the 6 and 9 panel grids and if you are using the 9 panel grid it is normally easier because you can fit more of the story on each page so it is better to spread it out like that and save using more paper for the whole novel. The dialogue in the comic books also need to flow with the left to right reading and how you want the audience to read it. They may start to get confused if you put them in the order you didn’t want them to read it because the speech wouldn’t flow as well and the thoughts may be read too early and before the speech. It needs to be done in the right order and by putting the thought and speech bubbles right on the line, it’ll work a lot better and flow better. The drawings in the comic book are what draw the attention to the book with the bright and cartoon look to it.