In preparation for your Alice comics, we discussed the format of the graphic novel. A graphic novel is a novel that uses images and words to tell a story. Someone added, “It is almost like a movie split into several parts.”
Similarities between a regular novel and a graphic novel:
- Both tell a (fictional or non-fictional) story
- Both have characters (like actors in a movie)
- Both have a plot and a setting
- Most of the time, they both have words
- Both have creators
Differences:
- Graphic novels use pictures!
- Graphic novels use captions to describe what is happening (settings, background information, or to help express the passage of time).
- They also use speech bubbles when characters are speaking to one another.
- Thought bubbles communicate characters’ ideas.
- Sometimes, speech bubbles are drawn in a way to represent emotions, like surprise, anger, excitement. Sometimes different kinds of speech bubbles are always used with the same characters to represent their personalities. The size, shape, and design of bubbles help to communicate emotions and traits.
- You can show sound effects with images (and words) in a graphic novel.
- Different colors can also convey emotion.
- Pictures and words are enclosed into panels, which may take many forms and sizes. The space between the panels is called the gutter.
- We looked at several examples of how graphic novels mark the passage of time and motion.
- We also examined how to represent the five senses and emotion.
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