NOTE: This webpage provides resources for this course. It is NOT the course syllabus and DOES NOT provide information about course assignments, requirements, or expectations. Please consult the course syllabus for this information.
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Course Focus
The focus of this course is action research and application of theory into practice. Specifically, we will investigate the forms and affordances traditional print stories might assume as they are remediated into evolving contexts associated with digital graphic novels.
The previous version of this course focused on two questions
Can digital graphic novels productively promote social conscious and civic engagement?
If so, what forms might digital graphic novels assume?
The first question drove the action research portion of the course. The second question, investigated by production of digital graphic novels, promoted theory into practice.
Background
This course evolves from an earlier course focusing on visual culture: a field of study within cultural studies focusing on aspects of culture that rely on visual images and their ability to communicate ideas quickly and effectively. Visual culture often overlaps with film or television studies and may include the study of video games, comics, traditional artistic media, advertising, the Internet, and other media that employ crucial visual components. Visual culture can be defined across a broad spectrum:
Narrow/Specific Definition
Visual culture is the tactic with which to study the genealogy, definition, and functions of postmodern everyday life from the point of view of the consumer, rather than the producer.
Middle Definition
A fluid interpretative structure for understanding response to visual media of both individuals and groups.
Broad/General Definition
Visual culture is concerned with visual events in which information, meaning, or pleasure is sought by the consumer in an interface with visual technology (any form or apparatus designed to be looked at or enhance natural vision: oil painting to television to Internet).
Basis for Visual Culture
Visual culture is important because it provides the context for so much of our daily lives. This stems from two factors
The remarkable human ability to absorb and interpret the ever increasing bombardment of visual information
Growing tendency to visualize things that are not in themselves visual, or cannot be seen
Digital Display of Visual Information
Visual culture certainly benefits from increased and new opportunities for the display of visual information through various digital mediums. Web 1.0, for example, is noted for its delivery of multimedia (including visual) within static web pages. On the other hand, Web 2.0, interactive Internet-based technologies such as wikis, social networking (e.g., Facebook), collaborative social constructions (e.g., online multiplayer games), blogs, micro-blogs (e.g., Twitter), video-sharing (e.g., YouTube), social bookmarking sites, and others, is characterized by its ability to promote social, interactive collaboration/construction/sharing of content.
Web 2.0
The affordances of Web 2.0 prompt many voices collaborating through the dynamic structure of the networks to create, communicate, and connect the spaces, shapes, and artifacts of a social, online, digital culture. With Web 2.0 the emphasis is no longer on the ability of an individual or organization to determine and push out a narrative to the many, but rather the social collaborative ability of the many to create, distribute, and validate the narrative themselves. The results are already, and will continue to be, unique, and interesting, especially as they are applied to cultural artifacts already in place/use.
Graphic novels are an excellent example. As artists and writers and publishers of graphic novels move to embrace the many affordances of Web 2.0, is it possible to conceive of digital graphic novels that productively promote social conscious and civic engagement? If so, what forms, might they take?
Ancillary to these primary research questions are several contextual considerations. Specifically . . .
What stories regarding social conscious and civic engagement might be told using digital graphic novels that cannot be told in other mediums?
How will these stories be told?
Who will tell these stories?
What form(s) might we expect from graphic novels as they are remediated by various digital media?
How will we access ("read") digital graphic novels? What platforms will we use? Will some be better than others? If so, why?
Beyond the "WOW factor," what benefits/capabilities will digital graphic novels provide to users/interactors/participants?
What new methodologies for "reading" digital graphic novels might we expect?
Will these methodologies preserve or change our current approach to a particular literacy associated with graphic novels?
Assuming preservation, how will it work?
Assuming change, what will it affect, and how?
How might new, digital, forms of the graphic novel, beyond a new income stream for their authors or publishers, provide benefit to the analogue world?
What problems might they solve? What value might they provide?
Defining Terms
Graphic novels are not generally considered "comics" or "comic books" even though they employ many characteristics from both mediums. The basic characteristics of cartoons, comics, and comic books, and how they inform graphic novels, are outlined below.
Cartoons
Cartoons are a visual approach to communication that generally involves a simplified or reduced-detail drawing of a person or situation, often combined with words and meant to focus on specific details, or messages. The result: amplification through simplification (Scott McCloud Understanding Comics 30).
Comics
Comics (or, comic strips) are a medium that may employ but at the same time transcend the cartoon visual style to tell an expanded, often continuing, serial story through the use of juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information or to produce aesthetic response in the viewer (McCloud Understanding Comics 9).
Comic books
Comic books are serial stories told with sequential images, usually combined with text, often printed on newsprint, collected, and stapled between covers. Most comic books are published monthly and are intended for quick distribution and consumption. They tell only a portion of a larger, longer, continuing story.
Graphic novels
Generally speaking, graphic novels are long-form works in the medium of comics noted for their ability to juxtapose images, text, visual rhetoric, and multiple literacies over a perceived timeframe to create a believable and sustainable narrative engagement with the reader. Graphic novels cover a range of forms and origins. On one hand, they are often collected serial comics published in a higher quality format—slick paper, additional features, perfect binding, paperback covers. On the other hand, graphic novels can be purposeful long-form work in the medium of comics where the author/illustrator desires to tell a complete, deeper, richer story than is possible through traditional comics forms.
The key characteristics of graphic novels are
Graphic novels are longer because they expand on comic book conventions of sequential, visual narrative. They tell a complete story by providing, in one unit, a beginning, a middle, and an end to the narrative.
Graphic novels strive for a simple, pared-down style and avoid tricky angles and perspectives (Charles McGrath, "Not Funnies" The New York Times Magazine 11 July 2004: 30). This is a conscious attempt to put narrative first, and to distance graphic novels from the more mainstream eye-candy associated with comics and juvenile literature. This same process has played out in photography, film, and music as each strived to evolve itself into a high art form.
Graphic novels tend to have authorial integrity—a unique vision—often absent in comics. Rather than produced assembly-line style, graphic novels are often the work of one artist/writer striving to create something substantial and uniquely their own.
Graphic novels are often written for mature readers. Their themes are often more introspective and may revise or reinvigorate a traditional / familiar theme in a new or compelling way. Additionally, the language / visual images / subjects of graphic novels may be darker, and to some, offensive.
Noted comic writer and illustrator Jennifer Abel has produced a two-part definition/explanation of graphic novels which you can download as .PDF files: Graphic Novels Part 1 HERE and Graphic Novels Part 2 HERE
Digital Technologies and Graphic Novels
Various forms of digital technologies may be used to augment the creation, production, and distribution of print-based graphic novels. The term "digital graphic novels" in often used in this context. But, for the purpose of this class, we will define "digital graphic novels" as those produced and consumed by some form of computer technology (free-standing, online, or networked). Such digital graphic novels are intended for various computer-based or facilitated contexts. Their existence or utilization outside these contexts is often difficult, if not impossible. As a result, digital graphic novels may be substantially different in nature than the more traditional print-based version with which we are familiar. As noted above, questions associated with the form, utilization, and interactivity afforded graphic novels by digital technologies are interesting, and help form the research basis for this course.
Course Rationale
This course is an appropriate focus for research and practice in creative media and digital culture for several reasons.
Graphic novels combine and juxtapose images, text, visual rhetoric, and multiple literacies to create a richly vernacular yet easily accessible narrative medium.
As a narrative form, graphic novels promote the telling of a variety of stories, from historical accounts to poignant memoirs, from biography to autobiography, from journalism to fantasy and science fiction, from humor to musings on modern life.
Graphic novels invite readers to dwell, to reflect, and to meditate inside a communication space where the pace and tone of interaction with the medium are pliant and controlled by the reader/interactor. This intrinsically increased sensory and interactive relation to narrative components provides a level of intimacy with a medium unmatched by cinema, television, theater, audio recording, or prose-only text (Sean Howe. "Introduction." Give Our Regards To the Atomsmashers: Writers on Comics. New York: Pantheon Books, 2004. ix-x)
Through compelling visual, textual, and narrative rhetoric, graphic novels expose readers/interactors to transformative, mind-changing epiphanial experiences heretofore reserved for other forms of text.
Graphic novels represent a cultural artifact undergoing significant and interesting changes as the traditional print-based forms are remediated by the socially collaborative digital multimedia narrative affordances of Web 2.0.
As suggested by the research focus of this course, graphic novels might prove effective media for promoting social conscious and civic engagement.
For these reasons, digital graphic novels represent an accessible and vernacular narrative medium that provides an interesting and challenging research laboratory in which to examine and experiment with their transformation from print to pixels.
Course Goals and Objectives
This course is integral to the overall vision for The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program and so is aligned with the CMDC Program Goals and Objectives. The specific CMDC program goals this course is intended to meet, as well as the objectives for each, are detailed below.
Program Goal #4
Understand the production and assessment of media objects by
Investigating the remediation of traditional artifacts, like books or other print-based experiences, as interactive artifacts more suited for the kinesthetic nature of new media
Producing visual narratives in both digital an analog contexts
Program Goal #7
Recognize various forms of language processing and their implications for media authoring by
Exploring the utilization of new media forms for the production and distribution of visual narratives
Understanding that sequences of images are a language form that can be used to communicate multiple, complex concepts
Program Goal #9
Utilize an interdisciplinary perspective in order to understand the basics of social, economic, and education changes brought about by digital media by
Applying the theory that primary understanding is visual rather than textual
Investigating various applications of digital technology and culture that speak to cultural constructs or ways of visualizing
The assignments and activities associated with this course reflect these goals and objectives and serve to assist students reaching these program goals.
The original version of this graphic novel was published as a webcomic in Smith Magazine. The link above leads to this version. The expanded analogue version is published by Pantheon. In either case, this is one of clearest portraits of post-Katrina New Orleans yet published. Focusing on six individuals who represent a cross section of New Orleans, this nonfiction account follows their lives before and after Hurricane Katrina. From losing all their possessions, to facing the flooding, to being trapped in the Convention Center, to evacuating and not being able to return home—their stories are here, all told in graphic novel form. An excellent example of how a graphic novel can incorporate investigative reporting and social conscious to produce narratives about and by people affected by the worst life can throw at them. This graphic novel is the Campus Reading Project for 2010-2011 academic year.
Online Resources for A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge
The first complete original graphic novel to be published exclusively on the iPhone, and also available for the iPad. The story unfolds, in real time, over the course of ten days and involves the use of text messaging, email, and geolocation to provide narrative development and facilitate the narrative development. This graphic novel is the source for what will surely be future innovations for digitally published narrative. NOTE: A .PDF version is available for those students without iPhones or iPads. See below.
Online Resources for The Carrier
Download the .PDF version of The Carrier
This is a .PDF file of the iPad version of this graphic novel, and does not include any of digital extras or time-based formatting of the iPhone version. It does, however, give you a chance to see and read this digital graphic novel even if you do not have an iPhone or iPad.
Bound by Law?
Written and illustrated by Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins. Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
An excellent introduction to copyright law in a graphic novel format. Akiko, a filmmaker wants to capture a day in the life of New York City. She learns about copyright basics, including fair use and public domain. She also learns about the increasing pressure for any creator to obtain rights to use copyrighted materials, even for incidental uses where such rights were not required in the past. Read in HTML format, flipping one page at a time. Read as a Flash animation with a built in page-flipper and magnifying tool. Or, download the entire graphic novel in .PDF format. You can also download text-free pages and insert your own narrative or translation.
Recommended Texts
Reinventing Comics
Scott McCloud. Paradox Press, 2000.
ISBN 6194122097
As the subtitle says, "How imagination and technology are revolutionizing an art form." More information online at Scott McCloud.com
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Scott McCloud. HarperPerennial, 1994.
ISBN 0-06-097625-X
The subtitle reads, "The invisible art," and McCloud makes it extremely visible. Good discussion of how comics work, with many examples. The entire book is presented as a comic. More information online at Scott McCloud.com. Watch an interesting TED talk by McCloud in which he discusses the spatial context of comics, "as you move through space you move through time . . . comics can be broken . . . can we go beyond this format and design by looking at a computer as a window instead of a page?"
NOTE: A copy of this book is on reserve in the WSUV Library. Look for it under the course professor's name.
During the Great Depression, the comic industry invented superheroes to battle aliens and other threats. Now, during the Great Recession those same superheroes are facing very different challenges: Rising unemployment. Expanding personal debt prisons. The highest income inequality of all time. Down but not out, these superheroes struggle to make their way in a world where the old truths still apply . . . but only for those at the very top. Against incredible odds, jobless crusader Unemployed Man and his sidekick Plan B embark on a heroic search for work-and quickly find themselves waging an epic battle against The Just Us League, a dastardly group of supervillains including The Human Resource, Toxic Debt Blob, Pink Slip and The Invisible Hand. The link above leads to the official website where you can preview several pages from this graphic novel.
Barefoot Gen
Written and illustrated by Keiji Nakazawa. Last Gasp.
The story of a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.
Pride of Baghdad
Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by Niko Henrichon. Vertigo.
The story of a pride of lions who escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during the American bombing in 2003. Their story raises questions about the true meaning of freedom: can it be given, or is it only earned through self-determination. To view a ten-page preview of "Pride of Baghdad," visit The Official Pride of Baghdad MySpace Page and friend the Pride of Baghdad profile. Once you've been "friended," you'll receive access to the preview.
A difficult story about the gruesome genocide in Rwanda. A masterful narrative about one of the darkest periods in human history. A portion of the graphic novel is available to read online.
The 9/11 Commission Report is the official report of the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 attacks. This graphic novel is an abridged graphic novel adaptation of the report. Read the first chapter online. Also check out "The Sept. 11 Commission Report as Graphic Novel" NPR interview.
Tuesday
Henrik Rehr. Kim-Rehr Productions.
Originally published as a two-issue comic, but later combined with Tribeca Sunset Part 1 and 2 to form the graphic novel Tribeca Sunset. Recounts the author's experience on 11 September 2001 living just blocks from the catastrophe. This is the first detailed, long form narrative by someone living through the events of the day. Read an excellent review, "I Can See It Now," by Time.com comics columnist Andrew D. Arnold.
During the war between Serbs and Bosnians in what was once Yugoslavia, Gorazade was declared a safe haven for nearly 60,000 Bosnians. Far from safe, their lives were in constant danger as Gorazade was cut off behind enemy lines, protected only by UN forces while the rest of the world turned its back. Joe Sacco was there and his particular style of graphic reporting is spot on. The link above leads to a review in The Guardian.
Palestine
Written and illustrated by Joe Sacco. Fantographic Books.
This is Sacco's breakthrough book of graphic journalism, the graphic novel where he sets the standard for navigating socially and politically sensitive subject matter using the comic medium. A collection of nine stories first published in comic form in 1993 in which Sacco portrays the history and plight of Palestianians struggling for dignity and survival in the Isreali occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The link above leads to an interview with Joe Sacco published in Al Jazerra, the world's first news channel headquarted in the Middle East with the stated objective "to give voice to untold stories, promote debate, and challenge established perceptions." Read another interview with Joe Sacco in January Magazine.
Louis Real
Written and illustrated by Chester Brown. Drawn & Quarterly.
The biography of the nineteenth century Métis leader whose struggle to win rights for his people led to violent rebellion on the Canadian frontier. The link above leads to the Drawn & Quarterly catalog where you can download a sample of the graphic novel as a .PDF file. Time.com interview with Chester Brown.
King
Written and illustrated by Ho Che Anderson. Fantographic Books.
A biography of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., originally published in three separate volumes and now available in a collected special edition. The link above leads to the Ho Che Anderson page in the Fantographic catalog. Follow the link to "The Special Edition" and download the 18-page .PDF preview. Also check out the interesting video preview. Ho Che Anderson website.
Troubled Souls
Written by Garth Ennis; Illustrated by John McCea. Fleetway.
Two men and their lives during the seemingly endless conflict between Northern Ireland and Britain. The link above leads to the Scans_Daily website where you can view several pages from this graphic novel. Audio interviews with Garth Ennis that you can stream or download.
When the Wind Blows
Written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs. Penguin.
Using government-issued pamphlets, an elderly couple builds a shelter and prepares for nuclear war. They soon realize that the information provided by their government is worthless. A chilling and devastating book that provides as eloquent a protest against nuclear proliferation and nuclear war as anyone would want, or need. An animated film adaptation of the graphic novel was released in 1986 with a soundtrack produced and composed by Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), David Bowie, and others. More information is available at the Roger Waters website.
Stuck Rubber Baby
Written and illustrated by Howard Cruse. Paradox Fiction.
The story of a young man growing up in a rural Southern town during the 1960s. In addition to the passion and violence associated with the Viet Nam War and Civil Rights, each of which touch his life in significant ways, Toland Polk must also fight a more personal battle, to accept that he is gay. Although relatively unknown, and very much underrated, Stuck Rubber Baby is one of the most important graphic novels ever written. A web adaptation of the printed teaser promoting the book's first publication in 1995 is available HERE.
Shooting War
Written by Anthony Lappe, illustrated by Dan Goldman. Smith Magazine.
A video blogger becomes an overnight sensation when he is thrust into capturing the fighting in Baghdad, Iraq. This graphic novel presents a satirical narrative on American media and its view of foreign policy. As a result, readers may question the ethics of their country, their media, and the hidden agendas behind the conflict in Iraq. This link takes you to the original, unedited online webcomic. This material was later collected, and augmented, and then published as a traditional printed book.
This graphic novel provides an interesting window on our course themes of social conscious and civic engagement by their apparent absence. The Likasi Acute Rabies Syndrome (LARS) virus has been around long enough for zombie outbreaks to become commonplace. These outbreaks have been limited to third world countries and so the United States and Europe feel a sense of safety, detachment, and apathy. But, a Class 2 outbreak in the Congo becomes apocalyptic and may force the people of other nations to consider social conscious and civic engagement as they work to keep their countries/communities alive, or ignore others and try to survive alone.
Zahra's Paradise
Written and illustrated by "Amir and Khalil. First Second.
Following protests in Iran in 2009, Mehdi, a young protestor disappears. His mother and brother, a blogger and story narrator, search the streets and morgues for any sign of Mehdi. As it progresses, the story explores many points of Iranian history, the secrecy surrounding the government, the lack of freedoms for its citizens, and the intense love of a mother for her son. A comment section is provided for each page and the author actively responds, even extends the narration to delve into events referenced in the story. New material every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Supernatural Law
Written and illustrated by Batton Lash. Exhibit A Press.
Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, is a law firm representing supernatural misfits. Oftentimes, however, the law is not the best solution, as when a woman murdered by her husband returns as a zombie. What at first would appear the perfect case for the prosecution—the victim can identify her murderer%#8212;runs afoul of the law which cannot be changed for this unique situation.
2024
Written and illustrated by Ted Rall. NBM Books.
Any notion of social conscious and civic engagement are completely eradicated from the future world depicted by Ted Rall, a world where the combined nations of Canada, The United States, and Mexico are run by corporations rather than governments. No individual thought is allowed. Mass-mediated group-think, powered by a constant barrage of advertisements, slogans, and web television programming dictating what citizens (consumers) want, need, and where to get both. Much like the dystopian George Orwell novel, 1984, Rall's graphic novel focuses on the dangers associated with the absence of thought and encourages readers to take a stand, to speak out, constantly, in order to be heard.
Americus
Written by M.K. Reed, illustrated by Jonathan Hill
Published by First Second
Neil Barton, a teenager growing up in Oklahoma City, fights to keep his favorite fantasy series, The Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde, in the public library. In this sense, this web-based comic speaks well to the ideas of censorship, book banning, and knee-jerk reactions by "concerned citizens."
Recommended digital graphic novels and techniques
Digital graphic novels are available in a variety of forms and formats, with which you should be familiar in order to best inform your own endeavors. The following readings are available online and represent a variety of reading formats. Special requirements are noted. Unless for subsequent issues in a series, these texts are generally available free of charge. No purchase of special reading devices is required but without the ability to read these example texts, student experience will not be as rewarding, or meaningful.
Web-based
Traditional panel
La Muse
Adi Tantimedh and Hugo Petrus. Big Head Press.
The story of two sisters: Susan and Libby La Muse. Susan is a sexy, fun-loving political activist for the environment, human rights and an end to poverty. She is also an alien. When her extraordinary abilities are accidentally caught on video, she suddenly finds herself the biggest celebrity in the world. Her straight-laced sister Libby is desperate to keep the world from finding out they're aliens, and becomes her agent to keep her wild hedonistic ways under control. But Susan has other ideas . . .
The Hook
by Mike Baron Gabe Eltaeb. Big Head Press.
When music is outlawed, musicians will learn to kick ass. Science fiction rocks.
The Probability Broach
Written by L. Neil Smith; Illustrated by Scott Bieser. Big Head Press.
The story of Detective Win Bear who, while investigating the murder of a physicist, is accidentally blown sideways in time—to a world where the air is clean, both poverty and government are practically non-existent, and everybody carries guns! The promise of libertarianism for a more peaceful, prosperous world. Includes talking gorillas, parallel worlds, and lots of action.
One chapter for each episode of the NBC television series, now approaching 200. Read online in an interactive format, or download a printable version in .PDF format.
Slide show / viewer
NYC2123 Dayender
Written by Chad Allen; Illustrated by Paco Allen
In 2054 a massive tsunami devastates Manhattan. The island's bridges and tunnels are destroyed. Two years of riots follow. Outlaw barge cities from in the waters around Manhattan, trafficking in illegal cybernetic body modifications and open source drugs. In 2065 the construction of a 20-meter-high barrier, known simply as "The Wall," encircling what is left of Manhattan is completed and martial law is declared. A sense of normalcy returns to parts of Manhattan, but the barge cities continue to thrive and the neighborhoods above 59th Street remain lawless and squalid. Small bands of mercenary hackers and cyborg street fighters, "nano-mobs," arise out of this chaos. They operate outside the law and without protection from the city's crime bosses.
Read online as a single panel slide show. Also available as a download for Sony Playstation Portable (PSP). Source files are available for download as well, as is the opportunity to translate, mashup, and distribute freely. Everything covered by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
This online graphic novel is updated daily to include Lefler's "general ramblings about art, life, visual narration and the film business."
Check out the navigation on this one: direct access to all chapters, as well as sidebars on the numerous characters surrounding the main viewing window.
Roswell, Texas
Written by L. Neil Smith and Rex F. May; Illustrated by Scott Bieser. Big Head Press.
Imagine a world in which Texas never joined the United States, Nazi Germany conquered England but was held in check by a nuclear-armed Irish Republican Army, the Catholic Church has moved its headquarters to Brownsville, Texas, and Mexico is ruled by a neo-Aztec emperor in partnership with French colonial bureaucrats-in-exile. A special team of Texas Rangers races an array of spies, troops, and operatives of neighboring nations to a UFO crash site, and discover a truth even stranger than any of them could have imagined.
TimePeeper
Written by L. Neil Smith and Sherard Jackson. Big Head Press.
Three high school students from 2075 take a trip to the past to find the timepeeper, a time travel device, they lost earlier. Their time travels create a number of problems for their present, forcing them to think about the future implications of their present (or past) actions.
Instead of one linear story, Meanwhile splits off into many different adventures. At times you will have a choice of which branch you would like to follow. Your choice may lead to success . . . or disaster.
A series of stories presented in a text-based choose your own adventure format. Readers advance through the pages by clicking links that read like commands they would type in a text prompt box. Generally the character will respond to that command on the next page. Readers can also provide suggestions for these commands through a suggestion box. Problem Sleuth is a good place to start. It is the longest adventure, and the only complete adventure to date. Homestuck is the current adventure and is interesting for its incorporation of music into the story. This music is collaboratively produced by the readers.
As the cover reads, "This thrilling issue features . . . Monstrosities! Space travel! Fisticuffs! Penguins!"
Also featured is the "Chaos Navigation Bar" which jumps you around the narrative depending on which wormhole you choose. Chaos in name and function, this one is really interesting!
Scrolling
The Spiders
Written and illustrated by Patrick Sean Farley. Electric Sheep Comix.
An alternative history of the US invasion of Afghanistan. Al Gore is President of the United States and ordinary citizens can view the war through web cams carried by roving robotic "spiders" dispersed into Afghanistan by the U.S. Army.
Available in both a scrolling format for iPad, iPhone, and other handheld devices, as well as a more traditional page-by-page format powered by WordPress (includes an RSS feed).
A webcomic strip by Drew Weing that effectively uses horizontal and vertical scrolling. Several examples are available at this archive. See especially "Heat Death" for an incredible horizontal scrolling experience. Weing's comic is based on "Pup," a short-lived comic strip begun by Rudolph Wechsler 1921 and generally dismissed as a "Krazy-Kat" rip off.
A number of experiments with one goal: "to bend the rules of sequential storytelling, illustration and computer coloring" according to Jasen Lex who utilizes collage art within some of his comics and modifies the traditional panel to allow it better to represent a more continuous movement through time. See especially "The Facts / The Truth" where Lex undertakes an introspection of his father's sudden death through the combination of newspaper clippings, drawings, and photographs. The other examples of Lex's work are equally interesting and informative.
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey is a leading comic creator experimenting with both fiction and comics in the more traditional webcomic form and what he calls a "hypercomics" format. His experiments are archived at his website, and each is worth looking at and considering.
Combines text, illustration, music, animation, and interactivity into a panoramic, flash-based, side-scrolling panoramic digital graphic novel. Follows Harley Chambers as he explores the futuristic City of NAWLZ, engaging in overlaying virtual realities, mind control with experimental software, hallucinogenic drugs, and surgical upgrades to his brain. The dissolution between the real and the imaginary is significant with regard to digital culture, which we are coming to think of more and more as real. This is a pretty amazing experience!
A stylized motion comic based on the graphic novel by Jacaman and Matz that offers a combination of animation, still images, selective movement, music, and sounds. The reader can interact with the story by clicking images and moving items around.
Beside the standard flash interface of clicking anywhere within one panel to advance to the next, readers can choose between several suggested soundtracks for each chapter. These soundtracks play in the background as readers advance through the narrative.
A very interesting example of the use of scale models and clay sculptures which are then photographed and presented as individual panels. The overall effect is the feeling of viewing life-sized environments.
iPhone
There are a number of graphic novels created or adapted for the iPhone. Some are free, some are not. Many experiment with user-specified navigation features. Here are some recommendations
The first complete original graphic novel to be published exclusively on the iPhone, and also available for the iPad. The story unfolds, in real time, over the course of ten days and involves the use of text messaging, email, and geolocation to provide narrative development and facilitate the narrative development. This graphic novel is the source for what will surely be future innovations for digitally published narrative.
A GPS-based comics story for iPhone and iPad that expands and explores the comic canvas and the idea of location-based comics. The reader must move through and interact with the physical world referred to in the comic. The reader must experience sensory details (smells, sounds, or objects) in the surrounding physical world in order to understand the meaning(s) of the comic frame provided on her smartphone. As a result, the reader becomes one of the characters in the story, thus increasing the opportunity for content creation.
A science fiction/cyberpunk digital comic developed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch that incorporates sounds, music, and action. The Prologue is a free download from the iPhone app store. Additional chapters are for sale. The plot: In the future, music and other activities are forbidden. A group of people bound by destiny fight to change the rules of this oppressive system. The link above leads to a YouTube trailer.
iPad
A number of iPhone graphic novels have been adapted for the iPad. Others were purpose built to take advantage of the unique features of the iPad, like its incredible resolution. In other cases, readers built for the iPad provide the interface for experiencing these digital graphic novels.
Inspired by Stephen Kinzer's All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror this digital graphic novel claims to be the first one purpose built for the iPad. Based on a true story of the CIA's involvement in the Middle East and the roots of the modern American conflict with Iran. Readers can view animated graphics and find historical photos and original documents, without leaving the narrative. An interesting review is HERE
Robot Comics is a digital comics publisher for hand-helds: Apple's iPhone, Google's Android, Nintendo DSi and Amazon's Kindle. We offer titles specifically designed to be read on e-devices. Download free comics and graphic novels from their website (above), the iTunes Store, or the Android Market.
A site-specific comics installation in the University of California Botanical Garden featuring twenty original comics printed on ceramic tiles. Each comic is location-based and refers to a nearby plant, view, or a detail in the physical environment. Visitors use a map to find all twenty comics and then can create their own comic plant story on the back of the map.
San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) featured three posters by Ellingson depicting explore children's imagination in the BART system. In each drawing, a young rider sees something unusual going on but the adults around aren't aware. Taken together, the three posters represent a unique and interesting form of the graphic novel. The artwork was displayed in BART stations throughout the Bay Area until the end of October 2010.
A British street artist with an international reputation for his graffiti-like work, both inside and outside, shows and explains some of his best works. These individual works are, alone, more comic than graphic novel, but, through the presence and interaction of a viewer, their narratives expand to become both deeper and richer in content and connection.
An online journal of daily observations in comic, collage, and watercolor form. Samanci has recorded her daily observations in this manner since 24 January 2006.
As the comics medium is transported from print to pixel, there are opportunities to merge its conventions with those of film, animation, and performance. This project focuses on full bodied interaction to promote performance and embodiment as a form of digital narrative. There is also a high degree of DIY here.
Remediated from games and other formats
Digital graphic novels may be remediated from digital games, or purpose-created to support these games by acting as transitions between or in lieu of different versions. The question is intriguing: "What/where is the boundary between digital graphic novels and other forms of digital storytelling like games, movies, videos, etc.?" Some interesting examples include
Dead Space: Ignition
by Visceral Games and Sumo Digital and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation and Xbox
Combines an arcade game featuring three computer hacking games in an interacive comic-style game. The survival horror action puzzle format is designed to connect with other games in the Dead Space game franchise, and specifically acts as a prequel to Dead Space 2. Although participants do not control a character, they must participate in various real-time computer hacking scenarios in order to advance the narrative. Each success provides goodies that can be used in Dead Space 2. Each scenario utilizes animation and voice over audio. The link above leads to information and images at the joystiq website.
The website calls Shikha "a multimedia graphic novel [realized entirely] in 3D computer graphics." The graphic novel is distributed via CD, although a special analogue edition was published in Heavy Metal magazine.
Although lacking text and word balloons, this video animation is a solid example of how we might remediate digital games into digital graphic novels. The idea here is to provide enough background regarding Mass Effect, the original game for PlayStation, so that players can take up Mass Effect 2 without feeling lost. This comic utilizes sequential art, animated to make it appear as a video to update players, and provides six decision points where they can effectively choose their own adventure. Features voice over narration. Be sure and watch the video sample provided by the link above.
Interesting use of narrative techniques
Various digital tools provide a number of different and very interesting ways to incorporate narrative into digital graphic novels. Some interesting examples include
Originally serialized on the web from June-December 1995, this series is now collected and archived as an online graphic novel. Click on any character to read their narrative thoughts, all within the same panel. This approach to narrative seems to provide a much richer, and deeper, telling of the story than is possible in traditional, one dimensional narrative where we hear from one character and then another in a predetermined order. It was quite radical, in 1995, to be able to click on different parts of an image and invoke different information. Even today, we don't see this technique used so much.
A video interview in the Wall Street Journal with Parisian comic artist Etienne Lecroart who designs comics that can be read upside down, backwards, and inside out. He belongs to a group called OuBaPo, the Experimental Comics Workshop.
Fieffer, Jules. The Great Comic Book Heroes.
A semi-psychological and autobiographical examination of the medium from its earliest days.
Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geek, Gansters, and the Birth of the Comic Book.
Examines the history of creators, publishers, and more of comics
Kunzle, David. The Early Comic Strip. University of California Press, 1973.
2 volumes. Historical background for early comic strips, picture stories, and narratives strips in European broadsheets. Presents the art of comics to a non-academic audience well.
Sabin, Roger. Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art.
Vanum, Robin. The Language of Comics: Word and Image.
Wright, Bradford. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Comics: Graphic or Visual Narrative/Language
Brunetti, Ivan, editor. An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. Yale University Press.
Brilliantly edited by cartoonist Brunetti, this two volume set features everyone who is anyone in the post-underground world of comics for adults, including up-to-the minute new work. With both full color and black and white stories, the Anthology has something for every level of interest, but makes for a particularly fine introductory book to the many possibilities of the medium.
Cohn, Neil. What Is Visual Language?
A website maintained by Cohn, graduate student in pyschology at Tufts University, features his research on the cognitive and linguistic processes behind comics and how sequential images can become, literally, a language, just like words in a sequence.
Church, Kevin, Ed Cunard, and Chris Tamarri. Graphic Language
A blog dedicated to interviews on the subject of comics: "What we talk about when we talk about comics."
Two sets of comics collected by English faculty member Paul Brians, now cataloged and available through the Library's Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.
A comprehensive set of underground comix
A specialized collection of comic books about nuclear war (which relates to the collection of nuclear war fiction also found in the library)
The online finding aid is listed under "Manuscripts" HERE
Click on "Brians, Paul Comics Collection, 1950-2004"
Details the four factors (the purpose and character of your use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market) generally focused on fair use of copyrighted materials.
Electronic Publishing
"Creating ePub Files with Pages"
ePub is an open ebook standard produced by the International Digital Publishing Forum (see below). Pages ’09 lets you export your documents in ePub format for reading with iBooks on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. iBooks supports both ePub and PDF file formats, and you can export both from Pages.
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
The trades and standards association for the digital publishing industry. Their website provides lots of information about how publishers can produce and publish digital works, as well as how consumers can read and operate digital books and other publications on various devices and platforms.
Graphic Novels: Guides / Information Resources
Gravett, Paul. Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know. New York: HaperCollins, 2005.
ISBN 0-06-082425-5
As the subtitle says: "Everything You Need to Know."
Preiss, Bryon and Howard Zimmerman, eds. The Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics, and Manga. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2005.
ISBN 0-312-34326-4
A collection of the best this year. Good introductory reader for those just getting started.
Rothschile, D. Alviva. Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics. Libraries Unlimited, 1995.
ISBN: 978-1563080869
Weiner, Stephen. The Rise of the Graphic Novel. New York: Nantier, Beal, Minoustchine, 2003.
ISBN 1-5613-368-2
The author, a librarian, selects graphic novels over a broad range of genres. Provides biographies and bibliographies.
Weiner, Stephen. The 101 Best Graphic Novels. New York: Nantier, Beal, Minoustchine, 2001.
Graphic Novels: Interesting Utilizations
Roads Forward
A guide to New York City taxis and service for both customers and drivers.
Graphic Novels: Reviews
Graphic Novel Reviews
Independent opinions by Johanna Draper Carlson and friends. A massive number of graphic novel reviews available here searchable by both title and publisher.
Graphic Novel Review
This blog provides reviews of book-length comics for the casual reader. Use the navigation menu at the right to select a category, author, or publisher of interest.
You know this no nonsense series of straight-forward guides. Both authors have an impressive number of comics and graphic novels to their credit. A good starting resource.
The subtitle reads, "The invisible art," and McCloud makes it extremely visible. Good discussion of how comics work, with many examples. The entire book is presented as a comic. More information online at Scott McCloud.com
The master of comic book writing shares his thoughts on how to produce a top-notch script.
Rollins, Prentis. The Making of a Graphic Novel. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2006.
Printed as a flip book with an original science fiction graphic novel, The Resonator.
Location-based Narratives / Games
These location-based narratives/games, several designed specifically for play on mobile telephones, can very useful as we consider forms location-based graphic novels might take.
The Nokia Games
(1995-2005)
A series of alternate reality games designed primarily to promote the latest Nokia mobile telephones, involved communication between players through various forms of mass media and featured storylines that changed each year. Each game lasted 3-4 weeks.
An interactive web game designed to promote the film A.I., an unfinished film project of Stanley Kubrick, directed by Steven Spielberg, and released in the United States on 29 June 2001. Elan Lee and Sean Stewart, lead designers, both of Microsoft, seeded the initial clues and puzzles throughout the World Wide Web. A discussion group eventually claiming more than 7,000 members called Cloudmakers formed on 11 April 2001 to solve the puzzles and fill in the details of the game. They solved the game on 24 July 2001.
A game, by Blast Theory, played online in a virtual city and on the streets of an actual city. Online and street players collaborate to find Uncle Roy's office before being invited to make a year-long commitment to a total stranger. Building on Can You See Me Now? (2001), Uncle Roy investigates some of the social changes brought about by ubiquitous mobile devices, persistent access to a network, and location aware technologies.
An alternate reality game created and developed by 42 Entertainment to serve as both real world experience and a viral marketing campaign for the video game Halo 2. First advertised in a subliminal message in the Halo 2 trailer, players who visited the website ilovebees.com found it apparently hacked by a mysterious intelligence. Playing the game involved solving puzzles to reveal the backstory involving an artificial intelligence apparently from a crash-landed military spacecraft and its attempts to repair damages suffered in the crash. Launched in August 2004, over three million people viewed the website and thousands of people around the world played the game during the three months it was active.
"A collaborative research and educational platform for traveling back in time to explore the historical layers of city spaces in an interactive, hypermedia environment."
Positions the audience/user/narrator as the ellipses (. . .) the points between the narrative action: "Voices are being heard on cell phones . . .."43
Music Video
Austerlitz, Saul. Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007.
Goodwin, Andrew. Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Taylor, Leonie, ed. Reinventing Music Video: Next-Generation Directors, their Inspiration and Work.
An article by Bryan Alexander and Alan Levine, originally published in Educasue Review, in which they discuss the concepts of telling stories using Web 2.0 tools, technologies, and strategies, especially as such projects are identified by microcontent and social media. See also the open wiki discussion that accompanied the article.
Using digital media, there should be many ways to tell the same story. This webpage presents 50+ web-based tools, grouped in categories, you can use to create digital stories. The same story is told with each tool, illustrating the point that, "there is more than one way to tell a story." NOTE: These are not current tools, but they should provide you with many ideas for how to produce your own digital stories.
Tools for Creating Digital Graphic Novels
ImageTexT
A web-based journal committed to advancing the academic study of comic books, comic strips, and animated cartoons (www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/)
Comic Strip Creator
Emphasis on structured dialog rather than free form image composition; two characters per panel maximum; Encourages blocking out dialog within constraints of context.
Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling is the practice of combing narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video to create a narrative structure (movie, slide show, live performance) with a strong emotional component. This primer details seven things you should know about Digital Storytelling. A good, basic resource.
Tutorial: Storyboard
A straight-forward tutorial that shows how to use Microsoft Word to create a storyboard in which you can include both text and images.
Copyright
A straight-forward document prepared by the library staff. Features sources for public domain or "some rights reserved" visual, audio, and video media that you can use for your projects.
Storyrobe
An iPhone application that let's you create and share stories using photographs on your mobile telephone. Download from the iTunes Store.
Strip Designer
Create comic strips using photographs on your iPhone. Add and position text balloons. Paint on your photographs, or draw from scratch. Once finished, email your comic strip, or upload it to Facebook, or Tweet it via Twitter. Also, export as a .PDF file to create comic books. Download from the iTunes Store.
Visual Culture
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. An Introduction to Visual Culture. London: Routledge, 1999.
ISBN 0-415-15876-1
An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of visual culture. Traces the history and theory of visual culture from painting to the World Wide Web. Suggests that our primary way of understanding the world is visual, not textual.
Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
ISBN-10: 0198742711
ISBN-13: 978-0198742715
Visual Display of Information
Tufte, Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CN: Graphics Press, 1983.
A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge
The Carrier
