Fiction Chapter

Rubie Beltrán 

Prof. Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3104-134

31 may 2018

Fiction Chapter 

   Like every other literary fiction (or even non-fiction) story, graphic fiction will always feature a main character. Of course, it is up to the author himself if they want to feature more than one central character, since graphic fiction is mainly tricky in that aspect because to some it may seem like every detail is important in a graphic fiction image. The visual elements are the key to any graphic story. The elements and detailing in graphic literature creates these interactions with the characters in scene and with the readers to engage in understanding what the author is trying to convey through the images and dialogue. The most important elements used by an artist are the characters facial expressions and overall body language as to accurately portray human qualities. "An image is worth more than a thousand words." This quote brings truth to this matter since you can tell just by looking at how a character is feeling or maybe even predict how they will feel as the story progresses. 

   Graphic literature, to me, is a work of carefully thought out art pieces. It has a meaning behind. It may not show from the first look because the beauty of art is always the hidden messages and it is always exciting to try and decipher the author's meaning. On the other hand, I think it is equally stimulating to just look at images and appreciate the author's work of art because often times we want to look at beautiful images, not really meaning to analyze it. And I feel as if authors have many different styles pertaining the images because they are all different. I believe the author's main idea is always to tell a story and by telling a story they are also using different sets of imagery to catch the reader's attention.

   Of course, the styles are very important in regards to matching the overall plot in each graphic. As I've said, every author has a different style and methods when creating a graphic. Some may decide that they want their graphic to be black and white to convey a certain emotion or even a time period, for example, the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, it is completely black and white, even though I've yet to confirm this, I believe was trying to contrast the past in his graphic memoir. Or when reading a very vivid and colorful graphic novel such as Paper Girls by Bryan K. Vaughan, the colorful images seem to draw you in and intrigue you further on until the very end, and you still feel the urge to skim through the pages to see how every color interacted with the characters and such.

   Overall, graphic novels are amazing to have around on your reading list or on a bookshelf in your house. I've yet to delve into the graphic novel "hype" but I very much get the appeal towards them and how effectively stimulating it is to train your eyes as if looking for clues to a puzzle you are trying to figure out.