Graphic Novels, and Stress

[ivyblossom]

I've put the Graphic Novel project behind me for the most part, because the first draft is finished, and while I have some ideas for some middle-of-the-story-lag revision, I don't have complete ideas about it, so I'm leaving it alone. I've moved back to my non-graphic novel project now, the one that's just text, no pictures, and I'm trying to take some of what I learned with me. I took one look at the thing and thought, hmm, bones aren't bad, but rip rip rip, paste, slash, paste, it could be better. I've decided to focus only on bits of dialogue and descriptions of the action, and nothing else. So far I still understand that it's an outline and it's relatively painless to look at something and decide that I don't like it, or that it needs to move. So far so good.

But in the meantime boniblithe sent me some manga and that's given me some things to think about. Before the manga arrived, my only real experiences with graphic novels were Maus and a tiny bit of Sandman (thanks aldiara! And yes, you WILL get them back!). Reading the manga (I really like Death Note) showed me some things.

They're so FAST. I mean I read them fast. Go go go go go what happens next? It's really interesting to experience just glancing at the pictures and get what I need to know. I'm impressed by that process. I'm curious to see if the thing I wrote will work in this format; it was an experiment, and I'm happy that it's a collaborative one, because I have no idea if I wrote something that would work like this. But I trust that my collaborator can tell me what needs fixing. While working on it I went on the assumption that images are powerful and there's no such thing as relying on the artist too much, but given how much time I spent looking at each picture, I wonder.

But then, I wonder if the joy of a graphic novel is in multiple readings. Maybe the first time through you just burn through it to see what happens, and then you can go back and really explore the images and spend time with the whole thing? I don't know what the process is.

Am I making stuff up again? If you like graphic novels, tell me: do you run through them fast? Do you reread them?

In other news: the house purchase thing has me pretty overwhelmed. I think all the work is done, I'm just waiting to hear from my lawyer, but the whole thing is more stressful in ways I wouldn't have imagined. The idea of packing stresses me out. The idea of the move stresses me out. The paperwork stresses me out. Waiting for the call stresses me out. Worrying that I've missed something stresses me out.

People constantly asking me if I'm excited, and waiting for me to squeal and jump up and down; that too stresses me out.

There's just no pleasing some people, eh?

Comments

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I definitely whip through a new manga book quickly, reading the words and glancing only briefly at the pictures. And then I read it again, savoring both, since I usually have to wait to get the next one when it comes out.

Which is why the artistic part of it becomes so important - the artist can lead your eye by the way the panels are drawn and positioned, can direct you in certain ways, ensure you don't miss things. telophase has an excellent series of links and essays she's written herself handily indexed in this post (http://telophase.livejournal.com/113219.html) (this alone should give away the fact that she's also a librarian).

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

She is? I didn't know that!

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

When I send you these paint booklets I will also send you a copy of the manga book that she and rachelmanija did. Then you can admire her art and Rach's plotting how much of teh gay sex can be squeezed into a panel.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

LOL! Awesome! I feel that I have let you down by including no actually sex in the graphic novel script. Though perhaps the artist will throw some in for fun. I wouldn't put it past her.

this is suiichi with pink hair

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

That's what fanfic (and doujinshi) are for :)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I iz a stealth librarian muahahahahahaaaa!

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I admire stealth in a woman. *admires*