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

[applekid.livejournal.com]

My two absolute favorite manga, which I can get for you if you like:

Monster (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591166411/sr=1-1/qid=1153883921/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0160826-5717750?ie=UTF8&s=books)

Blame! (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008FPIMW/ref=pd_sim_b_2/102-0160826-5717750?ie=UTF8)

And a great sampling from all different genres from porn to ghost stories is available here for download via BitTorrent:

kotonoha's oneshots (http://kotonoha.monkey-pirate.com/one-shots/?PHPSESSID=186c7924f025b140f40a43bb1096dd31)

All of these are a great, high quality way to get used to reading manga-style storytelling. Just remember to go right to left. ;)

Honestly, a lot of the stuff that gets translated here is just yucky fanservicey garbage for teenagers. The boy/boy stuff tends to be some of the worst available, too (Gravitation and Fake both give me stomach cramps), so maybe I can find you some good fan-translated shorts to read... hmm...

[applekid.livejournal.com]

i have some zips to send you, 11 megs worth. can your regular addy hold them, or shall i send them to your gmail?

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

My regular addy can totally hold them. :) YAYS!

[applekid.livejournal.com]

oops... that blame link goes to the wrong thing, i meant for it to go to the manga (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595328343/sr=8-1/qid=1153889707/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0160826-5717750?ie=UTF8).

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

Wow, of course the art is all stunning. I should get some intense-art manga, just in case. *loves on*

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Saiyuki is pretty intense on the art. Minekura is well known for drawing angular, pretty boys, and making them suffer. I'll point you to some artbook scans here (http://impression.jahannam.net/) (note the lovely Yuki and pink-haired Suiichi at the top). Tokyo Babylon is also quite pretty.

Angel Sanctuary has great art too, but the plotlines are on crack. CRACK. You can see artbook scans at the same link above.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

OK, don't look at the Saiyuki scans there, as she has apparently gotten rid of all the good ones. But the Angel Sanctuary are still there.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

OMG, is that Monster zip available for sending to people not!Ivy? I keep hearing such good things. And it has doctors in it! Which is perfect for Ivy! LOL

[applekid.livejournal.com]

sure, if i can figure out how to get it to ivy in the first place! :) after looking at the folder, Monster is like 600 megs total. i don't have anywhere to upload files that large. i wonder if any of the free fileshare sites will take it? i'll look around...

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

yousendit.com?

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

YouSendIt will take up to a GB.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'll ever entirely understand why I have so many health professionals in my stories.