Graphic Novels and How to Read Them

Okay, so recently, I’ve been interested in the differences between different types of graphic novels. This isn’t only because of a project that I’m doing for a class in college—it’s something I’ve been interested in for a while. For the sake of less confusion, I will be referring to the general genre as “illustrated books” in order to keep my categories straight.

Throughout the course of my research on the subject, both using outside sources and reading a great deal of graphic novels, I have narrowed the playing field into three categories within the “illustrated book” spectrum:

1. Japanese Manga
2.  Comic Books
3.  Graphic Novels

While these are certainly not the only categories (Korean Manhwa, and the new Superhero Story groups come to mind), but these are the main groups in my opinion. Depending on the category, I have found you have to employ different reading techniques in order to get the most out of the story or plot.

Step 1: What Am I Reading?

The first thing you have to do when reading an “illustrated book” is to figure out what exactly you are reading and looking at.

Japanese Manga

Manga are essentially Japanese comic books.  They are read “backwards” (right to left as opposed to left to right), and their plots are described in terms of “episodes” rather than “chapters” like a novel without pictures. This is due to how the original comic is published in Japan. While manga is sold in volume format here in the United States, in Japan manga is first published in magazines that include single episodes of many different comics. Only when a manga gets really popular do the episodes get published into volumes. Because of the way manga is published, each episode often has its own plot, so that readers can understand most of what is going on without having to read every previous episode. Once a manga is in volume form, the plot becomes more important.

Manga art is relatively easy to spot. In addition to being exclusively black and white, the characters traditionally have large eyes and small mouths. Not to mention the emotions they display are off the charts.

Comic Books

Similarly to manga, comic books are published in terms of episodes rather than chapters. As such, the overall series plot is not as important as the individual episode plot. That isn’t to say the overall plot isn’t important though; telling the plot in its entirely may just take 20 or 25 issues. Because comic books originated from the strip comics we see in the newspaper, they are traditionally sold as periodicals with magazine-style paper and staples (and even have an ISSN number instead of the ISBN book identifier) and often include advertisements to help cover the publishing cost. These advertisements can sometimes take up to a quarter of the actual pages in a comic book. Also like manga, many episodes of a comic book series can be brought together into a novel form.

Unfortunately, I have little to no experience in reading comic books. As such, most of the rest of the post will be about choosing and reading manga and graphic novels.

Graphic Novels

Unlike manga and comic books, graphic novels are not published in an episode format. Graphic novels are just that—novels with graphics to help tell the story. The plot is often more involved and needs to be told in a longer format (60-120 pages as opposed to the average 21-24 in a comic book) in order to cover the plot entirely. Often the plot is too involved for the story to be split into neat episodes like manga and comic books. Due to having an ISBN number, graphic novels are more readily available in mainstream bookstores as well. Graphic novels are also geared toward a more mature audience than comic books or manga, though elements of all three categories can appeal to older audiences.

Step 2: Judge the Book by Its Cover

You know the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Throw it away; forget about it (at least in the literal sense—it’s still a logical abstract adage for judging people most of the time).

Artwork

The next step in reading an “illustrated book” of any sort is to judge it by its artwork. If you don’ t like the artwork, find something different to read. The main point of an “illustrated book” is for the book itself to supply the pictures for the plot. If you don’t like the way the art is drawn or colored, put the book down. Trying to read an “illustrated book” that doesn’t appeal aesthetically is like trying to fit into the wrong size of clothes. It just doesn’t work, and if you force it, you are more uncomfortable in the long run than is absolutely necessary. You may have to flip through the book a few times as well, as some novels don’t have much to look at on the cover.

In other words, if you don’t like gore, don’t read a gory “illustrated book”. If you don’t like women being objectified, find a novel that doesn’t grossly overemphasize the size of the women’s breasts. Find artwork you like to prevent complaints later. Most of the time, no one wants to hear it, especially when you were the one to continue reading anyway.

Blurb

While you look at the wonderful (or not so wonderful) artwork, read the blurb on the back cover. Just like any other normal novel, the publisher provides a nice little summary of the book to help you decide whether or not the plot of the book will appeal to you. Just like the artwork, if the blurb doesn’t appeal to you, put the book down and find something more appealing. Life’s too short to read books that don’t appeal to you personally.

To go along with the blurb, figure out whether or not the novel is part of a series of volumes. If it is, I suggest reading the first volume first. This is especially true of graphic novels; manga is less dependent on volume order, at least in the beginning of the series.

Adaptation

Okay, this is something usually on the cover that I have found in my experience to give me some insight on whether or not to read an “illustrated book” or not. Many “illustrated books” are original stories that do not have actual written novels that go with them. Others are “adaptations.” Adaptations can come in both graphic novel and manga form. If you find an “illustrated book” that says “Art and Adaptation by” or “Adapted by” on the cover or inside the front flap, my suggestion would be to find and read the original novel before reading the graphic version. Much of the story is lost during the adaptation process and plot devices are sometimes hard to understand without the background knowledge a written novel provides.

Think of it as the difference between a book and its movie adaptation—the movie is almost never as good as the original book. Steer clear of adaptations unless you have already read the original.

Step 3: Read the Words

Trying to balance the text and the images is hard, especially when just starting to read “illustrated books”. In the case of graphic novels and manga, I always read the words on a page first. I’m a word-oriented person, so my focus is always drawn to words first. In the case of “illustrated books,” I derive most of my plot knowledge from what the characters say and the general narration of the story (speech bubbles and text boxes).

Graphic novels in particular aren't all that different from regular novels in terms of reading text. Yes, they have panels, but each panel can be read like a page by itself, reading the text from left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

Keep in mind that manga are read right-to-left as opposed to the left-to-right of graphic novels. Not only do the pages turn “backwards,” but the text bubbles and pictures are read "backwards" as well.

Step 4: Look at the Pretty Pictures

After I read the text provided on each 2-page spread, I then go back and look at the pictures provided to illustrate the plot. Over time and about ten pages, I usually get the characters’ faces stuck in my mind so that the pictures become less important as I read; I am able to keep the characters’ images in my head as I read the text, so I don’t need the images provided to me as much. This step also gives my time to really study the images to see if I missed anything while I was reading the text. Some 2-page spread have little to no text, so study the pictures is a must to understand the whole plot.

Usually, during this step, I try to disregard the text for the moment and pretend it isn't even there.

Step 5: Reread

As time-consuming as it is, I usually read the text on each 2-page spread again after I study the images. This allows me to connect speech bubbles with characters more readily and provide emotional nuance to speech that may have been incorrect before I studied the characters’ faces.

Step 6: Continue Reading 

Repeat steps 3-5 for the rest of the book. While reading an "illustrated book" may be difficult the first few times, practice does make perfect in this case. Continuing to read "illustrated books" in many formats is the only way to truly master reading them.

Unlike written novels, I find myself rereading “illustrated books” more readily over time. This is probably due to my background as an artist—if I read an “illustrated book” once, then the artwork was appealing enough to me to read and look at it again.

If you are interested in learning more about “illustrated books,” check out these websites and resources that I used to supplement my own knowledge:

About.com "Manga 101"

Encyclopedia Britannica "Graphic Novel"

KnowledgeNuts "Difference Between Comic Books and Graphic Novels"

wiseGEEK "What is the Difference Between Graphic Novels and Comic Books?"

O Brother, Where Art Thou? as compared to Homer's Odyssey

Hello World Wide Web!

         This is my first ever blog post, so I'm starting by posting something that I already had written for a college class. My classical mythology class required us to watch a movie, play, or television show based on mythology and then review (1) how accurately it portrayed the myth and (2) whether or not it was any good. As such, one of my family’s favorite films to watch is O Brother, Where Art Thou?

         When I heard in class that it was based off of Homer’s The Odyssey, I thought, “Really? Go figure,” and decided to watch it once again, this time listening and keeping in mind that the film supposedly told the same story as the poem. Fortunately, I have read Homer’s The Odyssey before; unfortunately, it has been five years since then, and I certainly was not reading the epic poem for analysis purposes at the time. Due to this, most of the connections made between the film and the poem will be made with the aid of Arthur Fairbanks’s The Mythology of Greece and Rome (which can be found on Googlebooks), though some details come from my vague remembrances of my personal reading. As such, while I can see many parallels between O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey, the film is not a mythically accurate one by any means, even though it is such a great movie that I do not mind watching it time and time again in order to notice new ideas and details.

         First of all, the general premise for both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the same. Not only is the general storyline remarkably similar, but also Homer is even given credit as one of the writers for the film—I wonder if anyone thought to ask him about that. The film even begins with the opening lines of The Odyssey: “O muse! / Sing in me, and through me tell the story / Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending, / A wanderer, harried for years on end . . .” The main plot is the same in both. Our hero, who has been imprisoned, breaks free and journeys home to his wife. On the journey, many trials, hijinks, and detours occur that delay his return back home. Certain events and characters harken back to Homer’s The Odyssey within the film, as well as some small details that were thrown in here and there just to remind the viewer, if watching close enough, that the epic poem was the basis of the story.

         The main characters in both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? have the same name, cementing the parallels between the two. Homer’s Odysseus is in fact reincarnated in Ulysses Everett McGill, as “Ulysses” is simply the Latin form of “Odysseus.” In the film, the main characters—

Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson)—only truly begin their journey by hopping onto a railcar being moved by a blind black man. This man proceeds to tell the trio some details of their future journey, including telling them that the “treasure” they seek may not be the one they look for. This prophet figure parallels with the soul of Teiresias, who Odysseus sought out to learn about the trials during his journey home before they actually happened in order to avoid them if possible. Both the film and the poem include sirens, 

beautiful women—or half-women—whose singing voices charm men and cause them to do things that they normally would not do. In The Odyssey, Odysseus and companions are able to pass by them without issue due to the advice of Teiresias, but O Brother’s Everett, Pete, and Delmar are not so lucky. Pete supposedly is transformed into a horny toad, much to Delmar’s dismay. The idea of transformation of the hero’s companions occurs in The Odyssey as well through Circe’s transforming of Odysseus’s companions into swine. Fortunately, the swine are eventually turned back into men. Unfortunately, “Pete” the toad in O Brother is later squished by the film’s Cyclops character 

Big Dan Teague, a large one-eyed monster that loves to eat meat. Homer’s Polyphemus kills the main character’s companions in a different but slightly more gruesome way—he simply eats them.

         While the journeys home in both The Odyssey and O Brother, Where Art Thou? include many parallels, the trials that Odysseus and Everett face once returning home are extremely similar, with many parallels happening within a small space of time. First, both main characters return home to find that others are courting their wives and that their wives are not exactly discouraging them. Of course, Penelope discourages her suitors for as long as she can, while Penny—another strikingly similar name for the reincarnation of a character—does all she can to keep her ex-husband away in order to provide for her daughters with a more worthy suitor. Both main characters have to use a disguise in order to sneak inside someplace to see their wives. Odysseus sneaks inside his own house while Everett sneaks inside a political rally. The disguise they both use is that of a beggar or homeless wanderer. 

The wife of both characters also sets an impossible task for the husband to do to make sure he is home for good. In The Odyssey, Penelope brings out Odysseus’s bow and a line of double axes, proclaiming that the suitor who can shoot the arrow through all of the axe heads will be her husband. Only Odysseus, who is still in disguise, is able to complete the challenge, leading to the happy reuniting of husband and wife. In O Brother, Penny tells Everett to retrieve their old wedding ring from their cabin, which she says is in a roll-top desk. After a short series of unfortunate events, Everett returns with the ring from the desk only to find it is the wrong ring. Penny then declares that Everett has to find the real ring, which is at the bottom of a very large lake at this point; a challenge that Everett proclaims is “one hell of a heroic task.”

         In addition to similar plot devices in both the film and the poem, there are small details in the film that relate back to the original myth. The personality of the main character is one such detail. Both Odysseus and Everett are smooth-talking, intelligent men who can find an answer for any question asked and a solution for any problem they come across. Unfortunately, I believe that this comes at the price of their morality. Both are on a journey back to see their wives, but neither of them have anything against sleeping with other women on the way home. Odysseus, if I am remembering correctly, manages to find the time to have some fun with nymphs and princesses, while Everett intends to sleep with one of the sirens from the river. After finding Pete missing, Everett acknowledges that having sex probably would not have been a good thing, but, as Delmar says, he was “fixin’ to fornicate.” Another small detail that could be easily overlooked in O Brother, Where Art Thou? was the name of the candidate for governor, Homer Stokes. I assume that this inclusion of the original plot’s author is similar to how Stan Lee is incorporated into all of his superhero movies, but only a name was used since Homer himself is no longer with us, having died over 2,000 years ago. Other details are more vague. Both The Odyssey and O Brother include a water-related natural hazard. Odysseus has to navigate around the whirlpool of Charybdis, and Everett has to swim through a flood brought about by the building of a dam. Another reference is not even Greek, but it does trace back to ancient Rome. When Everett learns that his daughters are using his wife’s maiden name, he declares that he is the pater familias, a Latin term used in Roman society for basically the head of a household.

         As described, there are many parallels and similarities between Homer’s The Odyssey and the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Even as I make these connections, though, I have to acknowledge that the film was a modern remake and many of the plot details, such as the setting and the time period, would be mythically incorrect. Originally, The Odyssey takes place in the Mediterranean and the various islands found throughout the sea. Odysseus’s journey takes ten years after the Trojan War around 12^th century BCE. O Brother puts the setting in a more relatable, at least to American audiences, rural Mississippi with small towns, cows, and all. The timing is during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which contributes to why Penny is looking for a suitor that can support her and her daughters and why George Nelson is traveling the countryside robbing banks. Someone watching the film that has knowledge of The Odyssey also has to acknowledge that Homer’s epic poem is a myth. Yes, there are probably parts of the poem based off real history—a war between Greece and Troy—but the majority of the content is not historically accurate. In comparison, O Brother is more historical than mythical, using real historical events—the Great Depression—to outline the characters’ motivations and costumes to match the time period chosen for the setting.

         Despite the details that link The Odyssey to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the completely different settings and time periods, I would recommend O Brother, Where Art Thou? to almost anyone, which is something I have certainly done in the past. The depression of the time period when it is set is overlaid by the multitude of comedic events in the film. These events range from small, such as the repeated “Damn, we’re in a tight spot!” near the beginning when the trio is being smoked out of Pete’s cousin’s barn, to longer and more involved, such as Everett’s frequent exclamations of “My hair!” and obsession with “Dapper Dan” hair pomade that eventually leads to him being tracked down using his hair treatment’s smell. The comedy also reaches from the dark, such as the accidental coming-across of a Ku Klux Klan rally and subsequent disguise as “colored” color guards, to more light-hearted, such as the “He’s a suitor!” proclamation and the “Do you have a maiden name, Daddy?” question of the Wharvey gals. O Brother also appeals to me as an ex-choir member and life-long singer through its many catchy songs. While the film cannot be considered a musical by any means, the soundtrack is so enjoyable that my family owns a copy that we had bought almost immediately after watching the film for the first time. Not only does a song—“Man of Constant Sorrow”—contribute to Everett’s wife’s acceptance of him, but singing is used to emphasize the mood in other scenes, specifically “Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby” during the siren scene and “Lonesome Valley” during the near-hanging scene at the end of the film. Both the comedy and the musical numbers are major reasons that I believe that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great film to see even if the audience knows nothing about Homer’s The Odyssey.

         On a side note, over fall break I actually heard "Man of Constant Sorrow" over the radio in a deli I ate lunch at during a trip. I busted out laughing (and singing of course!).