Storytelling: Comic Books

The past two years or so I've spent a LOT of time thinking about the modern art of storytelling - basically, who tells stories and how they tell them. We've never had more ways of getting stories out there than we do right now. Most of my thoughts have focused on WHY a story should be told a certain way. Here are some of the conclusions I've come to.

We'll move on to my OTHER favorite medium: COMIC BOOKS

Seriously, I LOVE comics - so much so that I now have more graphic novels and trade paperbacks than actual BOOKS. Part of that appeal is, of course, deeply rooted in my love for all things Batman. But, I promise, there's a lot more to comics than just that.

The basic concept of the comic is pretty simple to grasp: draw a picture to tell a story, and maybe add a caption or some word balloons if more elaboration is needed. And most comics ARE simplistic - just open your newspaper and take a look (if you still actually get the newspaper). It's partially the simplistic nature of comics that lead a lot of people to think comics are just for kids.

(It's probably the juvenile subject matter that leads the rest of everyone to that same conclusion).

When done right, done well, and done thoughtfully, though, comics are capable of great things. I consider comics to be one of the two great underdeveloped storytelling media (the other one, believe it or not, is the video game), but comics are maturing VERY quickly. Consider David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp.

The story of Asterios Polyp is nothing new - a conceited architecture professor doesn't realize how much his hubris has cost him until a personal tragedy forces him to move to a mostly idyllic community where he learns humility and decides to try to reconnect with the people he's alienated. What makes the story special, though, is how Mazzucchelli puts together pictures and words to tell a story in a way that simply WOULDN'T work outside of the comic format.

Each character has a distinctive visual style, complete with distinctive lettering for their word bubbles, that actually helps to establish and expand their characters. The pictures and words play off each other in a way that would not work in any other medium.

That's the real trick in adapting a story to fit one medium or another - the adaptation should work in the new medium in a way it couldn't before.

People (re: Hollywood) look at comics like ready-made storyboards - which is kinda true, but, at the same time, too simplistic. Surprisingly, some of the comic's greatest strengths come from the use of still pictures as opposed to moving picture. Comic panels are easy to juxtapose (and, in the case of some fourth-wall shattering artists, destroy). Surreal images are FAR easier to analyze and comprehend when they are sitting on the page in front of you rather than scurrying across a TV screen.

Beautiful AND violent. What's not to like?

The biggest problem facing comics right now is an almost complete lack of respect from the popular consciousness. Unlike poetry, which people still acknowledge as being "artistic" but simply don't care about anymore, comics have nearly always been considered "low art." A few titles, like Maus and Persepolis, are starting to buck that trend, but comics by and large are still on the fringe.

Of course, that may be due to the fact that the vast majority of comics are NOT VERY GOOD. Yes, SOME comics take advantage of the medium, deftly weaving images and words together to create a unique narrative experience. SOME comics create powerful images that stand up to hours of scrutiny and examination.

But, then again, SOME comics...

So you want to tell a story. Why write a comic?

• Ability to bring in both words and pictures to tell a story.
• Simple to create, but the ambitious can add a lot of depth.
• Lots of room for experimentation.
• Comics are a new field - the good ideas HAVEN'T all been taken.