Joy Lawn - Frame by frame: Understanding the appeal of the graphic novel

Need to make sure that we are using correct terminology when talking about graphic novels and keep the vocabulary constant throughout the school.
Good resource to learn about them - Scott McCloud Making Comics (written and illustrated in a graphic novel format)
Also useful

• Michele Gorman Getting Graphic (expensive)
  
• Nat Gertler & Greg Holfeld Creating a Graphic Novel
  

Two distinct features of graphic novels

• Panels - the pictures on the page which can be rectangular or irregular
• Frames - the borders around the pictures (like picture frames)

Learning to read a graphic novel is different to reading normal text. Can give insight into how it feels to learn to read.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival has received worldwide acclaim and has legitimised the place of the graphic novel in literature.

What are graphic novels?
Many ways to describe as below but terms are still fluid

• type of comic
• sequential art - but that could be on a wall
• natural progression from comic but also a picture book
  
• something between a picture book and a comic
• fiction with panelling
• narrative art
• graphic narrative
• visual narrative (Shaun Tan's preferred term)
• frames are the key - graphic novels have frames

Appeal to the reluctant reader

• they're new
• visual format is appealing and captures audience
  
• they appear less dense
  
• trick them into reading

Like a movie the graphic novel uses elements such as storyboarding, close ups, point of view and camera angle.

Aspects to look at in a Graphic Novel
Formats

• Colour or b&w
• Words or wordless
• Speech and thought bubbles or not

Shots

• Establishing shots - often at start of book, quite a big picture
• Camera angle - bird's eye view, high view
• Distance - e.g. close-up, medium shot, long shot

Panels and panelling

• Size
• Splash panel or page (whole page), double spalsh (double page)
• Shape - rectangle, irregular

Frames

• Framed or frameless (vignettes)
• Frame breaking - when character is coming out of the frame
• Point of view - what or whose are you seeing

Some good examples of graphic novels
Lechner, John Sticky Burr
Watson, Andi Glister the family tree
Batman: The Story of the Dark Knight
Bampton, Clare Pop-up Dracula
Weisner, David Sector 7
Clarke, John Dennison Enough is Enough
Wooding, Chris Malice: You can't escape (Secondary level)
Jurevicius, Nathan Scarygirl
Yang, Gene Luen American Born Chinese
Phelan, Matt Storm in the Barn
Spiegelman, Art Maus (Sec level)
Gaiman, Neil Wolves in the Wall (Upper Primary/Sec level)
Ottley, Matt Requiem for a Beast (Sec level)
Weisner, David Tuesday
Weisner, David Flotsam
Weisner, David The Three Pigs
Hale, Shannon Rapunzel's Revenge
Hale, Shannon Calamity Jack
Williams, Marcia Oliver Twist and Other Great Dickens Stories
Colfer, Eoin & Donkin, Andrew Artemis Fowl
Myer, Stephenie Twilight

Joy also referred to multimodal texts and the concept of linguistic semiotics ( reading words) and visual semiotics (reading visuals like film, gaming, internet). She referred to the new literacies - visual, auditory, spatial and gestural.