Passage IV

The Construction of a Graphic Novel

[1]

The story begins at my cluttered wooden desk, where I write in whatever space I can clear among the haphazard stacks of sketchbooks, photos, and comics. I jot down notes about characters and plots, collecting recurring images and themes as I go. Eventually, a story line I can imagine as a graphic novel emerges. I keep scribbling until I’ve written a full first draft. When I was younger, I preferred stories about superheroes in space. (46) I approach that draft one chapter at a time and carve out the plot, taking away text until only the barest framework had been left.

[2]

Once the story is solid, I swivel my chair around and face the gleaming, white, surface of my tilted, drawing table. [A] I map out a storyboard, limiting myself to five or six sentences per page. The sentences are accompanied by a series of: thumbnails, small panels that I use to experiment with the sequence of images. Because graphic novels demand such economy of language, I often deviate from a strictly chronological narrative. [B] Devoting even a single panel to a flashback of an event in a character’s past can reveal a motivation that might have taken a whole page of words to explain.

[3]

(53) A circular panel that features a close-up of a character’s shocked face, for example, emphasizes the emotion; it creates an entirely different effect than a rectangle containing a wide view of a character in a crowd. [C] I work in pencil at this stage, constantly making adjustments to get each image just right I tilt the angle of one character’s torso to suggest her distrust of the woman sitting next to her. I sharpen the lines of a character’s tightened jaw to give away the anger behind his seemingly polite reply. [D] Each visual detail is as vital to the narrative as any word.

[4]

[1] Over weeks and months, that stack becomes heavy, its weight a satisfying affirmation of my progress. [2] When I’m ready to fully commit the story to the paper, I uncap a pen and then ink every penciled line. [3] The finished pages pile up steadily. (58)