Graphic Novels

Throughout my life I didn’t read many graphic novels. I have always read some of the “funny section” in the newspaper, and I read a few Archie comics, but nothing like these graphic novels from class. I must say that I was not a huge fan of the experience of reading graphic novels, other than the ones I read as a kid. I discussed this feeling with a couple classmates, and we came to the conclusion that we don’t really like that a graphic novel gives you all the information. The great thing about books is that you can use your imagination and think about what the story and characters look like. We felt that the graphic novels kind of took away that experience.

I read a handful of graphic novels, including Optic Nerve, Hate, Bone, Acme, and Wimbledon Green. There were a couple that had similar tones and voices. I would like to talk about Optic Nerve and Acme specifically, though. In these two stories the tone is not necessarily angry, but it is most definitely not happy. There doesn’t seem to be any chance of happiness in them. I really think the author’s voice comes out through the characters. Normally authors try to stay out of the characters a little bit so they are not all the same, but in this case I think there are so many similarities between the character’s attitude that I think it is the author’s voice more than anything.

The characters in Optic Nerve and Acme are very unsettling. They do not seem to care about anything but their selves, and they almost seem to be searching for happiness, but they won’t find it. In Optic Nerve one of the characters is depressed and thinks that finding a woman will make him happier, but he just stays depressed because he can’t stop comparing himself to a self-centered man who just uses women. In Acme the main character is this child who talks like an adult. He does not want to listen to anyone and he just tries to control people. All of these characters are very much in to themselves and the way all of them talk is very similar. Since the way they all talk is very similar in a lot of ways, I think they are the author’s voice. All of these stories are very interesting because they are all so unhappy and just strange.