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Graphic Novels vs.

ComicsGraphic Novel Features in Comic Strips

Today we will be looking at comic books through the features with which we have been analyzing graphic novels.

Speech bubbles – used to convey conversations and what characters are saying

Though bubbles- used to show what characters are thinking

Narration boxes/text – used to help readers understand what’s happening in the scene

Onomatopoeia – used to convey sound effects Punctuation – helps to further express emotions

Textual Features

Colors – How do the colors help to tell the story? How do the colors differ in different texts?

Light and darkness – Does the amount of light or darkness change how you read the scene? 

How the frames (boxes) are arranged and shaped – Why did the artist choose to structure the page the way it was structured?

Visual Features

Unique style of the artist – Does the understanding and evaluation of the visuals change depending on the artist?

How action is intensified – Does the artwork make a scene more powerful? 

How space is utilized – Is all the space used? Is there a lot of blank space? Why do you think that is?

Visual Features Continued

Moment to Moment – slow-motion feel, emphasizes feelings and mood

Action to Action – most common, shows key moments in an action sequence

Scene to Scene – jumps forward or backward in time and space

Aspect to Aspect – used to freeze time to establish mood or the setting or show what’s happening from different angles

Non-Sequitur – panels that do not have a relationship to each other are placed side by side

Transitions

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes was a newspaper comic strip that ran from 1985 to 1995.

It was written and illustrated by Bill Watterson.

The first two strips

Non-Sequitur strip.

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Sunday Strips: Where anything can happen.

Today, you will be reading some Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.

Open up your notebooks to a blank page or a sheet of loose-leaf and title the page “Graphic Novel Features in Comic Strips”

What you are doing today

On this blank sheet titled “Graphic Novel Features in Comic Strips” you will be writing down examples of different features that you find in strips.

In Terms of all of the features discussed:

What similarities do you notice between different kinds of Calvin and Hobbes strips and the features of graphic novels.

What differences do you notice between the two genres?

What else did you notice as you read these strips?

Today’s work

In Terms of all of the features discussed:

What similarities do you notice between different kinds of Calvin and Hobbes strips and the features of graphic novels.

What differences do you notice between the two genres?

What else did you notice as you read these strips