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A good sketch is better than a long speech

by N3RD

I've been in to picture books, comics, manga, graphic novels or what ever you prefer to call the medium of artistic story telling for a long time. I remember trying to explain my appreciation for graphic novels to my parents. They looked at me with slightly puzzled, slightly worried looks...

"...so are they called graphic novels because they are violent?"

"Some are some aren't, but thats not important"

"... so are they called graphic novels because they have naughty pictures?"

"Some do some don't, but that's not important"

".. so is it the foul language that makes them graphic?"

" NO!, they are called graphic because of the art work."

I grew up with weekly comic book anthologies where I got to follow many stories by different writers. These stories some times had dedicated artists some would change artists and styles from weeks to week. I'm sure just about everyone has heard the proverb about the textual value of a picture and with with artistic story telling a picture is worth even more. With so many changes I came to a realization that I can forgive a bad plot if the art is good but if the art is bad the plot better be 'super fantastic' to continue holding my attention.

I had my favorite writers like Pat Mills, John Wagner, Alan Grant, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison and Alan Moore and when they worked with my favorite artists of the time like Carlos Ezquerra, Ian Gibson and Massimo Belardinelli then they could do no wrong in my book.

Over the years I've come to experience many differing forms of artistic story telling and my list of favorites is long and twisted. I remember the first time i read Arkham Asylum : a serious house on serious earth, such a dark story it left me a little disturbed. Whenever I return to it I'm amazed at the levels and detail in the work.

OK at the risk of totally undermining anything I've said above, I'll let you into a big secret. One of my other favorites even surprises me. Its not my usual fare but when I accidentally flicked through a copy of the book my eyes caught the mix of photographs and drawings and I actually stopped and took the time to read it.

Knuffle bunny, is a young children's picture book, very short and the art works so well to draw you into the story. Now having said that if you where to stop me on the street and ask me about it I'll deny everything... but really I did enjoy the book ;0)

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