For this research task, I was asked to look at two of the following comics and graphic novels. I chose to research the comics that I already have in my collection as I tried looking up the comics at my local library and they weren’t there and when I looked online they were too expensive.
- Batman: The Killing Joke by Brain Bolland, Alan Moore, John Higgins (DC Comics, 1988
- Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (DC Comics, 1987)
I need to take a look at the above comics and note my thoughts on their narrative and visual style in my learning log.
Batman: The Killing Joke by Brain Bolland, Alan Moore, John Higgins (DC Comics, 1988
Narrative style: This comic is all in speech bubbles, there is a small use of onomatopoeia also. There is a lot of dialogue throughout the comic with not many panels where there is just illustration. The story itself is quite short being 46 pages long. There are a lot of panels, some at 9 panel pages and other are 13 etc.
Visual style: There is so much colour used throughout this comic, from panels where the illustrations have a variety of colour in each, to reds and pinks used throughout 13 panels etc. The style is very detailed with a lot of shading including etching and textures. The expressions illustrated throughout this comic are very powerful. The proportions when it comes to the bodies of the character are normal apart from the faces, which are very extreme but I think this is because they need to pt forward the character’s emotions.
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (DC Comics, 1987)
Narrative Style: This book is full of different panels from 9-panel pages, to a full panel page of illustration, to book covers and pages of a book within this comic book as well as documents from a ‘psychiatric hospital’. This book is 450 pages long, just a bit longer than ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ which had 46!
Visual Style: The art style of this comic is similar in many ways to ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ in terms of colour and linework but it seems to be more detailed (slightly). Again most of the story is told with the use of speech bubbles. There is a use of first-person narrative. Again the proportions when it comes to the bodies of the character are normal apart from the faces.
References:
OCA Learning Log 