A picture is worth a thousand words

Hello literature lovers! It’s been a long week at the tail end of a long month, and I’m sure everyone is still rattling from the aftershocks of midterms. The only things getting me through it all are numerous -- yet massive -- cups of coffee and the books I’ve been reading to balance the madness. I’ve been experiencing an exploratory phase in my literary endeavors recently, and instead of discussing previous favorites, I’m going to write about a genre completely new to me: graphic novels.

Even when I was in elementary school, I didn’t want to waste time with books with pictures because I wanted to jump ahead and challenge myself with chapter books. I was shopping for books a few weeks ago, and while browsing, I happened upon an interesting book called "The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil" (2014). I was intrigued by the summary on the back; it described a society obsessed with neatness until becoming overrun by one man’s out-of-control beard. I hesitated at first to buy it as it was a graphic novel, and I wasn’t entirely sure I’d enjoy reading it. I took the risk though, and decided to try it out.

Now, for those of you who know me, you probably know where this is going. I devoured the book in one day, and couldn’t stop talking about it. I’ve already coerced four others into reading it, with each of them returning it to me the following day, exuberant about their reading experience. The complex story line and underlying messages far exceeded what I was expected from a book that was about 80 percent pictures. I was blown out of the water; I’d never realized how much can be said through the combination of words and pictures. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and graphic novels are therefore able to say so much while appearing to say so little.

I’m now in the middle of reading another graphic novel; this one called "It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken" (1996). While formatted and presented similarly to "The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil," the experience reading this one is very different. It follows a man, Seth, who becomes curious about Kalo -- an enigmatic cartoonist. Seth juxtaposes his own life with the mysteries surrounding Kalo. It’s amazing the freedom each graphic novelist has, not only with his or her word selection, but with the pictures as well. Most authors must rely on the limited selection of words in the language they've chosen, arranging them in just so many variations. Graphic novelists have the added ability to accompany words with pictures, and vice versa. The world of visual arts expands far beyond the limitations of written word. By combining both of them into the same story, graphic novelists can tell stories that other types of writers cannot.

I was skeptical at first that graphic novels would be too similar to comic books. Although those are another delightful experience, they are entirely separate from literature. Instead of focusing on intense fight scenes, graphic novels combine intricate drawings and precise prose to capture the experiences of people. They’re very intimate in that way, providing actual windows into the world of the novel. I’ve mentioned before that I dislike when I’m provided with imagery and unable to formulate my own representations of characters or scenery; however, in the case of graphic novels, the detail added by the purposeful drawings creates a deeper storyline that I could not have come up with on my own.