Serial narrative art
Graphic novelizing with cartoonist, graphic novelist and educator Paul Karasik
Capturing the passage of time with images is hardly new. Botticelli did it by moving his protagonists, Dante and Virgil, through his illustrations for Dante’s Inferno over 500 years ago.
I’m still struggling with what to call the graphic novel format. GNF is fine of course, but my history with the fine arts wants a more analytic or ‘constructivist’ nominclature. Consider that I was inspired to “get into” the whole art biz by 60s minimalism, in particular the kind of minimalism that involves repetition, frames if you will. A.k.a. “serial minimalism.” Nothing as formally profound has been produced since them imho. And the same critical relationship to mass production, the factory and the assembly line, underpins repetition in a lot of art, from Warhol to today. Just look at this work by Carl Andre and tell me that you do not see cartoon frames in it.
As you may recall from my last post, I spent last week with Paul Karasik and a small group of super talented aspiring graphic novelists. We spent most of our time on story; synopsis (what’s it about), outlining (this happens because of that because of that) and building narrative arc (set up, premise, conflict, crisis, resolution) within a classic three act structure. It was awesome.
It also left me wondering what I might post here. I’m not ready to announce my story project yet; there so much more to do before I’ll feel confident in my ability pull off a graphic novel. So lessee…
We learned a huge amount about plot development and pictorial techniques to create movement and suspense (the all important anticipation that keeps you turning the page) through a close reading of Carl Bark’s Donald Duck comic “Flip Decision”:
And also through short exercises sketching out random and quirky scenarios, then developing a storyline around them. It was surprising to see how adept everyone was at creating a narrative, often quite funny.
Anyway, I’m very excited and inspired to keep working, which is the best takeaway of all.
Please check out one of Paul Karasik’s projects, City of Glass. He’s a awesome artist.
‘til next time, thanks for subscribing.