P1
Describe the work of a graphic novel or comic publisher.
DC Comics:
DC Comics are an American graphic novel and comic publisher who is amongst the largest of its kind. They were established in 1934 and were first known as 'National Allied Publications'. DC Comics was founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson but is now a publishing unit of DC Entertainment which in turn is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment. DC Comics is currently run by a team of 5 executives who are as follows:
DC Comics:
DC Comics are an American graphic novel and comic publisher who is amongst the largest of its kind. They were established in 1934 and were first known as 'National Allied Publications'. DC Comics was founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson but is now a publishing unit of DC Entertainment which in turn is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment. DC Comics is currently run by a team of 5 executives who are as follows:
- Diane Nelson (President)
- Dan DiDio (Co-Publisher)
- Jim Lee (Co-Publisher)
- Bob Harras (Editor-In-Chief)
- Geoff Johns (President and Chief Creative Officer)
Batman (Detective Comics + Batman): Batman is a character who was create by DC Comics and was first featured in the 27th isue of Detective Comics which was released in March of 1939. Created by two comic book writers and artists, Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Batman quickly gained popularity and was soon given his own comic titled 'Batman' in the Spring of 1940 and was created by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson. Batman is now among the most famous superheroes of all time. Batman was successful enough for him to become the basis of many films as the main character as well as a side character in many more which featured more than one superhero.
Superman (Actions Comics + Superman): Superman was created by DC Comics and released in May of 1938 in the first issue of Action Comics. He was illustrated and written by two comic book writes and artists, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Like Batman, Superman too gained popularity rapidly and was also given his own comic book titled 'Superman' which was first released in the Summer of 1939 and was illustrated by Joe Shuster who was one of Superman's original creators. Superman has overtime become arguably the most recognised and known superhero of all time. Superman, like Batman, also became very successful and famous which led him to be the subject of various films about him as well as other superheroes.
Superman (Actions Comics + Superman): Superman was created by DC Comics and released in May of 1938 in the first issue of Action Comics. He was illustrated and written by two comic book writes and artists, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Like Batman, Superman too gained popularity rapidly and was also given his own comic book titled 'Superman' which was first released in the Summer of 1939 and was illustrated by Joe Shuster who was one of Superman's original creators. Superman has overtime become arguably the most recognised and known superhero of all time. Superman, like Batman, also became very successful and famous which led him to be the subject of various films about him as well as other superheroes.
Image Comics: Image Comics is an independent comic book publisher founded in America in 1992 by several comic book illustrators with previous experience on high profile projects. They were as listed:
- Todd McFarlane
- Jim Lee
- Whilce Portacio
- Marc Silvestri
- Erik Larsen
- Jim Valentino
- Rob Liefeld
post-apocalyptic genre whereas their Saga comic is in the Fantasy genre.
Rick Grimes (The Walking Dead): Rick Grimes is a fictional character which was created in The Walking Dead comic book series which was released in October of 2003. Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, Rick Grimes was first shown in the first issue of The Walking Dead comic book. In the comic Rick Grimes is a small town's sheriff's deputy and is introduced to the audience as the main character of the acclaimed comic as he awakes in a hospital before looking for his son, Carl and wife Lori. Due to the success of The Walking Dead comics the comic book series was given its own TV Show on AMC.
Alana (Saga): Alana first appeared as a fictional character in the Saga comic book series which was released in March of 2012. She was introduced in the first publication of the comic and has remained as a main character throughout the series. Created by writer
Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples, Alana is introduced as she joins the military to escape from her abusive father on her home planet of Landfall. Unlike The Walking Dead comics, Saga has not been made into a TV Show nor a movie. Despite it's popularity and wide readership it may be too new of a comic to be made into anything film based.
Alana (Saga): Alana first appeared as a fictional character in the Saga comic book series which was released in March of 2012. She was introduced in the first publication of the comic and has remained as a main character throughout the series. Created by writer
Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples, Alana is introduced as she joins the military to escape from her abusive father on her home planet of Landfall. Unlike The Walking Dead comics, Saga has not been made into a TV Show nor a movie. Despite it's popularity and wide readership it may be too new of a comic to be made into anything film based.
Exploring characters in the comic industry:
Marko from Saga
Marko is a fictional character who appears in the Saga comic books who appeared in the first issue of the comic. In the comics he is featured as one of the main characters who is a husband to another main character, Alana. His role in the comics consist of fighting in order to protect his family and he opposes the on going war. His character is given various powers in the comic book. His main power is magic and it gives him the following abilities:
Lori from The Walking Dead
Lori is a fictional character who appears in the first issue of The Walking Dead comic books. In the comic books she is featured as the wife of the main protagonist, Rick Grimes, as well as the mother of his child, Carl Grimes and later Judith Grimes. Her role in the comics ended in the 48th issue of the comic where is gunned down by a villain character, The Governor. She is shot in the back and is killed alongside her daughter, Judith. Throughout the series Lori, and all of the other characters, doesn't possess any special or unique powers. However she has been equipped with various weapons through out the comic book series and is known to have killed numerous amounts of zombie during her lifetime however she is not known to have killed any living human characters. |
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Flash (Barry Allen) from The Flash.
The Flash is a fictional character who first appeared in the first issue of The Flash Comics which was released in 1940. The Flash is first introduced to the audience as a police scientist who is doused with chemicals that are struck by lighting. Soon after he finds that he now possesses various super powers which are a direct result of him being doused with the chemicals. His powers in the comic books are numerous and not all were there throughout the comic but here are the main ones which he possessed from the early beginnings of the comic.
Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) from Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a fictional character who first appears in the eight issue of All Star Comics which was released in October of 1941. Wonder Woman's character was created whilst World War II was raving on. The character in the story was initially depicted fighting Axis military forces as well as an assortment of various super villains. Throughout the comics she is given various super powers however as she is a very old and widely written about character they change from comic to comic however these ones are the main ones that stuck throughout.
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P2
Describe a chosen graphic novel or comic product
The comic book which I have chosen to analyse is The Walking Dead which is a currently ongoing publication which is currently made up of 178 issues in the genre of post-apocalypse which are published on a monthly basis by the publisher Image Comics. It is a comic which features various characters which come and go throughout the series as they fight for survival in a post apocalyptic world of zombies.
To begin with, the title page of the comic often includes the main protagonist who doesn't die off along with any other characters which is Rick Grimes. The title page also usually features other characters which have a large or significant part in the issue of the comic that the character appears on. The title page also always includes the iconic title on top above the character as well as the title of the issue at the bottom as well as the issue or chapter number. The characters on the title page usually are portrayed to be in rough shape in order to infer that the characters are struggling for survival and that their situation is strained.
The panelling in The Walking Dead comic book series is fairly standard and uniform. Although the comic book panelling is not structured as a pure grid, it still remains neat and ordered as it has no bleed, separation or overlap of frames. Additionally the only other aspects of the panelling which prevent it from being a pure grid is the blockage as well as the horizontal and vertical staggering between frames and the only thing that ever escapes a frame is usually a speech bubble which at most blocks the outline of the frame but doesn't go over any other.
The Walking Dead comic is drawn entirely in black and white and the visual narrative is highly comparable to that of a real movie or a TV show which is why the comic can bear a resemblance to storyboards for films as the comic book doesn't follow many comic book conventions apart from the fact that the panelling is of a typical comic book style and that it contains speech bubbles. The comic however doesn't contain captions and rarely uses sound effects. The storyline in the walking dead is usually linear with each frame progressing the story. However the comic book creators do occasionally feature flashbacks in the comic book which often reveal something about one of the characters past however they don't leave the general linear story line which has been set out beforehand. |
The text in The Walking Dead comic book series is also used differently depending on the situation. In terms of speech, the text usually uses short sentences in order to lead to through any conversation, big or small. The text is also used differently when characters are trying to put across different meanings in what they say. For example text can become bigger, smaller or bold depending on whether the character is angry, sad, determined etc. An example of this can be seen in the middle frame on the last row in the comic book page above where Rick states that he wants out. He is determined and angry and therefore the text doesn't just appear as 'I want out.' but instead appears in bold as 'I want out.' which makes him sound more determined and set on leaving the group.
There is no particular structure for the comic books as the series is continuous and unlike many superhero comics the story in The Walking Dead comic books always carries on slowly along all the comics therefor theres no single comic book adventures in the series to which we could apply Todorov's narrative theory as there is no end to the story as of yet and it is too vast and changing to label anything under the theory.
There is no particular structure for the comic books as the series is continuous and unlike many superhero comics the story in The Walking Dead comic books always carries on slowly along all the comics therefor theres no single comic book adventures in the series to which we could apply Todorov's narrative theory as there is no end to the story as of yet and it is too vast and changing to label anything under the theory.
Meaning is often created in the comic through the use of colour or its lack of. The choice of creating the comic strictly in black and white adds meaning to the visual narrative as the lack of colour adds to the desolate and post-apocalyptic feeling which is set throughout the comic. The lack colour creates a meaning behind the comic of hopelessness as it's dark aura. The lack of colour connotes with dread and horror which reflects perfectly what the comic is about. Furthermore the lack of colour and it's with use of black on white puts the meaning forth that the lives portrayed in the comic are very real and natural in the sense that they have no superpowers and there is no real hope for them incase of dear trouble and their future and hope is put simply in black and white.
When looking at the content of the comic itself we quickly notice that vast amounts of both melee and ranged weapons used by almost every character. These vary from character to character but we can see how common weapons are in this comic by looking at three examples of character with weapons. The first is the leading character, Rick Grimes, who is an adult male who's main weapon is a hatchet however he is seen to use guns etc. Another example is his son, Carl Grimes who is a young boy and is equipped with a pistol given to him by his dad. The final example is Michonne who is an adult woman who's weapon is a samurai sword. These examples show the wide range of characters who have weapons as well as the wide range of weapons which the characters have as it seems that almost every age, gender and role in the comic requires a weapon. The choice to arm so many of the characters in the comic book series creates an obvious meaning to the reader that the post-apocalyptic world in which the characters live in is extremely difficult to survive in and that the characters need every bit of help in order to do so. |
The target audience of The Walking Dead comic book series ranges from teens to young adults and adults. The content in the comic book is targeted at the ages of 18 and over however interest may end in ages of 26 and over as the format (comic book) is not particularly popular in the older demographic of readers. The high age target for the audience is mainly due to the strong language used in the comic as well as the extreme violence which is also used generously throughout the comic book series.
The comic appeals to its target audience as it can boast to have a very mature and deep storyline which expands more and more through each issue. It also deals with mature subjects such as murder, rape and death. All of which may seem excessive and crude however all are handled in a professional and entertaining way for the reader to enjoy.
The comic appeals to its target audience as it can boast to have a very mature and deep storyline which expands more and more through each issue. It also deals with mature subjects such as murder, rape and death. All of which may seem excessive and crude however all are handled in a professional and entertaining way for the reader to enjoy.