graphic novels

A graphic novel is a different kind of experience than a novel that is written; worded. Some graphic novels are like illustrated stories - but with primary attention given to the artwork. Some graphic novels have no words at all - the story is conveyed entirely through drawings, or other kinds of images.

The latter dates back quite a ways. In the 1990s, I had the good fortune to travel with a friend to France, the first time I went abroad. We spent half a day in the cathedral at Chartres. The cathedral was built across many decades (completed - was it in the 1200s?). On the outside were many statues around the frame of the great doors and much sculpting of the exterior walls. There were gargoyles, and statues of saints. There were statues of ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians. (Aristotle and Pythagorus come to mind.) Some of those statues cleverly tucked in high places were carved images of the construction workers themselves. 'I was here!' they seem to say. Inside the immense building was a kind of clock-calendar that was large piece of intricate mechanics, decked with images of the moon, stars and sun. In the middle of one field of the interior was a long avenue of bas relief carvings. That was my first meeting with ancient graphic story telling. We were told most of the people back then did not know how to read. The carvings, like three dimensional frames from a silent film, told stories from the Bible.

Written novels today feed images and plot via our language centers. I believe the wordless graphic novels feed an experience more than a story. We enter another existence through the wordless images. We learn some things that cannot quite be expressed through words, things that are not stored in the language part of our brains.