Frame Compare/Contrast, Essex County Book 2: Ghost Stories and Blankets

Today's scoop:

Craig Thompson's
full page characterization frame
for the character of Craig.

In our Graphic Novel class, we were asked to read three graphic novels in addition to Jeff Lemire's Essex County as part of the required reading. For my first novel, I chose Blankets by Craig Thompson.

For those familiar with the world of comics and graphic novels, you will know the significance of frame usage and design in these kinds of publications. Frames, as we have been taught, are more than simple containers that hold the text and pictures on the page, they themselves are part of the storytelling and help subconsciously relay information to audience just as much as words or photos do.

Jeff Lemire's full page
characterization frame
for the character of Lou.

 In Essex County Book 2: Ghost Stories, Lemire uses frames very similarly to Craig Thompson in Blankets. Both include framing panels that are mostly rectangular and provide action-to-action based transitions through the story. I also noticed that both contain high-impact large frames sometime enveloping the whole or most of the page to provide emphasis, usually for personal character reflection, especially in characterizing the main characters of each story.

Frames as
hockey arena

  In these frames, each author symbolizes the main desires of their characters. For Lou, it is the desire and remembrance of memory, and catharsis and rebirth for Craig. I also noticed for both Lemire and Thompson that they both abstained from using color within the frames of their novels, but rather used shadows and shading to give depth to both frames and photos.

Frames as
 a scrapbook

In Essex County: Book Two, the frames become something else entirely. They become not only a way to tell the story, but they are integrated into the story. The frames become a scrapbook on which we are able to see into the past and learn about Lou and his brother Vince through their mother's clippings, or a hockey area where we see Lou and Vince obtain their hockey prestige.

Snow metaphor  

 In Blankets, however frame usage does not put us in a physical place,  rather Thompson taps more into our emotional and conceptual reactions to things. The frames become metaphors for themes throughout the story. We see the patterns of Raina and Craig's quilt actually weave itself through the pages, so that it is always lingering in our thoughts and emphasizing the emotions and the time and effort and dedication that Raina and Craig used to have for each other. But then we also get frames of white and snow, that is the metaphor for Craig's quest for purity and peace.

Blanket metaphor

Internship Journal #4

The final cover for A Veil of Shattered Dreams.
Cover photo and design by Danielle Gesford.

This week, in my internship journal,  I'd like to discuss a few things that have been on my mind for the past few days concerning the different things that I have been working on. These past few weeks I feel I have been most in touch with my novel, A Veil of Shattered Dreams, the one that I am working on for my internship. What seems so strange to me is that in my wildest dreams, I never saw this kind of story escape from me, it is definitely different than anything else that I have ever written and definitely the most difficult.

I think that putting out my cover and realizing the amount of time that I have left to put this novel together has really put the pressure on me to get my writing done. I think that after I finish this story, it may be awhile before I write again. The decision to publish is also something that I have struggled with immensely this week. I never thought that I would publish something like this, especially not in college, my of my writings are for my enjoyment or shorter works that are not ready for publication. However,                 as much as I want to publish it, I want everyone to know that this was never a money making endeavor. Writing is something that I love and something that I want to share with everyone. Reading and the gift of reading is something that I don't believe should be denied to anyone. It is my love of reading, even over writing that propels me to editing and publishing. A belief I hope to retain while I continue even past internship. Secondly, as much as I love the story and the characters, I am no acclaimed author, anything that someone reads from me, published while I am in school, is I think student work. Unless someone sees something in it that I do not see myself.
What I also recognize is the fear that I have in exposing so much of work and writing for everyone to see. It is difficult to have people not only judge your work, but judge you as the author of the work. It should not matter if others like it, I know, as long as I like it. But, if writing has been the one thing that people have anticipated from you, then you do not want to let those people down.

As I start my fifth chapter ( now half-way through) I take these thoughts with me, and I only hope that I can influence my own writing so that I give myself and others the story that they (/I) expect.

Internship Journal #3

A Veil of Shattered Dreams Cover Version #2.
Still a little more work to be done.
Photo by Danielle Gesford
Model: Caity See

These past few weeks have been the most exciting yet in my internship. At the beginning of the semester, I was learning all of the technical and instructional aspects of the publisher/author, but as time has gone on and I have developed even more of my own project, things have shifted over to the more creative outlet.

Last week alone, I completed another chapter of my novel, now titled A Veil of Shattered Dreams and worked on creating a cover for the novel with help from my two friends. It has been a wonderfully crazy process from setting up a photo shoot, processing and creating all the elements that go into a cover of a book. Though this is only a student project, I can hardly imagine all the revisions, time and creativity that must be put forth to come up with not only the content of the novel, but also how the cover attracts the audience to the novel as well. Design plays a huge role in laying out a novel's format.

I have also spent time with my supervisors helping them with the plots in their own work. I am finding more and more that publishing and novel creation is much more of a collaborative process than I first recognized.

As far as my writing is concerned,  the writing process of Veil is definitely a more challenging endeavor, and I understand why, as most authors do, have so long dates between publication. There is hardly anytime to write. With daily lives and resources and the little unexpected tribulations that pop up,  it is a drastic feat for me to have a decently penned and edited novel in six months. Wow. Writing is actually going to be my major focus for my next journal, as my crunch time approaches and I begin writing very heavily in the next few weeks.

Lester vs. Vladek, Character Showdown

As those of you who have been keeping up to date on my Comm blog, in my graphic novel class we've been studying different elements of graphic novels and how each element has been contributing to the overall purpose of the comic. Most recently, we've read Art Spiegelman's Maus and the first two books of Jeff Lemire's Essex County. This week, we discuss the characterization of Maus's main character Vladek in comparison to Essex County's Lester.

Art Spiegelman's Maus

We are first introduced to Vladek in Maus through his own recollections and his conversations between himself and his son Artie. Everything that we find out about Vladek are inferences from other characters in the story. Vladek's character is actually presented to us first through the filter of Artie's reactions and dialogue with him.  The way that Artie feels about his father ( overbearing, somewhat ridiculous) influences the way that we as an audience begin to view Vladek. We also understand his compulsive waste-not and thrifty ideals, and his family central lifestyle. Spiegelman illustrates many times  how Vladek came to be who he is, we experience and discover him through his own storying telling. Not only do we come to understand Vladek through Artie, but also through Vladek's own actions in his memories. We hardly ever hear or see Vladek's internal thoughts or feelings. This creates a division in his character, Vladek the narrator and Vladek the father. We are told everything that happens to him throughout his years in the Holocaust, he recalls every memory and therefore we can judge him and understand him based on what he has been through.

Cover of Jeff Lemire's  Essex County

However, Lester in Essex County is presented to the audience in a very different way. Instead of developing his character through the other characters, Lemire gives the audience bits and pieces of information about the character, through memories and facial expressions and his reactions to others. He leaves it up to the reader to fill in the gaps and make their inferences about Lester. Lemire's approach to characterization is a bit more subtle and makes his character feel more relatable. Unlike Vladek, Lester is a bit more complex and difficult to understand. He does not give every detail about his life away to us right away but we must rely on his surroundings and environment to reveal his character.