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University of PennsylvaniaScholarlyCommons
Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2005-6: Word &Image
Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate ResearchFellows
April 2006
Redux: Graphic Novels Detached from WordsConnie YangUniversity of Pennsylvania
Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2006
2005-2006 Penn Humanities Forum on Word & Image, Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows.
URL: http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/05-06/mellon_uhf.shtml
This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2006/17For more information, please contact [email protected].
Yang, Connie, "Redux: Graphic Novels Detached from Words" (2006). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2005-6: Word & Image. 17.http://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2006/17
Redux: Graphic Novels Detached from Words
AbstractI wanted to create a sequence of events through visual narration, namely pages out of a graphic novel.However, I wanted it to have personal meaning to every person who explored this project, to make it their ownnarration and not any one else’s. To that extent, I made all the pages interchangeable. The twelve layouts eachbear unique designs using imagery that is generic enough to have appeared in many graphic novels. Trees,cityscapes, feathers, and motion lines are motifs that are used time and time again. They ground thestorytelling in a stage, and the lines and angles of the panels help the story flow from one to the next.
Comments2005-2006 Penn Humanities Forum on Word & Image, Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows.
URL: http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/05-06/mellon_uhf.shtml
This presentation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2006/17
Undergraduate Humanities Forum Mellon Research Fellowship Paper Connie Yang
1
Redux Graphic Novels Detached from Words
Connie Yang, College ‘06
University of Pennsylvania
2005-2006 Penn Humanities Forum on Word & Image Undergraduate Humanities Forum Mellon Research Fellow
Final Project
Artist Statement April 2006
Undergraduate Humanities Forum Mellon Research Fellowship Paper Connie Yang
2
I wanted to create a sequence of events through visual narration, namely
pages out of a graphic novel. However, I wanted it to have personal meaning to
every person who explored this project, to make it their own narration and not any
one else’s. To that extent, I made all the pages interchangeable. The twelve layouts
each bear unique designs using imagery that is generic enough to have appeared in
many graphic novels. Trees, cityscapes, feathers, and motion lines are motifs that
are used time and time again. They ground the storytelling in a stage, and the lines
and angles of the panels help the story flow from one to the next.
The pages can be placed on a “storyboard” with 8 slots, allowing the viewer
to chose the images and the order. Below each of those is a smaller slot to allow a
line of text to caption the image. There are dozens of lines of text to chose from,
all of them generic phrases that have been used in graphic novels, comics, and the
type. Lines like “You’re on your own, kid,” and “Ka-POW!” illustrate some of the
action that could be occurring in the page layouts.
It’s a celebration of the storytelling masters who use the graphic novel as
their medium, requiring skills in both art and word. It is a form I highly respect,
and I hope it continues progressing in people’s minds as a valid and highly
regarded form of communication.
