COMIC+CREATION

The following graphic novel “The Promise”, consists of two characters namely “Maya and Edward”. This is a romantic/fictional graphic novel that depicts the story of these two characters. The story begins with a scene where Maya and Edward are standing on a hill (Lancaster), giving a farewell to each other. The reason behind this farewell is that Edward has to go to the battle field for the purpose of helping out his country and fellow soldiers in order to defeat the French army, hence he is not sure whether he will come out alive or whether he will be doomed dead at the battle field. For this very reason his lover “Maya” doesn’t want him to go out there but He promises that he will come back to her, therefore he leaves her and goes out to fight against the French army. The latter half of the story or the last scene consists of a time lapse of 6 years. By now the war has been over and Maya is waiting at the same place where she gave him a farewell. Clue less of weather she will be seeing her lover again or not. However Edward who got martyred at the battle field comes back and fulfills his promise, but this time only in a form of spirit. He comes back to show the purity and depth of his love towards Maya but he disappears in the mist after fulfilling his promise.
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The following graphic novel, “The Promise” is a Romantic comic which consists of elements of, suspense, action and fiction. The outline of the comic consists of a 3 page narration with graphics, where each page is outlining a major scene. In these three pages I have shown time duration of six to seven years. The purpose of this analyses is to outline and observe the tools used in this graphic novel to convey the narration. The first and the last page of this comic book consists of similar frames, graphic and words in order to relate the interplay. These two pages are defining different scene, with the first one building the story and suspense and the last one concluding it. For this purpose they are rich in panels and the transition if the story has been moment-to-moment. This has been done in order to capture reader’s interest since its taking the reader slowly and gradually towards the end and at the being moment-to-moment transition helps in developing the plot. The other thing kept in mind for the outline of the comic is its genre which is “Romantic” thus it involves depth of emotions, the detailing of art work and quality of dialogues used. However the two scenes are defined and separated by an interior splash page which consists of no panels and dialogues instead it shows a Battle scene elaborated by sound effects which provides the time lapse and gives the read a scene of timelessness which is very important in this kind of story. The interplay used throughout the narration is duo-specific in nature. This is used so that the reader doesn’t get lost and gets the intended meaning and idea of the scene. Now if we put the light on use of panels, I would say that it follows a regular pattern similar to a grid outline however there are slight variation in the panels for the purpose of giving details. Furthermore silent panels can also be observed, these silent panels are used at regular interval in order to highlight the turning point and the importance of the scene.
 * __ Analyses: __**

The other important aspects of this graphic novel are the use of colors, the nature of art work, and the use of the various speech bubbles. The use of color throughout the novel has been light but well defined at particular scenes for e.g. when Edwards kisses Maya, the reason behind this light use of colors and simple background is related to characterization, in this graphic novel huge emphases has been placed on the importance and the role of the two characters. The characters are drawn relatively in a cartoonish way so that it can be generalized, as mc cloud calls this phenomenon in his book as “amplification through simplification”. Different kinds of speech bubbles have been used at different point however the dominant speech bubbles are the regular circular bubbles that show intense conversation however for aggressive or stressful use of words sharp bubbles are used to defy the aggression for e.g. this bubbles can be seen in scene one when Maya shouts towards Edward that she will be waiting for him. More over for showing a thought process cloud bubbles are used.

Furthermore if we further look at the art, certain props have been given sheer importance which can be witnessed especially in form of rich art work especially in scene three where Edwards gives a rose to Maya which later disappears. The purpose of showing this rose not just to show a prop rather it is done to capture the emotional involvement of the reader. The rose over here shows the depth and token of love hence this icon solely is covering many words and dialogues making the narration towards the end image specific.

I hope I have justified the intent of the story (graphic novel) through the use of different icons. On a personal note this was arguably the first assignment where I actually enjoyed exploring my own creativity.

**__Works cited:__**

McCloud, Scott. // Understanding Comics The invisible art. // . New York: HarperPerennial, Print. ""Bolshevik Revolution"." Web. 4 Nov 2010. <http://www.freewebs.com/cllouise/bolshevikrevolutio n