Skim

I definitely look at the pictures first and then read the text, probably because the images are the first things to catch my eye. Although while reading Skim i found that I had to look at the pictures read the text and then look again to avoid getting confused.

I don't think graphic novels are a better expressive medium than novels, I find novels tell you more and leave the images to your imagination, I like that about novels. I guess an advantage for Skim would be that it kind of takes away the guess work because it shows you, within the images what you're supposed to be seeing, whereas in novels you have to think harder and imagine what the scene would look like. But that can also be an advantage towards novels, I guess it depends on the person.

-Jenn Sacco

Skim

I don't know if graphic novels are a BETTER expressive medium, but I definitely enjoy them for the depth that the artwork adds to the text. My interest lies in the subtleties of the drawings - most of the time, the pictures don't directly depict the accompanying text. The art definitely provides a subtext - and so you can be reading two stories at the same time (what is being said and what is not being said, but shown). For example, when Skim is talking about her parents at the beginning of the novel, there's a panel with an upside-down mug that says "World's greatest mom" - which seems an ironic commentary.

As an aside: I read Paul Auster's City of Glass years ago and recently read the graphic novel version of it - it is amazing how much the drawing draw out the themes of the novel.

I also don't really liken reading Skim to watching a movie, because with a graphic novel, you can always flip back to the last page, or choose to spend more time on one panel than another. In that way, I think the graphic novel engages me more actively than a movie. It's an interaction.

I also had a question for people: do you read the text first or look at the pictures? I tend to read the text first and skim (no pun intended) the pictures and often have to read a graphic novel again, paying closer attention to the art.

Being a fan of graphic novels I was really excited to see “Skim” on the course syllabus. Generally I don’t think that graphic novels are taken as seriously as they should be but I think they provide a very different yet equally artistically valid reading experience in contrast to poetry or novels. I almost liken reading “Skim” to watching a movie rather than reading a book because the drawings have a cinematic quality yet they are quite subtle as well. The dialogue is understandably a lot sparser than a traditional novel but that does not mean that the book lacks content whatsoever. A lot of the emotional content is expressed in the panels which have no dialogue; that’s where a lot of the character Skim’s personality is revealed. I liked that a lot of the panels had a non-linear quality, you couldn’t exactly tell which panel you were supposed to read next so it was kind of like you were privy to Skim’s thoughts as they form and appear. I think “Skim” does an excellent job of capturing the kind of friendships teenage girls have with one another as well as conveying what it’s like to be the ‘weird girl’/underdog in the occasionally hellish society of high school in a very poignant way.

Do you think graphic novels are a better expressive medium than novels? What do you think are the advantages or disadvantages to this type of medium?