> My problem, in part, is that in some way I don't
feel competent when I
> read a graphic novel. That is to say, I feel
competent to read and
> interpret the words on the page, but somehow my
brain does not know what
> to do with all the images. Sometimes I'll be sitting
there and staring
> at a panel and thinking at some level, "Have I
looked at this picture
> long enough? Have I seen what I was supposed to see?
Have I
> appreciated what I was supposed to appreciate?"
Maybe I feel this way
> because I didn't read comic books as a kid, didn't
read my first graphic
> novel until I was in my 30s. Whatever the reason,
it's a frustrating
> feeling to me.
I have read comics since I was a kid. From as long as I've
been a reader, in fact. And in some weird way I think reading
non-graphic novels has spoiled my reading of comics. I now
read very quickly whereas when I used to read comics as a kid
I would linger over the pictures for ages and re-read a comic
several times. Now I'm impatient to get through the story --
why should it take me longer to read a four issue comic story
than a Hammett, for instance? The older I get the more
impatient I become. So I whiz through comics these days while
my inner child chides me for not getting the whole picture.
And if you've never grown up reading comics with the patience
of a child you might not even know what it is you're missing
when you skim through a comic.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 May 2008 EDT