Self Evaluation

Coming into this course I was familiar with autobiographical graphic novels as well as graphic short stories, in the form of self-produced zines; throughout the course of this tutorial, my goal was to read a wider breadth of graphic novels. My participation was consistent throughout the course, with timely and seemingly adequate response posts, as well as active participation in class discussion. An area for improvement was in my analysis of the books, I could have applied a consistent set of evaluative points to my discussion of each, instead of exploring only certain characteristics I found salient to each work.  Overall, I feel to have completed satisfactory work in both my written assessment of the works as well as my participation in the seminar-style class sessions.

 

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I look forward to continuing to read a wider array of graphic novels and currently am interested in Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan, Palestine by Joe Sacco, Black Hole by Charles Burns, as well as catching up on some of the novels recommended for this course that I did not choose to read.  I really appreciate your sponsorship of this tutorial and would love to take a similar course again. I believe that if we had more time, we could have explored each novel more fully, conducting closer readings of each text. An artistic analysis of the works would also be a rewarding perspective and provide a greater understanding of the works as a whole. 

Week 7: Student Choice

Stitches by David Small

A memoir graphic novel about the childhood and aging of Small as a young boy, this novel was compelling in it’s unabashed humility. The reader is introduced to the “typical” American family through the eyes of the youngest of two brothers. Each subsumed in their own worlds, the protagonist is portrayed as the familial outcast, his lack of propensity to make noise and divergent interests segregating him.  A surprising illness falls upon the narrator, uprooting his grounding in the family; the ensuing grappling with his parents as individuals progressing throughout his life and the novel.

The character’s intensity in dreaming is carried throughout the novel in it’s cyclical nature, twirling dreams and reality into separate and integrated worlds. This portrayal is integral to the character’s need to escape from reality and intense artistic imagination.  His fascination with Alice in Wonderland is reinforced throughout the novel as well, in his childhood play to his teenage psychologist cast as the white rabbit.

Artistically, the novel is done in a gradient of ink shades, applied somewhat haphazardly against the use of stark white and black outlines. The author’s experience as an established illustrator shows through in his simplistic capturing of emotions, as his facial expressions were more than revealing. The author also dabbled with varied framing, as each page was composed of different number and size of panels, the borders of which were typically a thin black line but sometimes were unbound.

Although predictable, the story was enjoyable. The plotline is a familiar tale of coming to age and a separation from one’s natal family.