You do what?

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You do what?

Whenever I would tell someone that I was working on a graphic novel, the conversation usually went something like this:

NICE PERSON: So what do you do?

ME: I’m making a graphic novel.

NICE PERSON: A what?

ME: A graphic novel.

NICE PERSON: What’s that?

ME: It’s like a comic, but longer.

NICE PERSON: Oh…

(At which point they would usually change the subject and the NEXT time I saw them, we would repeat the conversation. XD)

 

So what am I doing?

(And just what, exactly, is a graphic novel?)

 

Well, thanks to the power of Google, I can tell you that a Graphic Novel is defined as “a novel in comic-strip format.”  There yah go.  That’s it.  Another way to think of it, is a comic, long enough to fill a book.  A…novel…that uses…graphics.

A graphic novel.

I have always struggled explaining just what exactly it was that I was working on.  If I said, “I’m working on a comic.”  Everyone would immediately think something like: 1) Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes, or 2) Batman and Spiderman.  Considering The Forgotten is not like ANY of those things, (Well it KINDA is…but it KINDA isn’t… =P ) I would always have to explain how it WASN’T a comic…or at least not what that person had in mind of what a “comic” was.

If I said, I was working on a story, everyone assumed I was writing a novel or a screenplay. Considering The Forgotten is not like EITHER of those things (Well it KINDA is…but it KINDA isn’t…) I would always have to explain how it WASN’T what they were thinking a “story” was.

That’s why I usually tell everyone I’m working on a “Graphic Novel,” even though it is a story, and a comic, and a book…etc…etc…

Since most people don’t know what the term “Graphic Novel” means, I can just explain what it IS, instead of having to explain what it ISN’T before explaining what it IS.

Are you confused yet?

I am. =P

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