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Literary Pugilist Skip to content Home Resume Legal Writing Argumentative Writing Game Studies Philosophy Graphic novel Creative Writing 1882 ← Older posts May 30, 2012 · 9:52 pm Insanity in Graphic Novels Insanity is a unique facet of storytelling. Any character who is crazy (be it a recognized psychological disorder or simply a creation of the artist) can move the plot forward in unlikely ways by nature of their mental state. But a crazy character, especially a main character, presents a unique problem in any medium. Empathizing with an insane person in real life is very difficult and requires a great deal of patience, and so accurate portrayal of insanity in a character who is simultaneously able to be empathized with by the audience requires great skill. This has been accomplished in a number of mediums, but the graphic novel presents a unique and powerful method. Graphic novels can be used, as Neil Gaiman does in Endless Nights, to depict insanity by inviting or requiring the reader to think in a nonlinear fashion, see connections where there are no logical connections, and ruminate over the nature of confusing aspects of the page. Gaiman does not depict insanity, he makes insanity a requirement for understanding. Chapter five of Endless Nights is about the character Delirium, and serves as the perfect example of this technique. While the effect is most powerful if the entire chapter is taken into consideration, pages 104 and 105 contain enough techniques to provide for a concise discussion. The characteristic of Gaiman’s work which is first apparent is the panel structure on these pages. While there are reasonably clearly defined panels on page 104, their flow is unclear. There is an image behind the panels, and it appears not only in the gutters, but in large amounts of space left un-paneled. With much of the bottom left of the page sacrificed to the background image and blackness, the number of panels increases from left to right. But the text and panels can be read either across, in rows, or in columns, down and then across. One could even follow the text across the top, and then down the center of the page, but this leaves out two panels, which contain no text. This confusion encourages the reader to go over the page more than once. Thus the panel structure mirrors the structure of the character’s mental state and simultaneously encourages the reader to try a similar disjointed ramble through the page. The panels are unstructured in their construction as well as their order. The first panel on page 104 is almost perfectly rectangular, with a definite black gutter surrounding it. However, the rightmost panel has no borders whatsoever, and one of the panels on the left of the page has borders on its top half, but bleeds into the background image at the bottom. Two of the panels appear to be damaged by the un-paneled image to their right. These panel effects combine with the decreasing color and sharper lines lower in the page to give the impression that something is changing as one progresses through the page. The text works with the panel structure to reinforce the intended effect on the reader. The text describes a bird flying into a window, and the character’s interpretation that the bird must have a message for him, because it died to attract his attention. The textual references to important issues and groups, suicide, dying for a cause, and power brokers all encourage the reader to feel as though the character is building conspiracies out of nothing, but the nature of the story keeps the reader doubting as to whether that feeling is correct. Moving to page 105, we see a change in the panel structure, a square block of roughly nine panels advances the story. These panels have clear (but crooked) borders, though one panel is borderless and bleeds out into the background. There are two main deviations from the structure of page 105. After the sixth panel, a transparent panel is crammed into the corner, and the border of the ninth panel looks as though a bird has run into it, with blood spraying back into the panel and the border shattering into the gutter. Two non sequitur transitions on the page only make sense in context of the rest of the story, encouraging the reader to return later and find meaning in that which was meaningless. The text on this page continues the effect from 104, encouraging the reader to make illogical connections in order to try to make sense of the story. It connects with the visual aspects of the page in the ninth panel where the sentence started with text is finished by the panel: “1334 Seventh Street will suffer physical damage from [the bird running into the edge of the panel, shattering it.]” The confusing panel structure, background image, and text combine to leave the reader doing exactly the same thing as the character, sifting the evidence to try to find out what is true and what is not. The blue fish, in two panels and the background image on 104 and in one panel on the following page, seems to be a figment of the character’s imagination, a non sequitur that distracts from the story. Even after reading the page a number of times, it seems to bear no relation to anything so far in the story, but it is not until pages later that this image seems to make sense. Eventually, even the non-sequitur panel after panel six on page 105 and the fish make sense. The reader must constantly go back and check their assumptions about what is important, reconnecting various images which seem to make sense, but not in a logical way, like the fish swimming through the city. The reader sees the insane character seeing the broken bird, and like the character, tries to see a reason for things to be as they are. Why do pretty animals have to die? Why do people have to lose their minds? What of this character’s rant is true? We look for why, we look for a reason, we look for a pattern, and we, like the character, seem to see it spilling from the corpse of the bird that died so we could see it. By confusing the reader enough to make them search the page for what it is they are ‘supposed’ to see and flip back and forth through the story, understanding what had previously meant nothing and making connections between strange events, Gaiman makes the reader feel insane. This makes for a much deeper story and greater degree of empathy between the reader and the character, and it is why graphic novels are such an excellent medium for depicting insanity. All page numbers refer to Neil Gaiman’s Endless Nights , published by Vertigo in 2003. Comments Off on Insanity in Graphic Novels Filed under Graphic novel August 15, 2011 · 4:48 pm Virginia Supreme Court Appellate Brief Explanatory Note: This was the final assignment for the Paralegal Certificate. I was instructed to formulate a brief around a ruling that someone’s personal injury case was denied according to “first bite free.” The assignment was designed to be open ended and to require substantial legal research. All facts were fabricated, but I researched the case as though it were real. I have removed formatting (such as page numbers) which is not helpful online, but paper copies are available upon request. In the Supreme Court of Virginia Record No 314159 Mary Jane, Appellant, v. Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius, Appellee. BRIEF OF APPELLANT Bruce Wayne. VSB # 228626 WAYNE ENTERPRISES, ATTORNEY AT LAW 303 Reims Lane, Gotham, NY 25010 (888)-888-8888 WayneEnterprises.com Nothingtodowiththebat@gmail.com Table of Contents Cover Page Table of Contents Table of Authorities Statement of the Case Statement of the Facts Questions Presented Arguments First Bite Free Negligence Per Se Conclusion Certificate Table of Authorities Cases Butler v. Frieden 208 Va. 352 (1967). Kaltman v. All American Pest Control 281 Va. 483 (2011). Stout v. Bartholomew 261 Va. 547 (2001). Statutes VA 3.2-6538. Governing body of any locality may prohibit dogs from running at large. VA 3.2-6539. Control of dangerous or v...