Biography Research: Comics and Graphic Novels

Art Spiegelman: MAUS

Spiegelman is an Jewish American cartoonist best known for his 1980 graphic novel Maus, which depicts his father's story of the holocaust through the eyes of a Polish Jew, representing the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. It's one of the most prolific historical biographical graphic novels of the 21st century and is widely praised as the 'greatest graphic novels ever written.' Maus sticks to the format of tradition graphic novel comics of 9-12 frames and traditional speech bubbles and layout. The novel uses illustration and symbolism to tackle haunting subjects and anecdotes of the holocaust. He also uses an interview style to reminisce on his fathers stories through 3rd person.

Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis

Satrapi is an Iranian born French graphic novelist. She is most widely known for her graphic autobiography, Persepolis, published in 2000. The novel tells the story through 1st person of what it was like for the author to grow up in Iran throughout the Islamic Revolution. Being said to have been influenced heavily by Art Spiegelman, Satrapi uses a similar traditional style in the layout of the novel, using monochrome and heavy uses of imagery to tell the story of war through the eyes of a child. I really love the childlike illustrations of the novel and how this coincides with the heavy themes within it.

My Friend Dahmer: Derf 

My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel published in 2012, which tells the story of the prolific serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, through the eyes of a former classmate, the writer, John (Derf) Backderf. Derf went to high school with Dahmer and uses a traditional graphic novel style to recall anecdotes from their teenage years together combined and compared with the factual information he learnt about Dahmer after his arrest. The novel itself is a chilling memoir of a Derf's brief friendship with Dahmer, and a statement on what makes a person become a monster. 

David B : Epileptic. 

Epileptic is an autobiographical novel, telling the story of David B's childhood, growing up with an epileptic brother. With the use of graphic story telling, Epileptic represents the constant struggle of the family in finding something of a cure for his brothers epilepsy, including various witch doctors, voo doo and unconventional methods. I like the artists use of movement and pattern making, in order to tell the story. 

Kate Beaton: Hark, a vagrant 

Beaton is now a published illustrator, who creates children's picturebooks and graphic novels. However she rose to fame from her popular blog where she posted historical webcomics: http://www.harkavagrant.com/about.php Her comics take a comedic style to tell short stories from history.

Tille Walden: On a Sunbeam

Aged only 22, Tille Walden has published five graphic novels, and a series of webcomics on her blog, http://tilliewalden.com/category/comics. Her graphic novel, On a Sunbeam, tells two coexisting stories; one of a space crew rebuilding a station, and the other two girls at boarding school who fall in love. I love the way Walden takes the time to set the scene of her novels, with epic and beautifully coloured full page illustrations in contrast to previous pages which keep the classic comic structure. A really interesting use of colour, pattern and texture to tell a story through graphic illustration.

Alison Bechdel: Fun Home

Fun home is a graphic memoir of Bechdel's childhood in Pensylvania, and her relationship with her father. The novel adds a comedic stance on what it was like to grow up in a funeral home, and depicting the strange and isolated relationship she had with her father, English Proffessor and Funeral Director. Bechdel tells her own coming out story, coinciding with discovery of her father's homosexual past after his death. 

Nora Krug: Heimat

Heimat, or 'Belonging', is a graphic novel which tackles the authors own journey of discovering her German family history. The story addresses the issues on the guilt felt by German families, for their own involvement during WW2, and the lack of responsibility wished to be taken based on this guilt. Nora knew little of her own families involvement in the war, and the novel itself tells the story of this journey of discovery. The author combines collage, with illustration and traditional comics, to create an interesting mixed media story.

Chris Ware: Building Stories

Chris Ware is an American cartoonist most well known for his unconventional approach to graphic story telling. His graphic novel Building Stories is a 'box-set' collection of fourteen printed works consisting of: clothbound books, broadsheets, newspapers and flip books. Ware doesn't follow the traditional rules of comic-making, chosing not to stick to 9-12 frames but many more, sometimes up to fifty frames per page, this technique helps him to more effectively express the mundanities he wants to portray, following every single action of something simple i.e going to the toilet. His interesting approach to graphic novels has been greatly praised however deemed by some as hard to read.