You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
I am an avid reader of graphic novels. I love the simultaneous appearance of text and image on the page. The interplay of words and image is both visible and meaningful. Words—representing speech, thought, and narration—may appear in frames or little bubbles. They may run through or around an image; they may be absent. They may complement or contextualize the meanings conveyed by images, and vice versa. The meanings of image and word may be integrated or distinct. The story emerges through this confluence of forms, which are inextricable despite being discrete, and through an explicit juxtaposition of forms, each form serving as context for the other.
We read the words and images simultaneously and similarly, attending to their meanings. Reading images involves perceiving and thinking, just as reading words does. Yet we usually do not notice this thinking as we are reading; nor do we know the processes by which words and images achieve their effects. If we do take time to ponder the manner of storytelling, an author's particular use of image and word to convey a particular moment, we are likely to notice more precisely how meaning emerges