ICM - Leeds Design Agency

The graphic novel has long been used to tackle difficult and controversial subject matter. You can see this most clearly in Hollywood’s growing list of films interpreted from graphic novels. People may shy away from reading them, but they go in droves to the cinema to watch them.

To a large extent Hollywood has used the subject matter to reflect public feeling. In the ‘80s there was hope, so we had Superman, now there is war, recession, climate chaos, so we have the likes of Batman, Sin City and, most recently, Watchmen. Most of these were written over twenty years ago, but it is only now that they have become relevant to a wider audience.

The examples below show how contrasting graphic illustration can be. These are some of my favourite books that have become films. It’s amazing how close the films have stayed to the original images.

Starting with Watchmen this bleak outlook on the world is an anti-superhero story:

This blog post shows how the film was adapted from the book.
http://www.geekanerdblog.com/2008/07/watchmen-movie-trailer-dissected.html

As a complete contrast the graphic novel form has been used to tell difficult stories. Marjane Satrapi tells us the story of her childhood in Iran in Persepolis. The simple illustration heightens the tension in the story.

This is Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. It tells the story of two girls leaving school and their contrasting reactions to the ‘real world’.

Comic book cover:

Film poster: