I was a comic book collecting kid in the 1980’s when I first heard the term “graphic novel.” It was used to describe Frank Miller’s Dark Knight trilogy. Of course, if you’re familiar with those books, or that time frame, The Dark Knight helped usher in a whole new level of writing, artistry, and maturity into the comic industry. Graphic novels as we know them today however, took quite some time to evolve. It’s hard to define, but for me, I’d say that the main difference between a comic book and a graphic novel is the “realness” of the subject matter. I mean, in general, graphic novels don’t focus on “super heroes,” but more on very real, often tremendously personal and emotional struggles. The art is much more subdued as well. There’s a lot less action lines bursting out at you, and the panels are usually in a very orderly fashion, as opposed to the wildly dynamic shapes and sizes that today’s comics use.
That said though, I think graphic novels are amongst the most powerful forms of artistic expression in the world today, and I’ve long wanted to try my hand at one. Despite having written and illustrated several other books though, I didn’t think I’d be able to do an actual graphic novel justice. But thankfully, my agent felt otherwise, and suggested I at least try doing some sample pages to find out. Thus the artwork below, which I’m happy to say, did prove my agent correct, and eventually led me to a book deal for my first graphic novel, Lucky Scramble.
