The first question any writer needs to ask themselves is, “does this story need to be told?” Once that has been evaluated, sometimes answered by “I think it’s cool” or “I need money,” the writer then must decide how the story needs to be told - the best way to convey what the writer wants to convey with the story, be it information, satire, or some other message.

credit: D & Q

Writers can, in abstract theory, choose to make their story a poem, a movie, prose novel, an essay, or even a play. Of course, they can choose the comic book/graphic novel medium as well, to use the juxtaposition of words and pictures as the means to express their tale.

So I asked these questions to David Collier’s Portraits of Life, a collection of comics about historical people (or at least presented as historical), like Grey Owl, Paul Arthur, Ethel Catherwood, and even his own grandfather. From a modern lit stance, yes, these are interesting stories and worth telling. Read the rest of this entry »