Talking Points: The Graphic Novel

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I was invited by the UP Writers Club to give a short talk on the Pinoy graphic novel. The event took place yesterday. I hope I offered enough useful information, since the primary feedback was that my lecture was the "most entertaining so far." While I normally sweat like a pig trying to make my talks as engaging as possible, it would be dandy if the club emailed me some constructive comments on what I babbled on about for over an hour.

Apart from sharing the "fresh" advice I wrote in my last post, I also gave a few of my opinions about the graphic novel. In a way, these opinions form my manifesto, a set of rules I've found myself following after reviewing the process I go through in developing my own comics work, as well as my thoughts on the graphic novel form. Some may be debatable, but I've taken these to heart.
  1. To me, a graphic novel is not just literature or fiction. It is not just visual art. It is also performance art.
  2. My graphic novels will contain stories. They will not be graphic essays, nor graphic commentary.
  3. My graphic novel stories will approximate, using its unique language, the scope and depth of a prose novel.
  4. My graphic novels will make the most of the image-text relationship. One will support, intensify, complement, or acknowledge the strength of the other as necessary.
  5. Because printed graphic novels are expensive, I will do my best to make my work (writing and art) worth the price.

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