The Art Of Story Telling (Essay)

Comparsion

Emily Carroll's graphic novels mostly follow the themes of horror so mostof the colours are dark or dull where as Kazu kibuish are brighter in colour since they are mostly set around fantasy themes.

Carroll's work really sets the theme of horror because the images are very gothic and autumnal. She does this by using a little amount of colour and when she does use it, she mainly only uses reds or very dark colours. The autumn theme comes into it because there are almost always trees or falling leaves. Also the use of this adds to the sense of horror because woods can relate to horror as some horror stories have them in somewhere. Woods are normally included in thembbecause they are dark and lonely. The one that I have been mainly looking at for this comparison is her novel Out Of Skin. Woods can be seen heavily in Grimm's classic fairy tales. This is mostly becauseof their German origin and the need to warn people of the dangers of the vast European forests.

Kibuish's novel theAmulet: book 5 Prince of the Elves front cover uses colour to makethe characters feel more alive and stand out. The colours that are used in this cover are blue, pink, purple, grey, white and black. The images tell the story of the girl and her brother in this magical world filled with creatures that want to kill them. It also shows the reader what the story is about even before they open the book. The images that are on the cover are the characters, the magic amulet, anelf king and other fantasy creatures, by doing this it clearly portrays the genre in which it is set. The colours are also very light and dreamy like which gives the feel of fantasy and imagination.

The dark, dull, horror themed work of Carroll's is a complete contrast to the work of Kibuish's that is more colourful and lively. The Imagery and words in Out Of Skin work really well together. They work because without the text you can still understand what is happening by the imagery. Take for example the part with the trees and ghostly looking figures outside the barn. The text helps to validate what the image shows.The text says 'Just the sound of those greying girls outside mywindow,' which also tells you that they are ghost like. The word greying gives the sense that they are not normal people but rather monsters or ghosts. Where as the imagery and words on the front cover of Prince of the Elves work in a different way to tell us what the story is about. The amulet around one of the characters neck is glowing which makes it stands out more compared to the other imagery.This makes clear that the main focus is the amulet. By having thenperson who is wearing it above the word amulet works well in sayingthat the story is mainly set around the girl, her brother and the amulet.

The thing that I really love about Carroll's work is the use of colour or lack of it because by doing this she has really captured the sense of horror; because it does this it makes me feel nervous and scared for the characters.Which is good thing in a story because it can help the reader to feel like they are in the characters shoes and a part of the story. This is also good in artwork that has been made to tell a story because it can make people feel and think different things about it.

What I like about Kibuish's novel is his use of blues and purples within his work because how he uses them really gives the sense of fantasy. I also really love the simple cartoon style because although it is very simple it is detailed in places to show what the world looks like.This clearly shows what the world is like and that it is a magical world filled with fantasy creatures. Also because he uses details to show difference places in the world it makes you feel as if you are going on an adventure alongside the characters.