Looking past the cover

The marriage of visual art with narrative text is a vivid delight that only one medium can give audiences.

There is nothing quite like opening the pages of a comic book or graphic novel.

They inhabit a gray area between the worlds of literature and film.

Readers are given artists' interpretations of a story's events that unfold through a series of panels much like a director interprets a screenplay.

Yet, the readers' imaginations are not short-changed. They themselves must still bring to life the characters on those pages just as prose demands of them.

Imaginations must still be engaged.

Readers are "really getting the same thing from (graphic novels)" as they would from traditional novels, Store Manager of Comic Relief in Berkeley Todd Martinez said.

Graphic novels are collected editions of the monthly issues, but sometimes there are original graphic novels directly published in this format.

Graphic novels are a "wonderful new medium and genre," English department Chairwoman Joy Eichner-Lynch said.

The medium, either in its monthly format or otherwise, is capable of meeting any level of sophistication that novels or film can.

In Time magazine's list of 100 best novels from 1923 through the present, the graphic novel, "Watchmen," is included along with other titles such as "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Invisible Man" and "Animal Farm."

The more erudite comic books will focus on character interaction and relationships and pose moral questions.

Martinez cited books like "Love & Rockets" and "Watchmen" in his examples of titles that are on par with traditional literature.

A book like "Watchmen" asks questions more complex than whether or not the hero will survive the evil machinations of his nemesis next month.

Although, readers most certainly can get their fill of high-octane, kinetic action with comics if that is all they want.

Some readers like Contra Costa College student Akira Abenes see graphic novels as a "portal to a fantasy world."

The superhero genre has traditionally been known to function in such a way.

Characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Wolverine are drawn into plots that see them square off against evil madmen all the time.

Until books like "Watchmen," the theme of good versus evil was normally seen by the non-comic book reader as the only plot to permeate their pages.

The superhero genre, however, has developed to be so much more complex. Among the simple action plots are stories like Marvel's "Civil War," that still manages to put forward difficult moral dilemmas.

Writers of this eventful story used the Marvel superhero universe as a metaphor for the real world events occurring in America following the events of Sept. 11.

Issues based on the U.S. Patriot Act and freedom cropped up for characters like Captain America to face.

Mark Millar, core author of "Civil War," managed to tackle social problems and still tell an action-packed story.

Graphic novels are capable of telling so many different stories of all kinds of genres. And they demand readers to learn to appreciate both the worlds of visual art and words.

Comic book artists are every bit as responsible for telling the story with their individual styles and nuances. They detail panels to create a dialogue of images on each page.

And each page should tell a story.

In other countries like Japan, the story options for readers to choose from are limitless.

More and more, graphic novels are growing in popularity and acceptance in American culture.

Contact Ryan Jacques at rjacques.advocate@gmail.com.