Adapting A Graphic Narrative

After reading through a book showing "101 ways to tell the same story" but through different styles of graphic narrative, I attempted to tell the same story twice through different styles. It allowed me an introduction to the many types of styles that are used in graphic novels and gave me a brief idea on what style I'd like to design my own around.

The example we were first shown tells the story of a man getting up from his work, walking out the door, being asked what the time is and replying, then continuing to the fridge before thinking to himself "What the hell was I looking for, anyway?!"

We were then shown this exact same story but in a number of different styles. These included:

• Real life photos.
• Close ups.
• Romantic.
• Alien themed.
• Super-hero themed.
• Silhouettes.
• Coloured.

The next task was to tell our own graphic narrative using the given story:

• The lesson was finally finished, 5 minutes late!
• You leave the classroom and run down the corridor to meet your friends for a meal.
• You're at the back of the line.
• And as you get to the front you realise your friends have already got their meal and not saved a space.
• You have to sit alone.

I had to tell my narrative in a "Romantic" style:

In this style I have tried to use colours associated to love and romance, red being the prime example. I kept the story line but the Romance style forces you to tweak it in places making it more based around love and relationships.

And also part of a "Close Up" style:

The exercise showed me the many ways that graphic narratives can be shown in rather than just assuming that they are all like superhero comics. I probably wouldn't use the Romantic theme as the style doesn't appeal to me a lot and the drawings are a bit more challenging. The Close Up style was a lot easier, but it's not a particularly exciting style.