Illustrated Stories

A break away from my videos, I promise I will get back to them soon. But right now I want to talk about cartoons! I have always had an interest in graphic novels, cartoons, and animated features. Like all children I loved the stories and the pictures.  Even now, I am more excited to see the Oscar nominated animated short films, then I am to see Zero Dark Thirty.

As a grew up I discovered that animation is not just for children, as many people believe.  I find it so fascinating how one can use images to tell a story, even in the absence of words. Many people see Manga, Anime, Graphic Novels, Cartoons, Comics, as kids stuff. However, I think Japanese Animators, Hayao Miyazaki, Dave Mckean, Niel Gaiman, Mark Buckingham, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, John Higgins, and Charlie Adlard, and countless other amazing artists, are showing us that it really isn't just for kids. The illustrations and films can be violent, heartfelt, sensual, sexual, and tell real hard hitting stories. They can be full of emotion, and even try to confront the cutesy comics and cartoons of the past. Each can be a real work of art. (If you don't know what I am talking about, watch Spirited Away, or read the comic series Fables, The Sand Man Series, or The Walking Dead comic book. Now I have only recently started reading comics and graphic novels in the past two years, so I know there are a lot of great ones I haven't mentioned. But I truly believe that we will be studying these stories and images in art history and literature classes as a major revolution in  the telling of stories, painting, and illustration.

The reason I wanted to talk about graphic novels, is because I found a few short ones of my own. Now they are sketchy, rough, and colored in crayon. (When you are an artists with little money, you work with what you have.)  I drew them about three years ago. They are about growing up as a mixed race person and trying to find out who I am and how I identify. Race wasn't really an issue to me until late high school and college.  It somehow became an issue, maybe because I was actually delving into myself to find out who I was, but also because others made a bigger deal about it. When I was a child, it didn't matter to me. I was just me. Right now, as an adult (If you can call me that), I am still not sure how to discuss it. I love my my background and my culture, but race still seems like a mystery to me. People joke to me about about it, saying things like, "you are so white today", and I joke back, but really I am just me. My race is just my skin color.  I want to learn about both sides of myself so I can connect to my past and use that history as a tool to discover my story.  But in all of it, no matter what I discover  I am just me, Emmanuelle.

Ok now back to the stories. They are exaggerated, rough, and melodramatic. But it was my first try so cut me some slack. :-)

Story One

 

 

Story Two