April Questions - Science Fiction
To look into this month's theme of science fiction comics, we're looking at these titles:
- The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu (Quill Tree)
- Far Sector by N. K. Jemisin (DC)
- Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image)
Here are some questions relating to these titles to get the discussion started:
- The Infinity Particle deals with difficult concepts relating to personhood, ownership, and artificial intelligence, how much does the visual depiction of the humanoid artificial intelligence in this story affect the way a reader can relate to them? How much would the story structure have to chance to achieve this in a regular novel?
- N. K. Jemisin has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for her science fiction novels and short stories, does having a highly successful non-comic author help the promotion of comics and graphic novels or does the status of the author overshadow the medium?
- Far Sector tells a Green Lantern story but ignores many of the superhero story tropes in favour of more traditional science fiction ones. Should the superhero comic genre still be considered a subgenre of science fiction or should it now be considered its own genre?
- Paper Girls plays on the same 80s 'kinds on bikes' sci-fi and fantasy nostalgia that TV shows like Stranger Things and movies like IT utilise to great effect, does the visual nature of comics make them particularly well suited to these stories?
And some more general questions on the theme of science fiction comics:
- Is it more useful to focus on promoting science fiction graphic novels to readers and viewers of other forms of science fiction or to readers of other genres of graphic novels?
- How can we use genre comics and graphic novels to help library users to understand that comics are a format that can tell a wide variety of stories rather than being restricted to specific genres?
- Many libraries indicate a book's genre through shelving location and spine labels, for comics these are usually methods used to indicate the comics format so how can we make the genres of different comics clear to library users?
Hello everyone and thankyou James for setting up this forum. I've got a huge pile of GN on my desk and haven't read all our selected titles yet. I have finished The Infinity Particle by Wendy Xu last night and really enjoyed it. It's thought-provoking and the artwork is extremely pleasing. I knew Xu as the co author of Mooncakes - which was enjoyable - but here I believe Xu has shown us her true voice.
The reader is going to face many themes and big questions, but he's guided in this quest for answers by the visual elements, the writing style and the futuristic setting of this GN. Which is not surprising after all: social commentary has always been central in any (good) horror and science fiction work.
End note: I've ordered a copy of The Infinity Particle for the library where I work. I'm sure it'll be popular. 😀
So.... I wrote a long post discussing Far Sector, Paper Girls and answering lots of questions and then it disappeared when I pressed submit 😭
I need to go to bed tonight but I'll see if I have time to do it all again tomorrow 😰
I haven’t read The Infinity Particle, but I loved Mooncakes. I’ll definitely give it a go after your strong recommendation Marzia.
I haven’t read any of N.K. Jemisin’s novels but I’m aware of them. I’ve always been curious about novellists and film or TV scriptwriters having a go with writing comics. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I think matching the writer and their sensibilities with the right comic and the right artist is absolutely crucial. Far Sector is an example of this. Jemisin’s science fiction angle and approach works really well with the Green Lantern mythos. The graphic novel also manages to be heady and dense enough without being too overtly wordy. I feel like the artist and comics editor really helped here. Another great example of the last few years are the Blade Runner comics. Michael Green who was one of the writers of the Blade Runner 2049 film launched a series of comics and they worked really well. Does the famous author overshadow the medium? Perhaps, but I think it’s a great way of broadening the market and readership.
The superhero genre is not a subgenre of science fiction. It’s definitely it’s own genre and I’d say it has been for a very long time. They have their own tropes and identifiers as superhero stories and in fact we have superhero comics and movies that use different genres: spy, antihero, war, horror, fantasy.
Paper Girls is beautiful. Love that series. I think the nostalgia factor is a definite pull. I lived through the 80s and I’m attracted to that, I can relate to that. But I think the nostalgia wears off as you progress through the story and you definitely need a solid story, characters and art to keep you going. Paper Girls succeeded in all this. Best of all, it didn’t continue for too long and delivered a solid story start to end. Stranger Things in contrast has become too long and overstuffed and it’s starting to lose steam. I think nostalgia stories like this work really well in visual formats (films, tv and comics). The visuals helps us relate to the story and the memory of those times. But I would say, that comics are the best format for this type of nostalgia because the visuals in film and tv are too vivid and detailed. You are seeing the visual representation of the production design and the director. There’s no room for your own interpretation and your memories. But in comics, as the drawings are not as detailed, the artist can give you their own interpretation but there’s still room for you to filling the gaps and for you to visualise things in your own way and how you remember them. I think that’s powerful.
Reponding to the general questions.
Is it more useful to focus on promoting science fiction graphic novels to readers and viewers of other forms of science fiction or to readers of other genres of graphic novels?
Both. You’ll always encounter people who will just read their favourite genre or medium and cannot try something different but, generally, people are often to give it a go when at least it’s something they’re familiar with. For a horror book ban, who most likely also likes horror films, it’s not a stretch to try a horror comic. For someone who already reads comics, it’s not a stretch to get them to try another title in the same medium. The key thing is to find a connection and a way in.
How can we use genre comics and graphic novels to help library users to understand that comics are a format that can tell a wide variety of stories rather than being restricted to specific genres?
This is a really important one and whenever I see the opportunity I always emphasise that comics are just another storytelling medium, like films, plays, tv series, prose. You can find comics in all genres. I always start by working out what genres and authors they like and then showing them examples of graphic novels with similar themes, genres, and authors. I always show some non fiction comics too, which are among my favourites. That usually piques their interest.
Many libraries indicate a book's genre through shelving location and spine labels, for comics these are usually methods used to indicate the comics format so how can we make the genres of different comics clear to library users?
I really like the idea of showing that comics have lots of genres too. I’ve seen some libraries that have the comics sticker and a genre sticker too. I have also seen some libraries that go further and shelve comics in their own genres. There are some problems with this as some titles mix genres but this happens with prose books too. Personally, I like the idea of genre stickers but I don’t favour dividing the comics into genres on the shelf. Unless you have an incredibly large collection.
