Show & Tell: Narrative Element

For this week's Show & Tell, I chose another of my favorite books to share with the class. This one is by the legendary creator and visual storyteller, Will Eisner. The book is called Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative and it focuses on the fundamental elements of storytelling for a visual medium (such as comics). As this class is called Words & Images, after all, I thought that it was a perfect example of how to use both elements effectively to tell a story.

Some of the topics discussed within the book include: images as narrative tools; how to tell different kinds of stories; the history of storytelling; and the writing process: written vs. graphic. As I said, this is one of my favorite books because it not only talks about how to tell a story as a comic, but through visual means in general. Since we have critique this week for our documentaries, I thought it might help those struggling with their story, as I was. I definitely referred back to this book once or twice this week as I worked to finish up my Comp.

Anyway, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in storytelling, in whatever form that may be.