Comics and Graphic Novels

Re reading 7: Sabin, Roger. “What is a Comic?” In Adult Comics: An Introduction. Routledge: London, 1993, pp. 5-9.

My original comic definition: a cartoon on paper.
After reading Sabins text I have indeed revised my opinion :) A comic is a 'strip' format used to illustrate with minority text to explain. The imagery tells the story more then the words. The text supports the images not the other way around. Sabin identifies the main features of a comic by the 'comic strip' format used to tell the story. A "narrative... sequence of pictures". A publication in magazine, newspaper, tabloid or book or booklet. Text is displayed in speech bubbles or speedlines or think bubbles rather then a narrative told in paragraphs. This alters the way we look at and read a comic. Our eye naturally roams left to right. We've been conditioned to read text a certain way and when we encounter comics if we're not used to them, it may take us a little while to adjust to the new format, as a comic will bounce its text at us from all over. The three types of language used are narrative, dialogue and sound effects. Onomatopoeia being used to add oomph to the sounds expressed.

Sabin has likened the story telling of a comic - to film story telling. Its similarities lie in cinematic composition such as 'establishing shots, close ups, panoramas, etc...' the different angles adding to the drama of the story and the tones that it creates, much like films do. Jump cutting (switching from scene to scene quite quickly) and segueing (echoing images from the end of one page to the next).... are also techniques the movie industry incorporate to create dramatic tension.