Far
too few.
Before
the Gutenberg Press, all books were graphic novels. Everything was
hand drawn, including the letters which gave the Scribe incredible
freedom. He could do anty letter (say) "Y" any number of
ways - it didn't have to be the same every single time.
Once
all books looked like this
Is
this an early graphic novel?
The Column of Marcus Aurelius AD 180-192 Rome
Then
the Gutenberg Press came along and in order to make books cheaper,
they standardised letters and sizes and did away with all that
beautiful illumination. Books became pale, ghostly imitations of
books.
Now,
over 600 years later, we think that that is how books should be.
In
fact, we've relegated pictures to childrens books to the point where
we think it "grown up" to have pages as bare and white as
dead coral.
But
art n general and the graphic novel in particular are having the last
laugh.
Look
around you. There is art everywhere. It's on your walls, its on the
streets, it's in every magazine, it's on TV. Every product we buy is
covered and decorated with art. We are awash in an ocean of art.
And
the graphic novel is coming back into fashion. With modern printing,
it's as easy and simple to reproduce art as it is black text on a
white page. In fact, with more and more people giving up the printed
page in preference to a computer screen, it's even easier to
introduce and combine art with text to tell a story.
There's
even a pen that will record my movements as I draw and write and then
transfer it straight to computer into a PDF document ready to share
with billions of people.
And
graphic novels are available in mainstream bookshops.
To
give you an idea of just how exciting this is, here are some examples
from the field of art journaling
This
re-joining of text and image - what was divided is whole once again -
is truly exciting. And the sooner most books are treated in this way
the better
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