Graphic Novel Roundup

Jim Ottaviani practices the science of graphic novels

Jim Ottaviani is head of reference services at the Media Union Library at the University of Michigan and a fan of graphic novels. He began his own graphic novels publishing company, G. T. Labs, in 1996. Since then, Ottaviani has written and published Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, Dignifying Science, and Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb.

Why do you use comics to tell science stories?
I do comics about scientists because of Steve Lieber, a noted comic-book artist and a good friend of mine. I had loaned him a copy of Richard Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and he pointed out that a wartime meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, which Rhodes had described briefly, had great dramatic potential. When Steve and I talk about dramatic potential, we usually mean in comics. So I asked him if he'd draw the story if I wrote it up as a comics script.

Why write graphic novels rather than conventional prose novels?
One reason to do comics rather than prose—besides my love of the medium—is that prose is a solo effort. All the reader sees is the writer's work. And that's all the writer sees, too. But in comics, when the artist finishes illustrating the story, I get the pleasure of experiencing it through somebody else's eyes. The script leaves G. T. Labs as a relatively cold thing… I'm usually very close to the story at that point, so close that I can't always see all of its dimensions. In the hands of an artist, it gets transformed into a story and what I thought was complete before becomes something much more. What could be better than that?

Talk about how you work with illustrators.
The artists have a great deal of input, it's comics, after all. When the story is real enough for me to see it in a particular style, I usually have someone in particular in mind to illustrate it. So while I'm refining the story some more, I also approach my first choice of artist.

When I've finished the script, I send it to the artist, along with as many reference images as I can muster. (Work with a librarian and you get a lot of references!) At that point, the story is theirs. In other words, even though I provide as complete a description as I can of how the panels and pages look in my head, it's not my hand that's going to draw the story. So I can't, and don't, demand that artists follow my script to the letter.

Does being a librarian help you create your graphic novels?
My books are research driven. They start with facts, and I pick and choose from those facts to build a story and maybe, as a bonus, expose a truth about the scientist or discovery in question.

But to get away from philosophy, the short answer is facts mean research, and plenty of it, so the tools and skills available to me as a librarian are essential. I'm fortunate to work at an excellent library, but I rely on interlibrary loan from all sorts of libraries—from public to academic—to keep me going.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from librarians on your books?
I've received great feedback, and I'd love to have more. Librarians tell me that there's nothing else out there like my books. Actually that's not true. Jay Hosler does terrific comics about science. His latest, The Sandwalk Adventures (ActiveSynapse, 2003), is about Charles Darwin. Librarians have also told me that my books are helpful for getting kids interested in science and biography. They also help legitimize the medium in the eyes of skeptical parents and library boards.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on a book about Niels Bohr. He's the father of quantum mechanics, and one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Einstein looked up to him, the Nazis tried to kidnap him, and Winston Churchill considered him a very dangerous man. It's my longest, most ambitious book yet. The book, Suspended in Language, will come out later this year.

Dignifying Science
G. T. Labs. 2003. $16.95.
ISBN 0-9660-1064-7. Gr 8 Up

Fallout
G. T. Labs. 2001. $19.95.
ISBN 0-9660-1063-9. Gr 9 Up.

Two-Fisted Science
G. T. Labs. 2001. $12.95.
ISBN 0-9660-1062-0. Gr 8 and Up.

The new feature film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, starring Sean Connery, is based on the acclaimed comic-book series created by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.

Set during the waning days of the Victorian era, the original series tells the story of five disenfranchised agents charged with saving England. Who the group works for is uncertain. But the team's leader, Miss Murray, believes it's the famed detective Sherlock Holmes, back from the dead. Moore and O'Neill have created a drama that is inviting and suspenseful.

Moore is one of the most celebrated writers in the history of comics. In the early 1980s, he and artist Steve Bissette reimagined Swamp Thing, the half-man, half-swamp creature. Later, Moore teamed with artist Dave Gibbons to create the ultimate superhero series, Watchmen. Both Swamp Thing and another Moore title, From Hell (not geared for children or teen readers), have made it to the big screen.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
Moore, Alan and Kevin O'Neill.
DC Comics. 2002. $14.95.
ISBN 1-56389-858-6. Gr 9 Up.

Saga of the Swamp Thing
Moore, Alan and Steve Bissette.
DC Comics. 2000. $19.95.
ISBN 0-9302-8922-6. Gr 7 Up.

Artist Peter Kuper has published an ambitious adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. With a line drawing style, Kuper lends a 21st-century sensibility to Kafka's classic story of alienation in this striking little black-and-white book. The richly imagined illustrations are chilling and compelling.

Kuper began his career in 1979 when he coedited World War 3 Illustrated. Kuper's work has appeared in many national publications, including Time Newsweek and. He was named "Cartoonist of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine in 1995.

This isn't the first time Kuper has interpreted Kafka's work—the artist's 1995 adaptation of Give It Up! and Other Short Stories (NBM) garnered high praise. Here's hoping that we won't have to wait another eight years before Kafka and Kuper are united again.

The Metamorphosis
Kuper, Peter.
Crown. 2003. $18.
ISBN 1-4000-4795-1. Gr 8 Up.

Give It Up! and Other Short Stories
Kuper, Peter.
NBM. 1995. $15.95.
ISBN 1-56163-125-6. Gr 8 Up.