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Mulia

Sir Andrew

English Language and Literature

21 August 2023

Graphic Novel Conventions

The image presented is a page from the graphic novel Persepolis, specifically page 96.

As with any other graphic novels, Persepolis has both stylistic and structural features that has

effects on its target audience. This page is no different, with several different stylistic and

structural features.

First is the stylistic features, which include scales of style, panels, and body language. For

the scales of style, which is the scale of the complexity of the cartoon’s drawings, the panel

shown has a relatively simple style. This is seen in the faces of the people, which are simply

circles with a line for a mouth, a simple nose, and googly eyes. The simple faces are made so that

the audience can relate to the characters shown easier as their faces don’t have any unique

features. The next feature are panels, which are an action to action panel. Action to action is a

form of panel where the cartoonist only puts one action for each moment, allowing the story to

move along faster. In the page, each moment, such as when the teacher shows the students on

how to pay respect, is shown in only one panel, in this case a panel of her slapping her chest.

This panel style is chosen as it is more efficient and allows the audience to gain a bigger picture

of the story being told. Finally is the body language. The characters in the cartoon have different

gestures, such as the teacher with her firm, serious gesture and the students with their wide eyed,
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confused body language. This is used to show the audience how the characters are perceiving the

situation.

As for the structural features, there are three noticeable ones present, onomatopoeia,

speech bubbles, and emanata. Onomatopoeia are words that imitate the sound of something, in

the case of the page, the sound of slapping. A panel shows the image of the teacher slapping her

chest, producing a slapping sound. This sound is presented through the onomatopoeia “whack”.

Such use of words allow the audience to imagine the sound produced during the scenes in the

story. The next structural features are speech bubbles and narration boxes. The narration box is

used to narrate what the author says while the speech bubble depicts direct speech. There are two

kinds of speech bubbles present, normal and jagged. Normal speech bubbles represent normal

speech while the jagged speech bubble indicates a loud one, in the case of the page a loud speech

from a microphone. The different shapes of the speech bubble give the audience an idea of the

volume and tone the words are being spoken. Finally is emanata, which are motion lines used to

express emotions or movement. In the page, emanata is used to depict the movement of hands

slapping themselves as well as the motion of whips, This feature is used to give audiences a clear

understanding on the motions and actions being depicted in the picture.