Video Transcript for “BAM! It’s a Picture Book; the Art of Graphic Novels”

Hello and welcome to the Ellen Noel Art Museum. I’m Annie Stanley, the Educator here at the museum. Each fall is a special time as we prepare for Fine Arts Connection tours for all third grade ECISD students.

Since we have some unique circumstances this year, we are adapting our programming to accommodate all our interested audiences.

A normal in -person FAC visit would take about 90 minutes, allowing you to visit exhibits and have a hands-on art experience in the classroom. This year, we are offering taped tours of each gallery along with pre or post visit activities that can be accessed from the museum’s website at noelartmuseum.org/Museum from Home/Fine Arts Connection.

We will also have a limited number of art kits available at our front desk for children who are able to visit in person with their grown up.

This gallery is host to “BAM! It’s a Picture Book; the Art of Graphic Novels” on loan from the NCCIL, the national center for children’s illustrated literature. It will be on view here at the Museum until Nov 3. Our hours are Tuesday-Sunday from 12-5 and Thurs nights until 8:00. Admission is always free.

So, first of all, what is a graphic novel? Well, like it sounds, it’s a book with many illustrations. They are similar to comic books but have more text, or words than a normal comic book. The Nelda Lee gallery hosts the work of five different artists/authors.

As you enter through the door and go to your left, you will first see the work of Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Jarrett is most known for his graphic novel character “Lunch Lady” which is being developed for a feature film. He also developed a fun drawing program on YouTube called “Draw Everyday with J.J.K”.

Next, we see the work of Lincoln Pierce. One of Pierce’s well-known characters is Big Nate. The Big Nate comic strip appears daily in over 300 newspapers as well as in many novels and comic strip compilations. Pierce was influenced by Charles Schulz, the creator of the comic strip “Peanuts”.

Mark Crilley, who grew up in Detroit Michigan has been drawing since he was a child. His best- known graphic novels are Brody’s Ghost and Miki Falls. Writing a graphic novel is similar to writing a traditional novel in that the author begins with an outline of what’s going to take place followed by writing the story or script.

Matthew Holm grew up reading the comic books of his older siblings and later drew editorial cartoons for his college newspaper. His character, “Babymouse” was one of the first graphic novel series written specifically for children. He works with his sister, Jennifer, who does the writing while he does all of the illustrations.

Raina Telgemeirer’s work, “Smile”, was a graphic novel based on her childhood in San Francisco. It became a #1 New York Times bestseller and won an Eisner Award for the Best Publication for Teens. Raina has a fun example of how artists can use little images or pictures, called emanata, to convey different messages into their cartoons or graphic novels.