Graphic+Novel+Analysis

“Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir” by Graham Roumieu is about Big Foot wanting to set the record straight because he is a misunderstood Hollywood celebrity. He wants readers to know that although he is bigger, hairier, and stinkier than everyone else; he is actually not as different on the inside, underneath everything. Even Big Foot has feelings and struggles with loneliness, abandonment, and embarrassing stories like the rest of us. Concepts such as lines, color, and interdependence from word and image interplay from Scott McCloud’s, “Understanding Comics”, are seen and used in Big Foot’s memoir. In Chapter 5 of “Understanding Comics”, McCloud explains the importance of lines and how emotions can be made visible. Lines can express how a character is feeling, in “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir”, Roumieu uses uneven lines that look like sketches to draw Big Foot throughout the entire book, in order to show Big Foot’s inner struggles with himself and life. Even on the cover of the Big Foot’s memoir, there are scribbles on the top right and bottom left corner, the bent, curly, uneven lines look like strands of Big Foot’s chest hair that fell out in clumps onto the cover of his memoir. The curly hairs look like random scribbles, but these lines are purposely drawn there by Roumieu to show the kind of painful emotion Big Foot experiences. McCloud also explains how lines are used between the visible and invisible worlds. When Big Foot cries on the page titled “Stink”, where he explains that he knows he smells foul, there are water droplets drawn steaming down his face, this is an example of lines used to show emotion visibly, because we are familiar to what tears look like, so we know Roumieu is trying to show the emotion of sadness because everyone tells Big Foot he smells, “like shit”, which is why Big Foot is crying. Lines are also used to show the invisible ideas through the world of emotions in backgrounds. A distorted background through certain patterns can affect readers physiologically because readers’ identity and can relate to those feelings and experiences that the character is going through. On a page titled, “Mister Scribbles”, Big Foot talks about missing his dog Mister Scribbles because they were both allergic to each other, so Mister Scribbles had to be sent away. One on page, Big Foot realizes that something strange is happening to Mister Scribbles and looks shocked, and then they are both later seen in hospital beds, both looking very ill. The background on this page is dark purple, with lots of messy black lines. Moreover, the purple does not run off the edge of the book and escape into timeless space, like the other backgrounds on other pages of this book. Instead, the purple background is circular, with chaotic round paint strokes to create a look that is gloomy, which perfectly suits Big Foot’s emotions. Another way to represent emotion through lines is through different styles of text in word bubbles. According to McCloud, “words themselves, more than all the other visual symbols, have the power to completely describe the invisible realm of senses and emotions” (McCloud), this can be shown in the font of “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir”. Throughout the entire memoir a very unusual font is used. The font is big, slanted, and messy. It looks like the handwriting of a second grader. Sometimes Big Foot doesn’t dot his i’s and j’s, or cross his t’s. Other times he makes mistakes and just crosses the sentence out. In addition, his hand accidently brushes against the paper when the ink is still wet, so that random letters get smeared and look blurry. All of this create a very unique font that if specifically Big Foot’s hand writing. This style is used because it represents Big Foot and shows how messy and clumsy he can be which is reinforced through the rough sketches of the illustrations. The second concept of McCloud’s from “Understanding Comics” that is used in “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir” is color. Color is used to take on central roles, express dominate moods, and add depth. Furthermore, through expressive colors, such as the colors used in “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir”, graphic novels can create stimulating sensations that only color can give. In Big Foot’s memoir, many of the colors used to illustrate Big Foot are dull, such as white, beige, brown, and grey. On a page titled “Have Bills to Pay”, Big Foot is dancing on a stripper pole while everyone in the audience is throwing up. The colors Roumieu used for the audience all represent how disgusted they are because of the blue and purple tones on their faces. In addition, the color of everyone’s vomit is the exact same color Roumieu used to illustrate Big Foot. This is something an author can only create using color, and not through a black and white comic. According to McCloud, when comic is in black and white, the ideas behind the art are communicated directly, whereas in colors, the forms themselves are more important. When something is expressed through color, such as when Big Foot is dancing on a stripper pole, the reader can tell how disgusted everyone is, not just because we can see everyone watching him throw up, but because of the colors the author uses, which makes us feel a little queasy too. Another way Roumieu uses color can be seen on a page titled “Storytime (Bigfoot aspiring children book maker)” on this page, there is a very childish drawing of a puppy climbing up the stairs on the mountain to get to a castle, a crocodile drinking apple juice, the sun with a face on it, and an asteroid flying across the sky. Because the drawing is by Big Foot, and he’s illustrating a children’s book, the colors used are very simple. Blue for the sky, orange for the sun, green for the crocodile, brown for the puppy, brown for the mountain, and yellow and black for the asteroid. Unlike the rest of “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir” which uses paint and water colors to illustrate the pages, on this page crayon is used. The point of using crayon to color this page is because Roumieu is trying to emphasize the fact that this is a children’s book, which is why it looks so immature, because only children use crayons to draw. In addition, in the illustration, Big Foot did not color within the lines, which again shows us that it is as if a child drew the picture. The third and final concept from “Understanding Comics” that is used in “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir” is world and image interplay. In Chapter 6, McCloud explains some distinct categories of words and images combining to transmit a connected series of ideas. They are: word specific, picture specific, duo specific, additive, parallel, montage, and interdependent. In “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir”, Roumieu uses the most common type of word and image interplay, which is the interdependent, where words and images mutually reinforce each other, and are codependent on each other. The words and pictures go hand in hand to express an idea that neither could convey alone, in order to fully understand the comic. An example of this is on a page titled “Imaginary Friend” the picture is of Big Foot hiding under the covers from a his imaginary friend, a ghost, and on the next page, he is sitting in a corner holding his head up with a distressed look on his face. The text on the page says “Sally go back to hell”. From this we can see the interdependence between the images and words. This is important because if the images of Big Foot were not there, and the page was blank, then it would just say, “My Imaginary Friend” and “Sally go back to hell”, and that would look silly and incomplete. On the other hand, if there was no text, and only pictures of Big Foot, then we could see the ghost and Big Foot hiding, but it wouldn’t be humorous because it doesn’t say “Sally go back to hell”. Interdependence shows a lot about picture and word combinations because they are codependent on each other. Readers would not be able to understand the message if either the words or images were missing. Even though most of the book uses interdependent word and image interplay, there is a page where Roumieu uses picture specific combinations, this is when the pictures dominate in telling the story, and words do little more than add a soundtrack to a visually told sequence. On the page where Big Foot is on a stripper pole, the text reads, “Have Bills to Pay”. This is significant because even though those are the only words, we can tell what is going on in the stripper image, since some people already associate making money with strippers, because some strippers make a lot of money. Roumieu did not have to use word specific or even interdependent combinations because just by looking at the illustrations of Big Foot, we know what is going on in the picture, and understand it very well. Many graphic novel creators use different concepts and techniques to create a unique graphic novel with a lot of substance, which can be achieved by using McCloud’s concepts and analysis of comics. Roumieu does this with a twisted sense of humor in “Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir” where he uses concepts of line, color, and image and word interplay to produce a one of a kind creation.

Bibliography McCloud, Scott. //Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art//. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.

Roumieu, Graham. //Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir//. New York: Plum, 2005. Print.