The Making of a Graphic Novel: Featuring the First-Time Publication of the Original Science Fiction Graphic Novel the Resonator

As a longtime fan of serious graphic storytelling, and an aspiring writer of a graphic novel script, I picked this up to learn the nuts and bolts of how long-form graphic stories are put together. The book is a great "how-to" concept -- the idea is that you read Rollins' 100-page sci-fi graphic novel "The Resonator", and then you flip the book and read about how he created it. You could certainly skip the graphic novel, but the "how-to" information is much richer and clearer if you don't. In general, I tend to like either really simple and clean or really detailed and complex artwork, and Rollins is definitely in the latter camp. The book is a visual treat, as he painstakingly evokes the crumbling, jerry-rigged components of distant future space living. The story itself is a mixed salad of some very imaginative ideas along with some more familiar ones. It follows a uranium miner named Bronsen as he seeks to escape his stultifying life by using a illegal "resonator" to sleep and dream. In this future, mankind has evolved out of the need for sleep, and sleep becomes a kind of luxury good, strictly controlled by the megacorporation that governs all of mankind. The revelation as to what the resonator is is outstanding, and Bronsen's dream sequences are a brilliant contrast to his waking life. However, the "what is a dream and what is reality?" nature of the conclusion was a tired sci-fi theme long before "The Matrix" trilogy milked the final dregs from it. And stories in which a megacorp rises to rule over all humanity have always struck me as rather lazy. Ditto for the circular concept that these spaceships are kept running on a constant search for uranium, but the only use for the uranium is to power the ships. Nonetheless, on the whole, it's a graphic novel well worth one's time. Flipping the book over, one gets about seventy pages of explanation, covering writing, preproduction, penciling, inking, and lettering. As a writer and not an artist, I was most interested in the writing section. Here, Rollins explains the story's evolution from writing workshop project to short story, to script. This is pretty straightforward "Fiction 101" stuff, with little I found new or useful. The one part I did like was his "Note on Character" (pages 18-19), in which he suggests that characters become quite interesting when there's a difference between what they think they're afraid of, and what they're really afraid of. I hadn't thought about that before, and his examples are quite revealing. The other sections are copiously illustrated with conceptual sketches, diagrams, and clear explanations of his artistic process. Overall, well worth reading if you're an artist thinking about embarking on the long form. Somewhat less useful if you're more focused on the writing side.

Kudos to Prentis Rollins. First, for a fascinating if somewhat cerebral science fiction graphic novel, "The Resonator." Using his graphic novel, he shows by example the kind of depth that can be achieved via telling stories in the format of a graphic novel. Second, flip the book over and he provides an extensive how-to text, "The Making of a Graphic Novel", in which he provides detailed information and tips on creating graphic novels, with lavish illustrations of pages at different stages, descriptions of tools, etc. Fascinating, as well as extremely useful for people interested in creating stories in this form, or for people who simply want more insight into the work that goes into the crafting of a graphic novel.

I can't believe Rolilns didn't go blind drawing this GN. His style is SO detailed. And it's perfect for the story, which is about a future in which sleep is really a luxury. NO JOKE. Until the hero, Bronsen, accidentlly discovers a sleep machine, which you'll never guess what it is. I also recommend "Survival Machine," a trade paperback from a couple years ago that he wrote/drew. It is worth hunting for.

Rollins is a really talented artist and his writing style is clear, engaging, and appealing. He provides lots of useful details for would-be graphic novelists and plenty of interesting personal anecdotes. The "flip book" structure is cool. I warmly recommend this book, even if you're not that into graphic novels!