The graphic novel of Zorro reminded me of my childhood when I used to read comics. Mostly I read Calvin and Hobbes, but later I graduated to Manga. The similarities in style brought me back. I become so engaged in graphic novels that I find myself reacting to the story as it happens. So it was in Zorro. I would lean left and right as though swinging a blade, cringe as the violence escalated, and smile unexpectedly when Zorro was met with success. I would have to resist the urge to touch my lip when the sword master twirled his mustache. The visuals the story gives you are not only engaging, they produce the illusion of involvement. Perhaps the most striking scene is the dramatic view of the soldier who bears Zorro's mark upon his hand. It sets the tone for the entire story: Zorro is in charge.
Creating a powerful scene can cause an equally powerful response.
A manga I am currently reading called Higurashi is especially engaging. I appreciate the intense scenes the illustrator produces. The series is Borgesian in that there are multiple story arcs that occur simultaneously. Each arc often parodies the manga genre with outlandish antics that bond the characters in each story arc. All of these antics put disgustingly sweet emphasis on friendship. However all of these antics are extinguished shortly in each story arc as everyone is either brutally murdered or is in the process of brutally murdering everyone else.
One scene actually startled me enough to drop the book. In the arc, Keiichi, the main character is noticing that his friends are acting strangely. He does some snooping around and his suspicions grow ever darker. One of his friends, Rena, stops him on the road home and asks him point blank if he's been spying. At this point I needed to turn the page. As I did so on this occasion I turned my head to drink a pop I had on the side. As I put the can down and turned my attention back to the book, the image on the pages gave me a start and I dropped the book. I picked up, my chest feeling light from the shock I had received, and looked at the page once more. It was a close up of Rena's face, a look of hellish fury upon it, that took up both pages. Her once human eyes, now cat-like and in enormous letters encased in a violently spiky word bubble was the sentence "DON'T LIE!". Laughing at myself, I finished the arc, and watched everyone get brutally murdered with a baseball bat.
