Fiona’s last post compared Joe Sacco’s detailed imagery in Safe Area Gorazde to Satrapi’s simplistic drawings in Persepolis. She concluded that the style of the graphic narrative was directly related to the authors’ age at the time of their experience, and whether it was a first-hand experience or not. I’d like to bring Joy Kogawa’s Obasan into this discussion on detailed storytelling.

Obasan has its obvious distinction from the aforementioned graphic narratives in being a written book. However, on the topic of detail, Kogawa’s work is on the same page. Kogawa is able to paint elaborate scenes with her words, and finds a way to tell her story just as vividly as Satrapi and Sacco tell theirs. However, is there a preferred medium in telling a detailed story?

Sacco makes a point in an interview that persuades me to think that graphic narratives have an edge over the written book when portraying detail. He notes graphic novels can be as repetitive with details as the writer wishes, without ever coming across as redundant. To describe this point he talks about mud (17:06; 20:00); muddy streets are constantly featured in the panels of Sacco’s other work Palestine, but the reader is never bored by its presence. Yet, as Sacco argues, to leave out every-day details such as thick, inconveniencing mud, would subtract from the imagery of the story he is trying to report. He has the ability to let these minute details follow the reader throughout the book, whereas a prose writer would struggle to keep these details interesting to the reader.

This point highlights my only criticism of Obasan; at times it becomes overbearing with details. Although these details are important, I would suggest that perhaps Sacco’s approach is favourable for their portrayal.

-Lauren Shykora