Imagination or Visualization

I am a big fan of reading, but I just can’t decide whether I like comic books or novels more. I like seeing the material in front of me and visualizing the character’s movements, but I also like using my imagination to perceive what is happening.

When it comes to content, I like being able actually to understand what is happening. I like clear details and clear descriptions of the scenery and setting, and I get more of that from comic books. 

Although when it comes to novels, being able to use my imagination to picture, for example, a large battlefield full of explosions and dust flying, it feels more rewarding to perceive that through what I think it should look like.

When reading, it is fun to see what kind of writing style the writer has and how they describe their own world; but, I also find joy in seeing the art behind the words and seeing what the actual scene looks like straight from the creator.

I am a huge nerd and as such, I like elves and dwarves and dragons and magic. I feel all that can make or break the uniqueness of the story, because of how redundant the genre can be. 

So, when I look for a story I look for the author’s perception of how they think the characters feel and how they interact with their surroundings.

For me, the story is only as good as its journey, how the cast deals with trauma or how the world develops around the progression of the story. A lot of people only are in it for the destination, and that is sad because they miss out on the substance, the meat of the story. I feel this is the main divide between comic books and novels.

With novels, you get an insight into how the characters feel. With comic books, you get to see how the characters feel. Seeing and feeling are two completely different things. For example, you can see the disparity in the character’s eyes, but on the other hand, you read how their pupils dilate and their breathing gets heavy. 

It is the same character, but the way you take them in is completely different.

Now, of course, opinions differ from person to person, in the case of Aspen Lawson, In her words, she “likes hallucinating to writings on dead trees” in the case of novels. 

Now from the perspective of comic books, she likes them because they paint a picture of what she is reading. In her own opinion, she gets more details from novels.

She says this because she feels the writer has to put more effort into how the scene plays out, whereas comic books have more of a “forceful” image. Overall she preferred novels, which is no surprise to me as most people prefer descriptive details over visual artistry, which are comic books.

I have come to find by writing this article that I prefer comic books because I heavily respect the art that goes behind the words, as well as the interesting way the scenes of the setting and story can be portrayed.