WEEK 2

WHAT DOES KHORDOC THINK THE ASTERIX SERIES DOES BETTER THAN HERGE’S TINTIN?

What Khordoc (2004) is trying to establish is that there is no denying Herge’s Tintin and Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s Asterix are both well known, well established series in the graphic novel genre. But in the employment of the convention of speech balloons, she attributes Asterix’s creators to have done this better over Tintin’s. When Khordoc addresses Herges’ work she comments,

“…though he makes use of onomatopoeia, iconic symbols and other devices to create the effect of sound, Herge has not displayed, in my opinion, the full range of sounds which can be represented graphically.” p. 158.

Her article notes that a seamless integration between the illustrations and the textual narrative in a graphic novel creates a special visual ‘soundtrack’ (Khordoc, 2004). Or similarly, too much narrative slows down the pace or ‘sound’ of the novel. Instead use less text and clever strategies in image to tell the story, as seen in the Asterix series.

Khordoc does acknowledge the fact that “[Tintin] is grounded in a fairly intricate plot, thus, is more highly narrated”. By doing so she provides insight into a possible reason why Asterix has a more ‘audible’ sound and flow then Tintin ever could.