EVALUATION

The Narrative Structure

The graphic narrative Alteress starts off with the protagonist (Doris Reynolds) roaming the
Amazon Rainforest with her biology group, who are on an overseas trip studying exotic plants
and lifeforms. Just like a traditional superhero comic/graphic narrative, the main character
starts off as someone who youd find anywhere ordinary in most ways. In the beginning, Doris
is clearly just a regular girl whos focused on her studies and keen on whatever shes learning
about. However, she then becomes distracted and gets left behind by her posse. This causes
her to freak out and chase after her classmates (in the completely wrong direction) where she
then ends up alongside a large river. Whilst lost and confused, Doris then discovers an
intriguing lizard and curiously reaches out to stroke it. In self-defence, the terrified lizard bites
her.
This is the part of the story,
where the protagonists
ability/power is triggered
THE SPARK. Unlike other
graphic
narratives
like
Wonder Woman for example
(Whos born with a special
gift), Doriss ability is
caused by the venom of that
unknown species of lizard
which mutated her genes,
giving her the ability to
morph/shape-shift
into
people shes been in contact
with. Doris doesnt realise
her ability until after shes woken up from her coma (which was induced by the strong venom
coursing through her system). When shes woken up, she finds herself sprawled on an operating
table in a darkened room. After moments of rummaging around for clues, her movement
triggers a screen to slide down from the ceiling. THE VILLAIN appears! Unlike traditional
villains (Who are weird, creepy and downright evil e.g. The Joker and most of them have
supernatural abilities of their own.) Professor Brecken Dylski, is a pretty normal looking, wellspoken person with no special ability whatsoever. Hes also homosexual, which makes him
stray even more from the stereotype of a superhero comic villain.
After discovering who the person behind her abduction is, Doris escapes the secret facility and
heads out to the streets, where she bumps into a random guy. This embarrassing encounter is
how she realises her strange ability, she finds a public restroom in order for her to gather her
thoughts and before you know it, shes morphed into the guy she ran into. The rest of the
graphic narrative, follows her journey on how she copes with being different and how she
comes about accepting herself as a new person and a potential hero. This graphic has a linear
narrative as you can see, everything goes in order of events and its a single strand plot. This
means that its only focused on one side of the story (Doriss). This is similar to that of a
superhero comic/graphic narrative, although there are those that start in the middle of the
story rather than the beginning (but this is usually a continuation of a series).

The Style of the Graphic Narrative/ Character development

Comics/Superhero Graphic Narratives are quite bold and colourful and express things in a loud
and impactful way. Ive tried to mimic this by outlining everything and using vibrant colours in
areas that need to stand out, I made sure the boxes I
used were in fun and abstract shapes so everything looks
exciting and interesting its also quite popular in
traditional comics/graphic narratives where the
boxes/layout give the viewer a taste of how actionpacked the story is it also allows more of the story to be
told on each page. Its also creates a neat appearance
and makes everything more attractive. Even the main
character (Doris) had to have a distinct appearance and
style that would suit her superpower. One thing I had to
keep in mind about her chosen ability was to make sure
that I wasnt copying an existing character that also had
the ability to shapeshift. Mystique/Raven Darkholme is a
well-known antagonist from the X-men comics that
shapeshifts, I had to avoid copyright issues by making
sure that Doris is clearly different from the evil mutant
from x-men. First off, Mystique is a mutant which means
she was born with her shapeshifting ability. This meant
that Doris had to get her powers a different way (she
was bitten). Mystique has blue skin with vibrant red
hair, I decided to keep the hair slightly reddish but
making it more maroon, she also has normal pale
skin (shes Caucasian) since she starts off as a
regular person. Being a woman in a superhero comic
book/graphic narrative Ive stuck with the traditional
physique that most females have. She has an athletic
body-type with a slim waist and large assets, its
quite debatable how this perceives the female body
(some saying its sexualizing it and others saying it
resembles strength/power Its become an ethical
issue how women are portrayed in media because of
how it can affect the young minds of children) So in
order to keep things on the safe side, Ive made sure
that Doriss outfit is more civilised and doesnt show
too much skin compared to that of similar
characters. Within the graphic narrative, the main
character Doris/Alteress gets help and support from
Doctor Janice Park. This character is similar to that
of Alfred (Bruce Wayne/Batmans butler) who doesnt get involved in any physical action, but
instead acts as a provider of valuable information and technology. The only difference between
Alfred and Janice is that Janice is a 25 year old female Physicist, who just moved from the US
and is of Korean descent. I decided to make Janice Park a different ethnicity instead of
Caucasian (Like Doris/Alteress and Brecken Dylski) because I felt that a majority of superhero
comic characters were white (and there are few black characters too e.g. Storm from X-Men,
Deathlok, Vixen, Nick Fury etc.) and there werent a lot of famous characters of Asian
background.

The way I created this Graphic Narrative was by drawing and colouring everything that happens
throughout it. This meant I had to outline all the main areas of the drawings as well as the
boxes that theyre in, in order to achieve a bold and vibrant set of images like that of a
traditional comic/graphic narrative. Because I used colouring pencils, the pictures appear very
sketchy and rough and the colours are definitely not as bright as those of a traditional comic
such
as
Wonder
Woman.

Above, you can see the obvious difference between the brightness of the colours. I had to go
over Alteresss hair as it was quite pale and patchy, I coloured it first with maroon pencil and
then went over it with red felt-tip pen. Both covers show both heroines with weapons which
is a common thing in traditional comics/graphic narratives and theyre both wearing their
trademark suits. Both titles are
also in thick, blocky fonts
which makes them eyecatching
and
the
simple
background
bring
more
attention,
most
traditional
comics
have
the
main
characters name as the largest
text on the covers. In terms of
speech
and
what
the
characters are saying throughout the graphic narrative, Ive
used the traditional speech bubbles/boxes that help display the black text without getting in
the way of the key images.

The Production Process

Ive discovered from comparing my graphic narrative to a traditional comic, that my drawings
arent as bright and bold as Id like them to be. This makes it less aesthetic and probably not
as professional-looking as Id preferred. This means theres definitely plenty of room for
improvement, so in order to improve the colouring/brightness of the images I could scan the
images into the computer and edit them individually on Photoshop. Not only would this make
the drawings/images more vibrant, but it will also save a lot of time. This would be a great
relief as colouring the images by hand took longer than I had expected and in order for me to
finish on-time, I had to continue colouring and outlining outside of lessons.
Further Context
This graphic narrative is set in recent years (2014) which means its a fairly modern timeline
with no major issues that the characters would come across. The only main issues that Doris
faces is the fact that she fears of not being normal and being rejected by society because of
her strange ability. This is definitely something that is relatable and is experienced a lot in this
present time, but since laws and trends are constantly changing, its a more comfortable era to
be in. Just like Ive already discussed, there are two races portrayed in Alteress;
white/Caucasian and Korean/Asian, the protagonist is White and shes a straight female. I tried
to make her into a character that didnt appear too oversexualized, whilst still looking like a
traditional heroine. This way, it would still feel like a traditional comic/graphic narrative but be
more modern and with the times. The other white character is Professor Brecken Dylski, whos
a non-straight male, I decided to make him homosexual because I felt like these types of
characters arent represented enough. And lastly, Doctor Janice Park is the Asian character
within this graphic narrative. I tried to avoid stereotyping Janice but still made sure that what
she was, contributed to what needed to be done. Not only is she smart and intelligent, but she
is also a woman. I feel like this is a type of story that doesnt usually occur (two women against
one man) which, I think, makes it a bit more special.