Analysis of Medusa's Daughter by Jonathon Scott Fuqua Essay Example

“65 percent of the general population are visual learners, meaning they need to see information in order to retain it.” Medusa’s Daughter, written by Johnathon Scott Fuqua and illustrated by Steven Parke, is just one of the “8669000 graphic novels sold in bookstores in 2014” that provide a visual for the reader. Fuqua and Parke chose a certain art style, convey perfect unity with the message and graphics, and demonstrate that any other chosen illustration style could make the reader interpret the book differently. 

To start off, the book “The Killing Joke” or “Blankets” may come to mind when thinking of graphic novels, but Medusa’s Daughter differentiates from these strictly by its illustrations. There are a variety of illustrations that are used in graphic novels which include, painting, sketching, comic strip drawings, cartoon drawings, etc.. Medusa’s Daughter is a graphic novel that has a different type of illustration style. The illustration style in Medusa’s Daughter is realistic, also known as a photo comic. The photographs used in Medusa’s Daughter were taken on a camera with real life people acting as the books’ characters. This gave the book a real life effect and allows the reader to feed off of the emotions displayed by the people in the photos that were taken. When asked why Parke decided to use photographs instead of comic strip drawings, he answered, “Especially with young people, they're used to seeing things online now, in games and gaming, that are very realistic. They're always trying to create this very realistic world. They're also into movies. Movies are a big draw for young adults. So using photographs brings a sense of cinematic scope to the look of the book.” Steven Parke chose photographs because the photographs give the book a movie feel and help the scenes in the book look like scenes off of a television screen, but in your mind. Not only did Parke create a photo comic for the cinematic feel, but also for people to become interested, because the realistic photos give the book an edge most readers haven’t seen before.

Next, Fuqua and Parke demonstrated perfect unity with the story line and illustrations. The book is a dark science fiction novel and needs the perfect illustrations to go along with it, which is just what Parke portrayed. The book is about Maia, Medusa's Daughter, who is held captive at a circus after being saved by Rictus, the circus leader, who found her after her parents tried to drown her by throwing her into a river. Anytime Maia tries to escape from the controlling hands of Rictus’s circus she is beaten and locked in a cage where she is normally starved for 3 days at a time. Certain scenes alone can chill the reader to the bone, but with the illustrations showing the emotions, settings, and characters' faces is truly a work of art. The way the story is conveyed is very descriptive and with the addition of the pictures the reader is able to feel the rollercoasters of emotions the characters in the book feel throughout the story. As stated earlier, Parke used photographs for the reader to have a cinematic feel. In a regular novel the reader is able to imagine how the characters look, the setting, and anything else that the author writes however the reader desires. In the case of Medusa’s Daughter, however, the reader sees exactly what Johnaton Fuqua and Steven Parke want the reader to visualize through strategically placed illustrations. The combination of the illustrations and the story compliment each other and bring the story to life. These two men create one story by putting their creativity together and each play a tremendous role in the creation of the book, Medusa’s Daughter.

Lastly, if Parke had decided to have a different illustration's style the whole story could be interpreted differently. The purpose of Parke using the photo comic was that the reader could visually see the struggles, excitement, and frightened emotions of the real life people acting as the characters. If the art style was different the scenes would not be taken seriously. Medusa’s Daughter is a dark, science fiction novel that is intense and spooky. If it were to have different illustrations, such as a cartoon illustration, then the events in the book would not have the same emotional effect on the reader as it does with the photo comic. A perfect example of how the illustrative style can affect the message of the story is whenever Maia pulled out a knife on Rictus after he was intimidating her. The graphic shows the reader the sharp table knife that would be used to cut a steak, pointed upward to Rictus’s old bony hand. He threatens, “If that touches me, touches a hair, I will make you wish you were dead, girl. I'll make you wish I’d left you to drown” (Fuqua). The details of the glistening kitchen knife and the intimidation in Maia’s eyes would not give the same effect on the reader if it were to have a comic strip illustration.

In conclusion, we see that the book Medusa’s Daughter is a standout from the graphic novel industry because of Parke’s illustration choices. By choosing a photo comic the reader is better able to see, feel, and interpret the story characters' emotions and activities differently than they would with comic strip, cartoon or any other type of illustrations. Fuqua and Parke were a dynamic duo in the writing and illustrating of this book. The art illustration style works well with the message of Medusa's Daughter because of the book's energy being spooky and intense. If the books had a different illustration style the message could be interpreted completely differently. Medusa's Daughter written by Johnathon Fuqua and illustrated by Steven Parke is highly recommended as a graphic novel that makes an impression and leaves a mark on any reader who chooses to embark on this adventure.

Works Cited

Fuqua, Jonathan. Medusa’s Daughter. Clermont, Red Giant Entertainment, 28 October, 2014.

Heidi MacDonald, et al. “8,669,000 Graphic Novels Were Sold in Bookstores in 2014.” The Beat, 26 Jan. 2015, https://www.comicsbeat.com/8669000-graphic-novels-were-sold-in-bookstores-in-2014/. 

Kaltenbach, Chris. “Work in Progress.” Baltimore Sun, 30 Sept. 2021, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2007-09-16-0709150148-story.html. 

Spencer, Emilee. “How to Work Best with the 4 Different Types of Learners.” Work Life by Atlassian, Atlassian, 6 Nov. 2018, https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/how-to-work-4-different-learning-types. 

Weldon, Glen, and Petra Mayer. “Let's Get Graphic: 100 Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels.” NPR, NPR, 12 July 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/07/12/533862948/lets-get-graphic-100-favorite-comics-and-graphic-novels.