Day 04 - Adult Graphic Novels

Modern society has a love / hate relationship with comic books and graphic novel. Chris Couch in his exhaustive and scholarly The Publication and Formats of Comics, Graphic Novels, and Tankobon, draws a cultural distinction between comic strips and comic books. "...Comic strips were and remain superior in tacit cultural hierarchies to comic books. Comic strips are associated with journalism, family readership, and publication in books and sale in bookstores. Comic books are associated with sensationalism, child and adolescent readership, and sale on newsstands. Although now eighty percent of comic books are sold in comic book shops, the public perception of such stores is perhaps even less positive than that of newsstands."

Times change and so do attitudes. Americans, perhaps influenced by the European and Asian experience, accepted comics as a legitimate form or literary media with the creation of the graphic novel, a term coined by Will Eisner in 1978. In the 21st century graphic novels are the halfway mark between books and video, TV and movies. It is a telling point that graphic novels are seen as a viable pitch for a movie treatment, moreso than a book.

TrekUnited Publishing has been lucky enough to bring you the work of two great author/artists. Paul D. Smith's series, Tales from the Fleet, has shown his talent maturing both as a storyteller and artist and in the content that he portrays ...

PD Smith-Tales of the Fleet 1 : Species 571
The first graphic novel to come from the virtual pen of PD Smith, his 'proof of concept' issue to test out DAZ Studio as a totally new media. It was posed and rendered on a 1.6Ghz computer with 1Gb RAM and 512Kb of video RAM. and then compiled on the same system. 61 p. US Letter

PD Smith-Tales of the Fleet 2 : The Caves of Duality
PD Smith's second graphic novel is another step in his development, both as an author and as an artist. It is a love story with a final twist suggested by Paul's co-writer, his youngest daughter. Artistically, the comic was all about learning depth of field and more dramatic camera angles done 10 months after the beginning of the first issue over a two months period. The issue has been voluntarily rated PG-13 because of some modestly posed nudity. 23 p. US Letter

PD.Smith Tales of the Fleet 3 : 30 Minutes
Paul Smith's third USS O'Bannon story shows how he has mastered the medium to deliver a powerful adult tale. Cpt Katheryn Osterholt of Starfleet Intelligence has a history with an Orion captain, that could save her life or be the death of her! With Orions, Romulans and Starfleet Intelligence playing off against each other this could not be anything else but an MA - Mature Adults - tale of passion and violence. To be continued. 28 p. US Letter

PD.Smith Tales of the Fleet 4 : Virus
Continuing the story started in 30 Minutes, Katheryn Osterholt finds herself on the wrong side of Starfleet as a rogue element in their Intelligence organisation seeks to change the face of the universe and blame it on her! MA - Mature Adults - a tale of love and deception. 28 p. US Letter

For more comics from Paul, particularly his Tales from the Mirror Universe series, browse his deviantART gallery but take care...
...it's definitely adult fare!