https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1389159
https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2025.35.310–325
Vesela Kucheva-Petrova
Graphic novels could be defined as a type of picture book with sequential structure in regards to of the series of illustrations from which it is constructed. The visual syntax of this structure consists of the graphic elements characteristic of the genre, such as the comic panel, frame, gutter, transition between panels, closure, etc. Sequential images in graphic novels can be placed directly next to one another, merged into one whole, or spaced apart in the lay-out of the book edition in order to create picture books that represent full-fledged works of contemporary visual art.
Keywords: graphic novel, sequential image, illustration, picture book, comics, visual syntax
About the author: Vesela Kucheva-Petrova, PhD is a part-time lecturer in the department of Visual Arts of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and also works as an illustrator and graphic designer with a pronounced interest in studying the structure of comics and graphic novels. She has been wotking on projects with the following publishing houses “Potayniche”, “Aquarius”, “Ergo”, “Panorama Plus”, “Guttenberg”, “Carrot” and for the organizations Metting Points, Assossiation of European Journalists, sCool Media, FactCheck, Coalition for Media Literacy, sports club “Zelena Stapka”, Harmonica Organic Foods etc. She participates in many exhibitions among which Biennale of Small Forms, Pleven, 2016, Jubilee Exhibition of Graduated Masters from “Book, Illustration and Printed Graphics” department, Sofia, 2021, exhibition “Book and Font” UBA Sofia, 2022, “Tiraj: collection of independent art books”, Sofia, 2022, Biannale of Illustration, Sofia 2020, 2022, 2024, “Young artist of Pleven”, Art Gallery “Iliya Beshkov”, Pleven, 2023, 2024, “Graphics and Illustration”, Art Gallery “Iliya Beshkov”, Pleven, 2025.
PhD Kucheva-Petrova is the author of seven scientific publications in the sphere of artistic problems of graphic novels.
