An image came to mind today as I walked in the park… An image attempting to visualize both my internal weight and a concept for a simmering project. Tonight’s diary sketch captures partly the final image that I want to develop. I let the lines and watercolour be what they needed to be, without thought,…
Category: Graphic Novel
Shared views of graphic novels in progress
Chanterelles, Lily of the Valley and daisies were her favourites…
I dedicated my graphic novel, Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025) to my parents (Karin Thorsen September 17 1936 – November 8 2008. Roar Thorsen August 8, 1930 – October 25 2012). Not only did my parents shape me (sculpting me into the strange rag doll I am today), and not only did their personal …
DRAW-bitch-DRAW!
A similar mantra was on repeat the final months when I was completing my debut graphic novel, Salt Green Death. The second graphic novel is now in full swing. It is a collaboration. (Stay tuned!) The visual narrative script was completed by the spectacular author whose short story the new book is based on. The…
Fredrik Strömberg: journalist, author and academic
In English: Journal sketch of Fredrik Strömberg [drawn from his selfie as he stands in the Comics Archives – Seriearkivet in Malmö, Sweden.] As I reflect on this wild rollercoaster ride of the past year since Summer 2024, I pause at the extraordinary experience of attending STOCKHOLMS INTERNATIONELLA SERIEFESTIVAL 2025 (SIS25) back on May 24-25,…
Nature Moves Through Carcasses Embroidered Drawing
Nature Moves Through Carcasses (Embroidered Drawing) (Video and Music by Julian Bowers) Nature Moves Through Carcasses pays tribute to Molly O’Dwyer—a young woman whose life and memory became the emotional and narrative catalyst for my graphic novel Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025). The embroidered drawing process is one of my most personal approaches to…
Conveying information through different drawing techniques
The main character in my graphic novel, Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025), is Joseph O’Dwyer. My book is a true story centred on a Joseph’s patient records of his treatments for schizophrenia between 1948 – 1963. Joseph’s story and family saga is based on 21 years of research. — TODAY’S SAMPLE PAGE: — On…
With not being able. No. Never. A dream…
I am friends with my neighbourhood crows. They visit my window. They say hello when I go for a walk. Once they met me at the False Creek Ferry at the Aquatic Centre and followed me home, west along the seawall, to my apartment close to Stanley Park. The other day I came across a…
Today – June 12 – holds personal significance for me
Today holds personal significance for me. June 12th marks the birthday of Joseph O’Dwyer, the main character in my graphic novel, Salt Green Death (Conundrum Press, 2025). His patient file is the main source for the project. Joseph was born on June 12, 1926 (99 years ago) in Cashel, Ireland. The journey of bringing this…
Creative process: Girl in a Wetsuit Study
Girl in a Wetsuit (1972) is a life-size bronze sculpture by Elek Imredy of a woman in a wetsuit, located on a rock in the water along the north side of Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada This study is part of the development phase for my second book, Full Bleed, a graphic novel…
Evolving portrait of my Norwegian grandfather.
A larger project is in development: arts-based inquiry as a deeper approach to ethnographic methodology. As I process and develop a proof of concept for one component of the larger project – a graphic novel about my stoic Norwegian grandfather, Gunnar Thorsen and the generational effects of his POW experiences in WWII – I need…
June 16, 1904. The eyes of Joyce…
June 16, 1904. Lá Bloom (Bloom’s Day, in Irish). 120 years! Reading Ulysses for the past couple of years (in English and in Swedish) while working on my current book is both magical and integral to my creative process. I am in the final month of completing my graphic novel. It’s a glorious, terrifying and…
Following the thread…
JOSEPH (working title) is an experimental graphic novel series (in process). It is an Irish immigrant, Vancouver-based, family saga spanning 1924 – 1963. I use primary sources and creativity to build the true story. This is a work of creative nonfiction born out of historical research. I attempt to stick to the facts and avoid…
How it starts… How it ends. Visualizing archival research.
Exposed old wallpaper, interior wall, bottom of the stairs, at the side entrance of my 92 year old building. (Sketch in progress)
4 hours of “freedom” on June 18, 1951
I have imagined this scene for a few years. Here the main character experiences 4 hours of “freedom” on June 18, 1951. Events leading up to this moment will be explored in the book. My creative non-fiction graphic novel leans heavily on Erving Goffman’s concept of “the total institution” and explores themes such as historical…
Disclaimer for “Joseph,” current graphic novel project
Disclaimer for “Joseph,” current graphic novel project (Chinamarker, turmeric, white acrylic ink on newsprint) My target date for completing the drawing process is June 2024. I am delighted to share that I will be publishing my completed graphic novel with Conundrum Press in 2025. Huge thank you to Patti Henderson for allowing me to use…
A mock up to “see the book”
JOSEPH is my experimental graphic novel (in process). It is a Vancouver-based family saga spanning 1924 – 1963. For more info, go to: ABOUT Transforming my 280 page research manuscript (just words) into a 200 page graphic novel (mainly visuals) is a brain exercise, to say the least. I am currently writing the script…
Using labanotation as constraints to create a 9-panel page
I created a 9-panel page for my “Joseph” project based on a rudimentary intro to labanotation and based on a famous photo from a 1946 reportage, “a man constrained in a straight jacket stands alone.” Labanotation is a system of recording human movement, originated by the Hungarian-born dance theorist Rudolf Laban. The Laban system…
“The Guardians.” A study
For Emma.
Journal entry April 3, 2022
Drawings for the prologue finished! Dropping them off at TR Trades tomorrow. Anxious trepidation. Anticipating: Who are you to tell their story? A familiar dark ink inches towards my feet. Not trusting that I will be seen as legit. Then reminding myself- who cares!? It is liberating to not be participating in any upcoming festivals. Liberating to not have…
“Stanislaw K. was born in Poland…” Ward notes.
Graphic novel experiments. Pencil crayon, watercolour, ink, coffee, embroidery on newsprint
Shaping non-fiction characters.
What was initially to be a short volunteer research project into a Vancouver cold case to support a theory championed by a retired homicide detective, became, for me [and continues to be], a 17+ year personal journey “to restore to now dead people the fullness and degree of complication of their lives. To restore their humanness…
Ut Pictura Poesis- the narrative potential of the drawing
I draw pictures. I imagine storylines. I imagine a narrative, a comic, a screenplay… There is nothing quite as on target as the prose I write in my mind when on the bus- whilst staring out the window to deal with motion sickness, taking in the landscape. But alas, those musings instantly disappear as soon…
Nature moves through carcasses…
Illustrating decomposition by allowing the newsprint to deteriorate over several years and for the dead bird to slowly be encompassed by embroidered roots and the dark. The process continues. Check out:
Relaunch and new look: my online graphic novel “Molly, a True Crime Analysis, the third draft”
Molly- a true crime analysis is my experimental graphic novel, originally workshopped online in weekly instalments between January 15, 2017 and January 13, 2018. I call the current online version the third draft. mollygraphicnovel.com UPDATE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL IS BEING RE-WORKED AND THEREFORE SET TO “PRIVATE” WITH RESTRICTED ACCESS My work is based on extensive research, interviews and…
It’s not that I don’t know what to do.
Regarding my passion project Molly- a true crime analysis: 2003-2016 was all about researching, drawing, accumulating, writing, collecting. 2017 was all about creating an online weekly draft, telling the story with images, words and music in whatever way it unfolded, sharing it openly, publicly. 2018 has been all about allowing others in, and letting go of control,…