"Good Talk" by Mira Jacob, is a graphic novel, and to me the most exciting part of graphic novels is the artwork inside, as it is the unique aspect of them. The way they can convey imagery and symbolism visually, alongside the text, is unmatched. However in this book, the artwork is quite unique, and at first glance you might think its boring....
Jacob uses certain drawings of characters, that show a very basic expression, and use that same drawing in many pages of the book. And even when you think it's a different drawing, only the hair or the clothes change, its still the same face and expression, with a different twist to make it seem like there's something changed. She only really uses different drawings for a singular character when she is telling a story that changes the age of said character, because she does have to depict them as younger and older. And every once in a while she has a unique panel where everything is different, usually when she needs to convey something important or symbolic.
One could analyze the unchanging character artwork and make some sort of metaphor out of it, besides the conclusion that the author is not a great artist or is lazy, and its likely she did have a reason for it. However, the most unique thing that I noticed in the panels/pages of Jacob's novel, is the backgrounds. Behind the overlaid characters, are literal photographs that depict the setting, parallel the dialogue, or just simply match the character's mental state. I haven't seen a graphic novel do something like that before, and seeing the way Jacob can convey her meaning through the background photograph, the drawings, and the dialogue (as almost all text in the novel is in conversation, hence the title "Good Talk, a Memoir in Conversations") is interesting and certainly makes up for what someone may consider "boring" artwork.
This panel shows the use of background photographs, and also shows almost every version of Jacob's self that will ever be shown in again as drawing in the rest of the book.
