Photonovel
Related: fumetti - comics - photography - novel
For an example of a fotoromanzo, Italian for photonovel, a mix of comics and photography see here.
Definition
A subgenre of comics in which the story is told not by drawings, but by photos. This kind of graphic storytelling is tipically Italian, in the sense that it reached its top popularity in Italian weeklies such as “Grand Hotel” and “Bolero Film” that, in in the late 1940’s, sold by million copies and still sell well
The famous film “The White Sheyk” by Federico Fellini deals with this specific genre of “fumetti”. The “Fotoromanzo” (Photonovel), as it is called in Italian, became popular also in France, Spain and Latin America; in the USA it was never much appreciated.
Storytelling by sequential pictures which follow a script was, of course, experimented much before the Italian “boom” of “Fotoromanzi”. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_novel [Jul 2005]
Definition
A little out of topic, but maybe interesting. As you know, there’s a subgenre of comics in which the story is told not by drawings, but by photos. This kind of graphic storytelling - which lovers of “true” comics usually despise and consider a subgenre - is tipically Italian, in the sense that it reached its top popularity in Italian weeklies such as “Grand Hotel” and “Bolero Film” that, in in the late 1940’s, sold by million copies and still sell well; the famous film “The White Sheyk” by Federico Fellini deals with this specific genre of “fumetti”. The “Fotoromanzo” (Photonovel), as it is called in Italian, became popular also in France, Spain and Latin America; in the USA it was never much appreciated. Storytelling by sequential pictures which follow a script was, of course, experimented much before the Italian “boom” of “Fotoromanzi”. In attachment you’ll find, if not the very first, one of the earliest “Fotoromanzo” pages; it comes from N. 36 - Jun, 22, 1899 of the fine French weekly “La vie illustrée” (“Illustrated Life”) which was one of the first European magazine to make large use of photos. “L”apaisement” (“The Pacification”) deals with the Dreyfus case (In 1898 the major document used against Dreyfus was proven a forgery, but Dreyfus was tried again in 1899 and again found guilty. President Emile Loubet pardoned him, however, and in 1906 he was vindicated by a civilian court and readmitted to the army); the two men are an innocentist and a “guiltist” (how do you say “sustainer of the culpability” in English?), and the only way to appaise them is the blind force of the military (the "flic"). -- Alfredo Castelli via http://bugpowder.com/andy/e.photocomics.html [Jul 2005]
Fotoroman (German)
Ein Fotoroman ist eine Folge einzelner Fotos, ähnlich den Standfotos eines Filmes, die zusammen eine Geschichte ergeben. Oft sind in die Fotos Dialoge eingefügt. In der Regel handelt es sich um melodramatische Liebesgeschichten. Es gibt zwar kurze Zwischenbemerkungen, die gelegentlich die Bilder verbinden, längere Textpassagen aber kommen nicht vor.
Im Handel sind Fotoromane in Deutschland eher nicht mehr erhältlich und auch in anderen Ländern handelt es sich um eine sterbende Gattung. Fotoromane entstanden zuerst Mitte der 1940er Jahr in Italien und entwickelten sich dort zu einem langjährigen Massenphänomen mit unzähligen Ausformungen. So gab es z.B. literarische Fotoromane, denen Klassiker der Weltliteratur zugrunde lagen wie "Die Brautleute" von Alessandro Manzoni oder "Die Elenden" von Victor Hugo. In Zeitschriften wie "Bravo" finden sich noch heute Fotoromane, gewöhnlicherweise handelt es sich dabei um Herz-Schmerz-Geschichten aus der Teenie-Szene. Auch das Satiremagazin Titanic veröffentlicht solche Fotoromane, in der Regel mit Fotos politischer Prominenz.
Im Zeitalter des Internets lebt der Fotoroman allerdings wieder auf. Oft auch in Form von Schülerarbeiten für eine Website. Gelegentlich werden auch auf privaten Websites allerlei Fotos zu einer mitunter sehr dürftigen Fotoromanstory zusammengefügt. --http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotoroman [Jul 2005]
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