A compact reading of two graphic narratives through which we might construct some of the boundaries of the graphic novel. The first, Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, although a novel made up largely of words, does deploy over a 100 images as mock clarifications, among other devices, that are completely integrated into the text. This coordination of Word and Image, working together to advance the narrative, readily suggests that the work be read on the margins of the graphic novel. Vonnegut's manner of deploying his images is distinct from the "illustrated novel" although most of the images are nominally representational. Vonnegut's pictures are very iconic and resonate with the sorts of ideas of cultural "Pop" that were being explored across the arts during the time of the novel's composition. This novel emulates the comics in its style and in its iconic characterization.

The other text to be considered, Une Semaine de Bonte, by Max Ernst, is a book in which the images dominate almost to the exclusion of any words.

Ernst's novel in collage demonstrates the ability of the graphic narrative to "evoke" responses from the reader in a fashion similar to the evocations of poetry or other word arts. The power of the graphic novel to develop an expression that is deep with ambiguity and resistant to paraphrase is important to demonstrate in answer to the assertion that illustration necessarily limits or confines the possibilities of the word.