I’ve decided that I want to talk a bit more about the things I like on here, mainly because 1) it’s my blog and 2) I like talking about things I like.

This time around we’re going to talk genres of books that I’ve discovered that I like reading. Today we’ll be talking about graphic novels and comics.

I’ve always liked comics (really, you’re kinda boring if you don’t). But it’s only very recently that I’ve truly enjoyed them as a form of literature. It probably comes from a childhood where one was taught that reading a comic book wasn’t really reading. They were for leisure only and therefore not to be taken seriously. Plus growing up it was mainly a guy thing, girls didn’t really read comics.

All that’s changed now. Graphic novels are super popular among the middle grade and YA set. Our copies at the library fly out at a tremendous rate and are read by both boys AND girls. It’s now become acceptable to be of any age reading them, really. Sure you’ll have naysayers who will disagree but who cares. It’s a medium that is done very creatively because you can either have an original story and make it come alive with good art or you can take a story that’s already been established and the graphic novelization of it makes it into something new.

I think reading graphic novels and comics is a ton of fun (though sometimes with the comics, I have issues with how women are portrayed but for right now we’ll let it pass) and there’s so many good ones that I’ve read in the past year.

Ms. Marvel series by G. Willow Wilson (Marvel)

Thor by Jason Aaron (Marvel)

Jeffrey Brown’s Star Wars series (Chronicle books)

Guy Delisle’s travelogues (Drawn and Quarterly)

The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman (Image Comics)

Now I know that these don’t even begin to scratch the surface of comics and graphic novels at all. I’m not an expert and there’s still so much to learn and explore. One excellent website to learn more is Panels, from the folks who also do Book Riot.

Tell me what graphic novels and comics you like and based on what I’ve shown here, give me some recommendations!