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Starting out with graphic novels

 
I have to confess that I’m a text-oriented reader and am pretty ignorant about graphic novels, but this week's new books display has a range of graphic novels which caught my eye and I’m tempted to give one or two a go.  One in particular Dawn Land by Joseph Bruchac and Will Davis caught my attention because on the outside it looks like a standard fiction title - there are none of those usual graphic novel "clues" on the outside about its format.  The cover has a beautiful soft coloured watercolour illustration on textured recycled paper, whereas we’ve come to think of graphic novels to be slightly larger size, often glossy, and with manga and anime style graphics on the cover. This one is a graphic retelling of Bruchac’s novel of the same name, an adventure tale of native American folklore, focussing on the Abenaki culture. I got a bit of surprise to open it up and find attractive soft black and white graphics throughout, with minimal text. The whole effect is evocative and mysterious.
From that on to the very brightly covered Orange by Benjamin, a graphic novel in colour about a teen girl named Orange who is intending to commit suicide. It is described on the blurb as “a profoundly moving story of loss and redemption”, again not what I may have guessed from the bright cover illustration of  a pretty girl half-smiling.

I was also grabbed by the title Kill Shakespeare, the first in a series of twelve, written by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, illustrated by Andy Belanger. The blurb tells me that “this dark take on the Bard pits his greatest heroes (Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff) against his most menacing villains (Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Iago) in an epic adventure to find and kill a reclusive wizard named William Shakespeare.”  

The next one is an attractive dark coloured hard-cover named Gunnerkrigg Court  by Thomas Siddell, also the first in a series, and sporting a list of awards on its dust jacket.   It sounds like it is another British school story with a difference. The story began its life as a webcomic, and follows a young girl named Antimony who attends the intriguingly named Gunnerkrigg Court school which has “robots running around alongside body-snatching demons, forest gods and the odd mythical creature”.  It must appealing for children as my twelve year old daughter keeps grabbing it off the new books shelf and reading it after school!

And then there is a good old Lucky Luke adventure Dalton City originally published in 1969, with a cover that sports a gun-toting cowboy popping out of a pink cake. This seems a lot lighter than all of the above – maybe I should start my graphic novel journey here!

What sorts of graphic novels appeal to you and which ones do you recommend for people starting out?

 

- Helen O

 

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# re: Starting out with graphic novels

I don't know if these come under the category of "graphic novels" but you really can't forget the Asterix series or Tintin. We have several Lucky Luke books too! The boys enjoed them. 8/2/2012 11:51 AM | Sue
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# re: Starting out with graphic novels

maybe a good novel to start is either nancy drews collection graphic novel or the archie/veronica. but i do prefer most nancy drews! its quite a good novel though! 8/6/2012 8:42 PM | tenshi

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