Week 8 - Comic Books & Graphic Novels for Young Adults

The first time I read a graphic novel was when I was in Las Vegas during my reading week of 2011. I have never attempted in the past to read a comic or graphic novel. It just didn't interest me. This got me thinking, why didn't I like them?

Well the comics I heard of before my quest began in the Library and Information Science Masters program, where: Spider-Man, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Even though I proclaim to be a feminist (yes ladies and gentlemen, I am!), I could never see myself reading or being interested in wanting to read Wonder Woman. The graphic novels I heard of in the past where Manga- Sailor Moon style ones, and again, I was not feeling it. So... I never read one. As a teen, I preferred to take out girly magazines from the library.

I decided to do my second YA Materials review on a graphic novel, to actually force myself to read one. I went to the Teen Annex section at LPL Central Branch and took out Detective Jermain Volume 1 by Misako Rocks!. The cover pulled me in, and then the back cover made me borrow it from the library.

It was amazing! It was so good, I couldn't put it down and I finished it in one sitting, which is quite rare for me. I remember being up until 3am Las Vegas time (which is 6am Ontario time) frantically reading this graphic novel wanting to know how it ended. The graphic novel had amazing illustrations, also done by Misako Rocks! They where actually quite beautiful. At the end of reading Detective Jermain Volume 1, it stated "to be continued..." I was so excited! I went online and started researching to find volume 2. As the first volume was published in 2008, the second one should be out by now right.....Wrong.

I was quite disappointed. In April 2008, Misako Rocks! wrote on her personal blog that she was working on Volume 2. There has been no more news on this matter since then. I was really looking forward to getting the second book from the library, but now I will have to wait patiently, well try to do so. Until then, I have to try reading and finishing another graphic novel. The tricky part is finding one I will enjoy.

I enjoyed Lucia Cedeira Serantes' guest speaker lecture we had yesterday in our LIS 9364 class on comic books and graphic novels. After Lucia went into detail about the formatting of graphic novels
(ex. panels/frames, text boxes, gutters, emotions, colour, and styles - all of these things I was really not familiar with), I feel like I will now understand the story lines more  when reading graphic novels. If I knew earlier the information I learned yesterday, about graphic novels, I think I would of started reading them a lot sooner. I am now interested in attempting to read my second graphic novel. To the stacks... here I go!