Last Saturday (May 2nd) is Free Comic Book Day! In celebration of comics and graphic novels, some suggestions:
– Do you read graphic novels/comics? Why do/don’t you enjoy them?
– How would you describe the difference between “graphic novel” and “comic”? Is there a difference at all?
– Say you have a friend who’s never encountered graphic novels. Recommend some titles you consider landmark/”canonical”.
I don’t really. I did read Watchmen and I enjoyed it, though, so I’m open to reading more. I’ve just started reading Elfquest online. I have a book, Letters To Jenny, by Piers Anthony, and in his letters to this poor girl, Jenny Gildwarg, who has been hit by a drunk driver and seriously brain damaged, he mentions Richard and Wendy Pini a lot, so I’ve always wanted to read their series. I think it stuck in my head because I really liked Letters to Jenny. I was a kid, and I thought Piers Anthony was funny and I was glad he was nice enough to keep up such a correspondence with her and help her recover. I always wondered what happened to her after the end of the letters in the book, although after some quick online searching it appears she was in college in 2006.
Anyway, that’s not what the question is about, is it? Heh. I’d also really like to read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but have mostly been waiting to have a decent enough library so I can see if I like it before I start to pay for it. I have a couple of friends who read comics and I’ve had peeks at theirs and in the comic book store, but I’ve always strayed to the lone shelf of science fiction books when there, so I can’t really say too much. I know there is also a Firefly series continuation of some sort and I can’t say I’d be opposed to that either, so I guess I would be willing to read them. I just haven’t for some reason!
I guess to me, the difference between comics and graphic novels is probably very small these days and I’m not the person to judge. If I had to, I’d say comics are short, always a series, and possibly lighter than graphic novels, which I would envision at least as being a shorter series if not a contained work dealing with bigger consequences. Is that anywhere near right?
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