Monkey-Shines

I’ve never really been able to get into graphic novels.  I tried to.  As a card carrying member of the geek generation I thought it was expected of me.  I’ve grown out of that phase and realized I don’t have to conform to expectations.  I’m my own geek, and I’m proud of that.

I think part of what holds me back is that I’m such an avid reader.  I love books, and while technically graphic novels are books, the illustrations tend to hinder me.  My mind’s eye can’t see past the illustrations.  I only see what the creators want me to see, and that takes away part of what I read for.   I can’t escape to my own little world if I’m being told where to go.

All that said, I did fall for some graphic novels, but not really the ones most people flock to.  Watchmen is big right now with the movie coming out recently, but the whole super-hero thing never appealed to me.   I read the graphic novel it’s based on, and it was good enough that I’d like to see what they did with it cinematically, but it’s not what I would call one my favorites.

I went more for the quirky ones.  Like Bone.  I fell in love with Bone very quickly.  It has the traditional quest in a vaguely “fantasy” setting that has always attracted me in my regular readings.  But it adds some characters in ways you might not expect.

On a recent trip to the bookstore to spend a couple of gift cards I had I found the all-in-one Bone collection.  I couldn’t believe it, I hadn’t thought about Bone in years.  Since I never finished the series, it wasn’t finished when I started and I fell out of trying before he finsihed, I went ahead an plopped down my gift cards for it.  1300 pages of graphic novel gold was mine, and I will finally be able to finish the series I had all but forgotten about.