Karen

I love this article! I used to watch a lot of anime and tended toward the dubs when I was younger, but I did find that I preferred reading subtitles (especially when some animes had really awful dubbing). I will watch some animes in English, like Death Note and FullMetal Alchemist, mostly because I genuinely like the English voice acting and don’t feel like the story is changed for localization.

I used to love the Kingdom Hearts series growing up, replaying whichever games I had every year. But I *hated* the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, which felt like one big tutorial until you gained control of Sora for the first time.
I love games that start by dropping you right in the middle of the story or even action. It’s a bit daunting if you’ve never played that game before and it has new mechanics, but I feel like this approach is more organic. I also like the option of skipping tutorials, especially when it’s a game I love replaying or an installment in a series where the mechanics don’t change much game to game. Nothing is worse than mindlessly smashing whatever button will make the text boxes go away so you can actually get on with playing.

Thank you for your comment! I loved McCloud’s books – definitely useful for anyone wishing to explore how comics are structured!
The comic book course I took in my own undergrad focused on breaking down the stigma of comic book reading and how you can study them just as you would any other work of literature (which I appreciated, being an English major myself).
I definitely hope graphic novels will be used in English classes and taken as seriously as written novels or poems in the future.

Hiya, I’m Canadian too, and I would definitely encourage you to read it! I actually read it last year for a university science class, and it was really eye-opening. I think this article captures Atwood’s effectiveness at depicting such a terrifying world that tips into ethically gray areas for genetics and government power.

All great suggestions, and a wonderful way of breaking down just how graphic novels offer an assortment of genres to such a wide variety of people. It’s almost overwhelming to pick *one* graphic novel to start with if you’re new to it, but I definitely agree that there’s something out there for everyone.

I adored Nimona! I think it’s very aware of itself as a graphic novel, and a decent starter for anyone wishing to get into the medium.

Well put!
As an English major myself, I can understand why classic literature is so highly regarded – though even I sometimes question the process of canonization that elevates certain works and disregards others deserving of more exposure. However, disregarding comics as a whole merely because they seem to be less nuanced than certain literature/books is a damaging approach to comics that I entirely disagree with.
I actually took a “Comics and Cartoons” course last summer as a part of my English degree. I took it mostly because I was a casual manga and comics reader, loved superhero movies, and wanted a greater exposure to comics as a medium. I ended up becoming exposed to a lot of the great titles I’ve mentioned in my article, and the course as a whole shaped how I now view comics.
I also realized how much you can discuss about comics in terms of colour, composition, use of frames, style of art. As an English major, I am used to discussing themes, characters, and how sentences are structured, or analyzing stories through specific literary lenses. But comics have an entirely visual element to them that brings so much more analysis and it was a genuine pleasure writing essays on how these elements enhanced the comics’ stories and how you could read them.

It’s a shame you’ve had these experiences – and that these people have a narrow understanding of the wonderful content of comic books. It’s certainly an example that helps prove my point here.
But that is an incredibly adorable quote and here’s to hoping that kid doesn’t “grow out” of comics just because he’s told to.