Armchair BEA: THE END!

Today is the last day of Armchair BEA and I'm kind of annoyed. I have loved this week, but I didn't get to post two days of it for which I have no excuse except general rubbishness. I wish that I'd been able to spend more time visiting blogs but I've got a huge amount on at the moment and all in all I'm pretty pleased with my levels of participation.

Here is a quick recap of my posts this week:
Day 1: Introductions
Day 2: Blogger Development
Day 4: Ethics & Non-Fiction

I will be checking out a lot of the posts I've missed over the next few days and I have no doubt at all that my wishlist is going to get a lot longer! (Just in time for my birthday, conveniently).

For the last day of Armchair BEA we get to talk about a genre there hasn't already been a chance to talk about. There are a few genres I could talk about here, primarily the one I missed out on yesterday, but I'm going to talk about graphic novels.

I was a late arrival to reading graphic novels. I had no interest whatsoever in them until I was about 15 and discovered Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. After that, I was hooked. Here are a few of my favourites. Even if you think you won't like graphic novels, for whatever reason, you should give one a go. They're awesome.

The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman

A series of 11 graphic novels centring around Dream (or The Sandman) and his family, including Death, Destiny, Desire, and Delirium among others. They're beautiful and the plots are as brilliant as you'd expect if you're familiar with Gaiman's work, and they work in various mythic plotlines effortlessly. They can be a little bit violent and slightly explicit at times though.

Fables by Bill Willingham

It won't surprise most of you to hear that my two favourite graphic novel series are both based around fairytale and mythology. The Fables series (there are also a couple of spin-off series) are based around various fairytale and fable characters setting up a new life in Fabletown, New York after being forced to flee their homelands due to persecution from 'The Adversary'. They're brilliant and complex and also have beautiful artwork. I could read them forever - I'm currently awaiting some means of getting hold of Book 11 and never want the series to end.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 

My first experience with biography in the graphic form. Brilliant, hilarious and really insightful, it's about Satrapi's experience growing up in Iran. Nothing about repression and cruelty that I've ever read has been this funny.

Scott Pilgrim Series by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Lots of you will probably know this from the (awesome) movie. And if not, you should go watch it now, because it's brilliant. The books are also great - very similar to the film in lots of ways but spanning a longer time period and with subtle differences which makes reading them a different experience from watching the film.

Naming Monster by Hannah Eaton

This isn't out until the end of the month, but watch out on the blog this week because I'm reviewing it and there will be a giveaway enabled by the lovely publishers, Myriad! It's a memoir based on the author's experience of losing her mother at an early age and it's divided up by mythical creatures representing what the character is going through in her journey towards dealing with what's happening to her. The artwork is gorgeous and it's absorbing and moving and a very, very true representation of the way I remember being a teenager.

Those are my recommendations. If you're a graphic novel reader, tell me what your favourites are! I'm always looking for recommendations. If you're not, I hope you'll give one of these a try :-)