Armchair BEA: Visual Expressions

There are so many ways to tell stories. Whether it's comic books, graphic novels, visual novels, webcomics, etc, there are quite a lot of other mediums to tell a story. On this day, we will be talking about those books and formats that move beyond just words and use other ways to experience a story.

Until this year, I didn't really count any comics I was reading on my "reading year". And it had nothing to do with me thinking that they weren't real books, it just happened. Thanks to sites like Panels and of course Book Riot I became more aware of how much I read and enjoy this different format.

Let me tell you what I've been reading in this realm.

I was already reading PhD Comics, Girls with Slingshots and Dumbing of Age as webcomics, and Andi from Estella's Revenge introduced me to Rutabaga. We also got a Comixology account with A (my bf) and we both love Lumberjanes. I've also been reading Rat Queens, Bitch Planet and Sex Criminals. And on paper we have started collecting Ms Marvel, since we got volume 1 with my Book Riot Quarterly Box.

If those are my "adult" comics as in, the ones I got into as an adult, my child/teen comics are still and always will be with me. I love, LOVE Mafalda, and last time I was in Colombia I got myself the full collection (bit pricey, but every time I read it I am happy). We have almost all of the Tintin collection, and most of Asterix.

As you might have note by now, in general I tend to go for the "cute" drawing. With big eyes, a bit caricature-like, big thick lines. But then you have RQ, BP, SC and MM, all of them with very different art but more importantly with a very different content. In general I've realized I tend to lean (at least on new comics) toward female characters, the stronger the better. And while sometimes BP's subjects are so real that they are hard to stomach, I think that's exactly what makes me like that one so much, even though I am not crazy about the art...then again, only that angular, hard and sharp lines, type of art would fit the same subjects.

These 2 "worlds", the cute drawing and the hard subject merge for me on the Paul series. Never had a graphic novel made me cry as Paul à la Pêche. With beautiful, simple lines Rabagliati tells such a vivid, heart breaking story.

I am no expert on comics/graphic novels. I don't know much of canon on the big names associated with the world. But I do know one thing. I enjoy reading them and I love having yet another format to move my brain and heart so deeply.