Reluctant Romantic - Graphic Novels

Katie @Doing Dewey is hosting a Reluctant Romantic challenge throughout February. The idea is to embrace a genre that you normally avoid.

Our first post is called Genre Speed Dating - what genre are you getting to know this month? Why do you want to give it a chance?

February is going to be graphic novel month on Brona's Books.

When I was a kid, visiting my Nan and Pop in their wonderful old rambling home in Bellingen was a real treat for several, very childish reasons.

One: the old bikes and scooters that we would ferret out from under the house. My sisters and I then spent the holidays racing each other around the house on these tyre-less, rough as guts, rusty old, leftovers from my mother's childhood.

Two: the giant orange tree in the backyard that seemed to be permanently loaded with fruit. To access the fruit, we had to climb up Pop's old wooden ladder onto the roof of the shed. The roof was a sweet mushy crush of rotten fruit and leaves. Pop had made a hook for us to pull down the fruit from the top of the tree. We always shared some of the fruit with the chooks in the pen below. To this day the smell of overripe oranges instantly takes me back to this place and time.

Three: my uncle's old comic books lived in one of the bedside tables in mum and dad's room. They were a mix of Archie comics and Marvel superman and batman comics. They had the usual musty smell that all books in the tropical north develop over time. They were yellowed with age, but we loved them. We would divvy them up equally, then retreat to one of the daybeds scattered around the huge verandah to read them.

It's the only time I have read (and loved) comic books.

During my early highschool years I discovered the Tintin books - I loved their mix of history and irreverence.
But Asterix bored me. And that was the end of me and graphic books.

As an adult I have tended to look down my book-snobbish nose at all graphic novels as not being proper books and therefore not worthy of my attention.

My plans for February are to reach out to graphic novels to rediscover some of my childhood love.

I will be focusing on my strengths - history, classics, bio's and non-fiction.

Any suggestions are most welcome.