I spent a lazy Saturday plowing through about half a dozen graphic novels – easy to do, since most of them were around 100 pages with about 20 words per page. As I read more of this format, I’m learning how to read them. When I started with my first few graphic novels, I had to translate the art into text in my mind in order to understand the story. I would literally tell myself, “She’s getting out of the car…now she’s walking down the road to the school,” and so on. It reminds me a lot of how a person learns a foreign language: first, everything must be translated into the known language, but eventually, the foreign language becomes understandable on its own. Now, the pictures tell the story for me without the need for me to create words as intermediaries.

Here’s a sampling of the graphic novels I read recently:

Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood
I saw the (bad) movie recently and needed an antidote. This graphic novel takes the legend back to its roots – no surprises, but it’s well-done and well-drawn for the most part (although I had a hard time telling certain characters apart at times).

Cat Burglar Black
The best graphic novel I’ve read since The Eternal Smile. Like a cross between Nancy Drew and Heist Society – lots of fun, and the art style grew on me. I’m hoping for a sequel.

The Hound of the Baskervilles
A faithful interpretation of Doyle’s story that retains the feel of the original, but nothing spectacular.

Orange
Absolutely incredible art, with a story that needed a lot of work. I wouldn’t recommend the novel as a whole, but the artwork really is worth poring over.

The Nobody
I haven’t read the original upon which this story is based, but the graphic novel is a great standalone – layered story and really evocative art.

Parade (With Fireworks)
A graphic novel that taught me I need to brush up on my Italian history. Hard to follow and I wasn’t wild about the art.

Flight (Volume 1)
The art is beautiful (particularly the cover) and the variety of artistic styles on display is impressive, but I would have appreciated more actual story in each offering. Many of the contributions were very slim on plot. By that I don’t mean they didn’t have enough text – just that the combination of art and text didn’t always tell a story with the requisite beginning, middle, and end. A lot of them seemed all beginning.

Britten and Brulightly
A mystery about a depressed private detective and his assistant, a teabag. (Yes, literally, a teabag. As in, what you use to make tea.) Sometimes hard to follow, but I really loved the art.