Impressions of Graphic Novels
I actually have a long history with graphic novels. Like many kids in my generation I was a participant in the great Anime/Manga Boom of the late 90s/early 00s which meant many a copy of the Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z manga was checked out from the local library which eventually evolved to American series like Neil Gaiman's The Sandman or Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan in my teens. But things like comic books or manga volumes were expensive and my family spent a good deal of my childhood poor so I had to go looking for cheap alternatives to those. That was when I discovered webcomics, a media form created during the late 90s during the dot-com boom. Not only was this a great way for someone broke like me to enjoy the graphic novel format but webcomic writers were free from constraints of their print compatriots which allowed them to dig into controversial topics other comics were not allowed to touch. While this originally manifested in webcomics having a good deal more...