At first when we were assigned to read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I was kind of intimidated by the comic book format. Prior to this assignment, I had never read a graphic novel of any sort. The closest I've gotten is reading a brief comic strip or cartoon. The plot of this novel is very exciting, so I think that may have increased my curiosity about graphic novels. People I know read them and love them, but I have never gotten into them. This book has changed my perception of graphic novels.
I always thought they were for kids. The pictures and text, I thought, had to be very easy to read, so therefore they were meant for kids. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is not aimed at young children, and I actually really enjoyed it. At first it was very difficult because my brain tried to simultaneously read the text and look at the pictures. For the first three issues I was very very frustrated. Do I look at the picture first, then read the text? Or vice versa? How long do I have to look at the picture? How do I follow who's talking? There's so much going on! Basically I had no point of focus and could not organize the pages into a readable form. Because of this frustration, I was pretty turned off by this novel even though I really liked the plot. So last week I found myself wishing it was just in a regular book format.
Until....
today when I had to finish the issues. I put it off all weekend because I knew it was going to strain my brain and was not really looking forward to it. But, I found as soon as I started the sections assigned for tomorrow, it clicked! I easily followed the layout and did not get so anxious about where to look and for how long to look at it. I think not thinking so hard about it made it easier, and much more enjoyable. I'm now reading the last issue and am having no trouble following it.
Originally I was dreading having to read a graphic novel for this class, but now I am grateful that we did because it completely changed my opinion on comic books. I guess this kind of just reiterates the point that I should always keep an open mind, especially when it comes to approaching things that are foreign to me.
