If you’re a regular reader of YA novels, the thought of reading comics might seem foreign or even unappealing altogether. Being a reader of both though, I think there’s room to enjoy both if you wanted to. A few of my girlfriends are similar to me in that they love comics as well as YA, and I sat down to have a think about why this might have been the case. There are more crossovers between YA and comics than I think people realise.

• YA narratives play like a movie in your mind as you read. Comics are the visual element on paper.
  I’ve read some incredible YA books that open up your imagination as you read them – Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Iron Fey Series, the Soulstice series to name a few. In many ways, this is how comics work. Narrative and illustrations. Only, the illustrations are on paper, and you can visually see the world the author is trying to convey for you. This cuts down on a lot of the narrative when it comes to “world building”. In many ways, comics have an advantage of being able to jump straight into the story itself because they don’t have to work as hard to set it up.

• Just like YA series, comics have series too
  Some of my favourite YA series have 3 books in the series (or more!) or sometimes even spin off series. Comics aren’t disimilar. Comics usually tell a bigger story one chapter at a time in a single issue released usually on a monthly basis. So over 12 months, you’ve read 12 “chapters” if you will. Usually most comic companies will take these “chapters” and pop them into a hard cover book (or volume) in with about 6 or 7 chapters combined in one to create a whole story. I usually buy most comics this way, in a collection or volume where I can then read all of the “chapters” together and enjoy them. And just like some of my favourite YA series, some of these volumes have huge cliffhangers too!

• Both are stereotyped and often misunderstood
  I think the perception is that comics are always based on superheroes or all slapstick. Likewise when I’ve told my adult friends that I read YA novels, I’ve had many people say ‘Oh, like Twilight?’ because they just don’t understand.Both YA and comics have a lot more to offer, which leads me to my next crossover…

• Both YA and comics don’t limit themselves to the here and now with titles ranging from contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, superpowers, romance, thriller, and supernatural themes.
  What attracted me to YA originally was that the books were exciting and had plots that were complex (trying to explain some of these plots to my non-reader friends over the years has been fun! Lol) and unique and challenge your imagination with all kinds of weird and wonderful storylines that you often don’t find in adult fiction.

As such, I thought it might be a nice guide to comics if I posted a recommendation post. For instance, if you liked These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner then you’ll probably enjoy the comic series Saga Volume 1. I am working on a pretty epic list of comics for next week! I’m also working on a series of other posts for those of you who might be interested in comics and more importantly, where do you get started? They can be overwhelming, but if you know what to pick up they can be incredibly enjoyable, fun and addictive!

Keep your eyes out – these will be weekly features for now as we try and diversify Book Nerd Reviews a bit. Whilst we’ve always been traditionally a YA book blog, I think most of you will see I have been transitioning more to comics for the last 12 months whilst Kristy has stuck with YA books.

With this in mind we’ll be looking to broaden our audience with both comic fans and YA fans alike sharing the same space. We may get some YA fans opening their minds to comics and likewise, we may get some comic fans understanding what YA is all about as well. I’d like to think that we’ll offer a bit of something for everyone all the same!