Ah, this has been an experience.

This piece marks the end of comic book month, my first ever month writing at GeekReply and my first ever themed month, and I’ve done a lot in this time. As of my next article I will have set quite a few records and accomplishments in a very short period of time.

Believe it or not, this is something I have never done before, and if you’d told me last year that I would publish 100 articles in a month for a website and be the first person to ever do it, and do it in my first month writing for a website, and I’d do it all writing about comic books which I absolutely love I’d have said:

“Hell yeah I could do that!” – Although it would have entirely been bravado.

So for my last entry in comic book month I’m going to talk about what comics mean to me and why you should get into them.

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The wonderful thing about comic books and graphic novels is that they are fantastic for people that want to read but have trouble reading full books. Things like dyslexia are no joke and it makes a lot of people, young and old, feel stupid that they have so much trouble reading. It can also be immensely frustrating if you really want to be able to read stories but have a great difficulty. This is part of why comic books are so good, they blend a visual medium with an medium requiring imagination one, blending novels and pictures in a way that you are able to read but not be overwhelmed, and see images but not be limited to imagining what those images look like in motion.

There have been many people who I’ve known that have had a lot of difficulty reading but found that graphic novels not only got them into reading at a steady pace, but also built up their confidence and reading skills to go on to read full length novels without pictures.

As a kid I didn’t particularly like reading fiction, I read non-fiction books only, about prehistory, about animals and nature and I didn’t understand the point of reading about something that never happened, it didn’t make sense to me why people would read about make-believe. I was about seven. When I reached a much older and wiser nine, I began to read the Chronicles of Narnia and thus began my love of writing and reading fiction, as well as non-fiction.

It is amazing how much reading fiction can broaden your horizons to new concepts and ideas, and help you shape your own opinion of the world through metaphors and depictions of events and philosophies through character and story.; The perspective that fact-only books could never give you. It gives you the freedom to be completely immersed in a story regardless of whether it’s a feature length fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings or the dark, gritty western-esque comic book world of Preacher.

Comic books are in my opinion no different from any other novel in terms of quality, they can both offer different things, but while novels can often be very intimidating to less experienced readers, graphic novels can offer an easier way in, but you are not reading watered down content. Comic books can be as dark, gritty, edgy and thought provoking as any novel., Which is a huge part of why I love the medium so much for being so accessible.

Comics are something that anyone with some time and patience can get into, however without a doubt the most difficult part is knowing where to start. Join me for my 100^th article this month, where I’ll be talking about the best starting point for those wanting to get into comics.