Armchair BEA 2015: Visual Expressions

It is day two of Armchair BEA!  Participants will be posting about either or both of the following topics: Visual Expressions and Social Media.

I am going to stick to Visual Expressions.  I will be following Social Media conversations, because I know I could be working harder in that arena.

I love graphic novels and other formats that use illustrations to enhance and expand upon the text.  You can check out my tag for all graphic novel reviews and more.  (I also have a manga tag.)

If you check out those tags, you'll find some highlights.  To me, those include:

• My year as a panelist for the CYBILS graphic novels division
• Manga Primer, part one
• Manga Primer, part two

Currently, I'm fascinated by hybrid novels like Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi with graphic sections by Craig Phillips and In the Shadows by Kiersten White with graphic sections by Jim Di Bartolo.  These books are both regular prose novels and graphic novels, telling two stories that intertwine in two mediums.  (The word "shadows" in the title is optional.)

I also really dig the imprint TOON Books right now.  This imprint publishes books at three reading levels to help children increase their literacy proficiency using more and more sophisticated graphic novel techniques.  The layouts help them follow changes in setting (both time and place) and the pictures help give context and expression to characters and their actions.  Plus, they're just good kid's books.

I'm still reading manga, although I don't post about it much.  My favorite series currently being serialized is Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (that is, Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun).  It is a 4-koma comic about a girl, her crush Nozaki who writes a popular monthly manga, and their friends who help make and inspire the manga story.  It is absolutely hilarious.  The simple structure allows for a ridiculous density of jokes.

So why do you love graphic novels?  What new and innovative titles or imprints are catching your eye?