500 Essential Graphic Novels

So I somehow got this crazy idea that I want to read all of the books listed in the book 500 Essential Graphic Novels by Gene Kannenberg Jr. It started innocently enough, I joined the group on Goodreads as a way to branch out of my normal reading habits; but now the more books I read off the list the more I want to read the whole list.

I am not saying that every book I have read off the list has been a stellar read, in fact I can think of at least two that I absolutely hated; but the ones that I loved I have really loved. For example, I read Persepolis a while ago I did enjoy it, but I was probably never going to read anything else by Marjane Satrapi. Then I saw another one of her books, Embroideries was also on the list, so I took it out of the library and it is great. Like Satrapi's other books it's nonfiction. Marjane and the women of her family regularly gather to have tea and gossip. Through the gossip of her elders Marjane and the readers find out about the heartbreaks of both marriage for love and marriage for convenience. The stories are funny and heartfelt. Since the tales all revolve around love gone wrong, the reader can see the strength in all of the woman who survive these heartbreaks and are still able to raise families and become strong independent

Plus reading from the list has led me to books not on the list I might have never picked up. I have always been a Marvel girl with a love of the X-Men, especially Rogue and Nightcrawler and the Avengers. The only DC character I ever gave the time of day was Wonder Woman. Now I am following Birds of Prey, Green Arrow, and even Batman (he was always kind of dark with way too much deep introspection for my kiddie self) but now that I have read Jeph Loeb's noir style Batman, I am in love. And who knew there was a Green Arrow Black Canary book or that Marvel had Dracula, Wolfman and Frankenstein books as well.