Anyone else here like graphic novels?

I may have a new favorite comics writer, or at least someone who is up there with Neil Gaiman, my old favorite. Kieron Gillen is, like Gaiman, English. He has done everything from creator-owned indie comics to writing for some major Marvel titles (Star Wars, X-men). I discovered him through Once & Future, a fantasy series about the return of King Arthur ... as an undead villain. After that, I started looking up what else Hoopla had by him.

I am now reading an older series of his called Phonogram (he owns the rights and Image Comics is the distributor). It is set in the early noughties music scene in the UK (Bristol, I think) and has people capable of music-based magic called phonomancers. A lot of the action takes place in clubs. In fact, the second series, collected into the graphic novel The Singles Club, has seven parallel stories, each about a different character, taking place on a single night in the same club. Very well-written and I am quite enjoying it, even if a lot of the music references require visits to Google (e.g. I had never heard of The Pippettes or Long Blondes before). Gillen was a music and gaming writer before he started doing comic books and it shows.

Finished Phonogram. The final series, The Immaterial Girl (yes, it's a Madonna reference), explores the character of Emily Aster. She has been a player right through, but now we learn about how she and her alter ego Claire, who was introduced in an issue of the previous series, got separated as Emily races to end the Faustian bargain that caused the split and Claire races to mess up everything Emily has accomplished since the split. Music videos play a big role, as does the death of Michael Jackson. The musical references are more mainstream, too, and the magic is bigger and more blatant. Still, it is a good story and a good ending to the series (at least, the final few panels make it seem like Kieron Gillen meant this as a swansong for the characters). Most of the character arcs are either tied up or at least on at a point where we aren't left hanging.

In my classroom, we are reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Since this is a SPED class, we are reading the graphic novel version. It's easier for them and even though there are certain pieces cut short, it still gets the story across.