From that ‘new book smell’ to the soft rustling of pages to eye-catching cover designs, it's fair to say a book can be a very beautiful thing. And graphic novels are even more beautiful than most.
For a start, they're usually larger – all the better to show off their authors’ artistic abilities. Beyond that, graphic novels also offer something that ‘normal’ books can’t: new depths of meaning, told through the interplay of the artwork, text and layout. When it comes to non-fiction, they can also help convey complex ideas and theories in a way that's accessible.
Whatever your reading taste, we’ve gathered together ten of the most beautiful graphic novels ever made.
Cormorance by Nick Hayes
This is a story of a boy, a girl and an inner-city reservoir. In it, we see a boy trying to cope with the loss of his mother and a girl, in a similar situation, trying to complete a journey she started with her mother. While the book doesn’t have any words (unless you count the onomatopoeic bird sounds that punctuate the book), Hayes’ almost uniformly blue palette brings to life this ode to the redemptive power of connecting with the natural world.
