Ask anyone who knows me and my designs can speak volumes over my verbal communication. Maybe it is shyness, a missing link between my brain and mouth, or a missing a chromosome that makes me that way. Some people learn through text or equations, but I see the world from an observational point of view. Watching how people interact with the world around them to see how they think. Or in my current profession, watching how people want to use products.

This keen eye for learning from the visual has driven my love of graphic novels. I understand reading a novel full of words and being able to paint the world as you see it. But seeing the world through an artist’s eyes is a whole other experience. It’s one more way I hadn’t seen the world before. One more view to mold how I think. The following three graphic novels are novels that illustrated the world in a whole new way for me.

100% by Paul Pope

100% takes you into a cyberpunk metropolis where pornography has gone so far that people can now only get turned on by seeing inside women. Past the skin. Into the muscle and tissue. His detailed illustrations really bring this drug-trip story to life. Paul’s greytone textures and camera shots show a run down dirty city with futuristic technologies run by the worst of the worst.

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Habibi by Craig Thompson

A story set in a fantastical Middle East and built on everything from camels to skyscrapers. His intricate designs tell the fabulous tales of a young girl sold into marriage, kidnapped into slavery, only to escape, and be abducted again into the sultan’s harem. Thompson illustrates the story through an influence of his love for Arabic calligraphy and the regions great storytelling.

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Daytripper by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon

The title says it all and the gorgeous illustrations don’t disappoint. Daytripper tells 5 stories about the same man, Bras, but at different ages. Each story ends in his death taking you on a “trip” to ponder… The meaning of life? What does living life to the fullest mean? Does deep love compensate for the vivid despair that comes with losing it? Riddles upon riddles with illustrations that are sure to take you on a trip.

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