All things visual and sequential

Everyone's talking about the Cybils, and I was particularly interested in the Graphic Novels shortlist, since I'm busying selecting all things visual and sequential. I started with a list that a very skinny boy made for me in the middle of a dinner party. And since then, I've found a couple other pretty terrific selection tools, so I thought I'd share.

First of all, did everyone else already know that Diamond Bookshelf listed the top-selling Manga and other Graphic Novels every month? And here I was, thinking you needed to subscribe to ITV2.

But more importantly, look what's at Bookslut! An interview with Robin Brenner! About her new book Understanding Manga! So good, it's sure to make you love Manga more than penguins and giant robots, plus you'll get answers to questions like "Should manga get more of a free pass for gratuitous violence and sexism?"

Then there's the "17 Sensational, Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels" over at Daily Bits. These aren't graphic novels that are only available online, but rather novels that are also delivered in formats ranging from books to Sony Playstation Portables. What I'm saying is, you can get a sneak preview of stuff you might also be interested in collecting. Personally, I recommend Fables.

The Excelsior File reviewed some TOON offerings: graphic novles for early readers. My favorite year-end-best-of-thingy is a tie between the one at Warren Peace and the one at Popcultureshock (my fave category: "best use of animals"). Percocious Curmudgeon has a list of the most fun graphic novels (lots of stuff for kiddies), and Comics and More has a list of the worst.