OK -- so you've been hearing a lot about these "comic books" lately. They've become mighty popular with their box-office-breaking movies, their colorful pages and their really big conventions. There's gotta be something to the hype, right? Something more than guys in tights and radioactive spiders.

You're intrigued but too scared to give them a look because you don't want to be seen as, well, some kind of geek.

No worries, my friend. This converted-to-geek girl is here to give you some great stepping stones to get you started with my list of classic, respected Comic Books and Graphic Novels.

1) Watchmen

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's classic comic is the only one of its kind to make not only the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" list, but also the first comic to make Time's "100 Best English-Language Novels" list. The book's titles and accolades are well-earned, and Moore's story is compelling, dramatic, and completely serious-- something that many stereotype comics as being unable to do. This masterfully tight and well-crafted literary piece is paired with Gibbon's phenomenal, eye-popping artwork, to make a legendary piece. The work takes typical heroic archetypes and uses them to not only to give social commentary, but use "Superheroes" to tell an incredibly human tale as well.

2) Too Cool To Be Forgotten

Alex Robinson's newest graphic novel premiered this year to rave reviews. Robinson's novel tells the story of a Forty-something who, in his quest to stop smoking, gets sent back to high school through hypnotherapy, and must live a 40-year-old's mind in a 15-year-old's body. Touching, amusing, and incredibly relatable, Robinson's piece really shows the difference between a "Graphic Novel" and a "Comic Book" (not that the two are mutually exclusive)-- Robinson's story is incredibly human-- there are no fantastical creatures or radition-powered heroes, just the story of a man trying to swim through his past. The story could easily have been told in prose, but the use of images as well only enhances the readers experience, and was able to make me both laugh out loud and sob like a two-year-old in one sitting. I hear his other trade (Trade n. a larger, book-length-and-size version of Graphic Novel) Box Office Poison is great, and plan to pick it up as soon as I have the $$$.

3) Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

I was actually first introduced to this piece in an English class, and it has remained one of my favorite novels ever since. Made famous for her classic Lesbian web-comic, ****s to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel's Autobiographical Novel is beautifully drawn and written, telling the complex story of not only the author's discovery of her own sexuality, but dealing with her father's closeted-lifestyle as well. Again, a story that is both relatable and completely grounded in reality, but told with beautiful images to go along with it.

4) Owly

The most adorable Owl around, Owly is an All-Ages comic created by Andy Runton. Told without text, Owly is heart-warming, funny, and incredibly wise in its child-like innocence, which makes is enjoyable as well. Runton's mastery of his characters emotions and body-language makes reading this non-text piece  about fuzzy woodland creatures completely seamless and easy, as the characters are able to use symbols and faces to tell the story on their own. Just like watching your favorite Disney film, the comic is able to make the reader get just enough suspension of disbelief that it doesn't matter that you're reading a kids book about Owls and Rabbits, you're having a damn good time doing it. That, and Owly is just so gosh-darned cute, that he never ceases to brighten my day when it's not going so well.

5) The Long Halloween

OK, I had to sneak a comic book in here, but it's for your own good. Loeb and Sale's classic Batman story gives is one of the most revered and most enjoyable. Reading as much as a gripping mystery cops-and-villains tale as it does a comic, this quintessential Batman book is hard to put down once you pick it up. Still grounded in the reality of its drama, Long Halloween manages to stray just enough into the comic world to make it enjoyable to any comic geek, but it is still able to keep its feet on the ground enough that the non-Geek will still enjoy it. Trust me, it'll get you on your way.