Luckily my collection of Comic books and Graphic novels is pretty small at the moment, which means I can take the whole lot with me when I leave for uni. Not sure what i'm going to do when I need to temporarily move my stuff back home at the end of the year as I think the collection may have grown a bit by then :/

I'm in a block of 10 girls, me included, so I will probably stick out like a sore thumb but living in a city I should find at least a few people who think along the same lines as I do... A month and a bit to go.

I have decided that it's best to focus on a few characters to start with, so I am working on collecting graphic novels and comics related to; Batman, Spiderman and the X-men. The Batman graphic novels collection is growing nicely but as the only comic book shop is 30 miles away and there is only a very limited selection of comics on sale in the local W.H.Smiths, it is proving difficult to make any headway on the comic collection.

So far I have managed to get 3 X-men comics, 2 Spiderman comics and 1 Batman comic...

Luckily my brother is also into graphic novels and comics so we read each others. Where I want to go to uni there are at least 2 comic book shops within easy walking distance so it will be a lot easier once I leave home...

Today whilst doing my english language coursework, I learnt that the collection of symbols placed in a speech bubble that is used to represent swearing in most comic books is called a grawlix.

So, I've been doing my A2 English language coursework on comic books/graphic novels, and my second piece of coursework is looking at the change in the use of taboo language in comic books over the years. This is primarily looking at comic book language from the 1960s onwards.

Obviously words like "Whore" and "Bastard" have been in fairly common use since the 60s, usually to express anger or hate, but has the level of taboo language increased/ got worse in recent years? I noticed that a lot of the comics I pick up have "advised for maturer readers" on the cover somewhere. I don't personally have an issue with the use of taboo language, within reason obviously, but at what point do you draw a line with issues like this? Will it have any kind of negative impact?

I'm exploring this question and finding it a little difficult to comprehend. I have only just started writing it and the deadlines in two weeks, so I should probably really get on with it...