Professional Research
If you don't believe me that graphic novels are AMAZING, here are some people smarter than me telling you so.
The Brain: The Charlie Brown Effect - Carl Zimmer
In this 2012 article for Discovery Magazine, Zimmer writes about the early studies of Dr. Neil Cohn, founder of the Visual Language Lab, where Cohn hypothesizes that reading comics is similar in brain science terms to reading sentences.
Former Teacher and Author, Gene Luen Yang, shares why Comics Belong in Classrooms
The Visual Language Lab - Dr. Neil Cohn
Dr. Cohn (Ph.D. in Psychology) has done extensive work studying how graphic novels affect the brain. His growing body of work, along with other experts doing actual research, can be found on his website, The Visual Language Lab.