This article reports the author's experiences using graphic novels with pre-service teachers in a young adult literature course. Drawing on critical response papers two students composed after reading "Pride of Baghdad," a graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon, the author argues that when readers possess the background knowledge needed to approximate the role of the implied reader--that is, the imaginary audience for whom authors envision themselves writing--they are capable of engaging with graphic novels in ways that readers who lack experience with the form, or who question its literary merit, are not.