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Help me educate the public! (Comic Book/Graphic Novel Suggestions)
Aibyn
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Good afternoon all!
I am currently working at my local library and I am some what in charge of the graphic novel/comic book section.
After reviewing what we had and what was available, I have discovered that our collection is mighty underwhemling.
So...what I'd like, if you all are able, is to suggest your favorite trade paper backs, and/or story arc that caught your eye.
Here are the ones I've come up with:
Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
Alan Moore 978-0930289225
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix SagaChris Claremont 978-0785122135
Books of Magic, The: Bindings - Book 1 (DC Comics Vertigo)
Jane Yolen 978-1563891878
Planetary Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
Warren Ellis 978-1563896484
Animal Man, Book 1 - Animal ManGrant Morrison 978-1563890055
Powers Vol. 1: Who Killed Retro Girl?Brian Michael Bendis 978-1582401836
Green Lantern: RebirthGeoff Johns 978-1401204655
Young Justice: Sins of Youth
Peter David 978-1563897481
Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story (v. 1)
Ed Brubaker 978-0785124894
Lucifer Vol. 1: Devil in the Gateway Mike Carey 978-1563897337
Flash, Book 1: Blood Will Run
Geoff Johns 978-1401216474
Cable/Deadpool Vol. 1: If Looks Could KillFabian Nicieza
978-0785113744
Hitman Garth Ennis 978-1563893148
Justice League International: Volume 1 Keith Giffen 978-1401216665
The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 1 James Robinson 978-1401216993
Madman Volume 1 (v. 1) Mike Allred 978-1582408101
Rapunzel's Revenge Shannon Hale 978-1599900704
Thor, Vol. 1 (v. 1)J. Michael Straczynski 978-0785117223
Sinfest Volume 1Tatsuya Ishida 978-1595823199
Attack of the Bacon Robots (Penny Arcade, Vol. 1)
Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik 978-1593074449
TransmetropolitianWarren Ellis Any really, as all we have are #1 and 9 of the tpb’s.
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days TPBRobert Kirkman 978-0785135630
Thanks and have a good day!
I am currently working at my local library and I am some what in charge of the graphic novel/comic book section.
After reviewing what we had and what was available, I have discovered that our collection is mighty underwhemling.
So...what I'd like, if you all are able, is to suggest your favorite trade paper backs, and/or story arc that caught your eye.
Here are the ones I've come up with:
Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
Alan Moore 978-0930289225
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix SagaChris Claremont 978-0785122135
Books of Magic, The: Bindings - Book 1 (DC Comics Vertigo)
Jane Yolen 978-1563891878
Planetary Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
Warren Ellis 978-1563896484
Animal Man, Book 1 - Animal ManGrant Morrison 978-1563890055
Powers Vol. 1: Who Killed Retro Girl?Brian Michael Bendis 978-1582401836
Green Lantern: RebirthGeoff Johns 978-1401204655
Young Justice: Sins of Youth
Peter David 978-1563897481
Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story (v. 1)
Ed Brubaker 978-0785124894
Lucifer Vol. 1: Devil in the Gateway Mike Carey 978-1563897337
Flash, Book 1: Blood Will Run
Geoff Johns 978-1401216474
Cable/Deadpool Vol. 1: If Looks Could KillFabian Nicieza
978-0785113744
Hitman Garth Ennis 978-1563893148
Justice League International: Volume 1 Keith Giffen 978-1401216665
The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 1 James Robinson 978-1401216993
Madman Volume 1 (v. 1) Mike Allred 978-1582408101
Rapunzel's Revenge Shannon Hale 978-1599900704
Thor, Vol. 1 (v. 1)J. Michael Straczynski 978-0785117223
Sinfest Volume 1Tatsuya Ishida 978-1595823199
Attack of the Bacon Robots (Penny Arcade, Vol. 1)
Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik 978-1593074449
TransmetropolitianWarren Ellis Any really, as all we have are #1 and 9 of the tpb’s.
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days TPBRobert Kirkman 978-0785135630
Thanks and have a good day!
"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon..."
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
Aibyn on
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Mainly what I need/want are favorite stories that have already been collected so I can present the orders to the purchasing dept with little to no fuss needed to obtain the books. Hence all the tpb and other collections.
I appreciate all the help!
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
Batman: Death and the City
Batman: Private Casebook
Batman: Heart of Hush
And every Fable book out there, there's like 17 of them
Also, Grant Morrison's New X-Men trades
And I guess all the Buffy trades, since all those Twilight vampires will need something else to emo out on *snip snip snap*
All Star Superman
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Year One
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Planet Hulk
The Authority
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge
DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore
Tom Strong
Promethea
Top 10
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Brian Bendis's first Daredevil TPB or hardcover
Green Arrow: Quiver
Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence
Frank Miller's Daredevil books
Martha Washington
Denny O'Neil's The Question
Criminal by Ed Brubaker
some of Jason's stuff
Won Ton Soup
King City
Y the Last Man
Ex Machina
Runaways
Blue Pills
Batman: Year 100
Heavy Liquid
Local
DMZ
Demo
Iron Man: Extremis
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimates
Welcome to Tranquility
Boneyard
Thor by James Straczynski
Captain America by Ed Brubaker
New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Civil War
Secret Invasion
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Marvels
Kingdom Come
Some Marvel Adventures Avengers/Spider-Man/Iron Man/Hulk
Oh, and then a shitload of manga. In my experience working at a library, all the titles I listed above will circulate pretty well. A lot of twenty-somethings read Brian Michael Vaughan, Brian Wood, and Alan Moore, and the superhero stuff circulates pretty well with adolescent or teen boys, as well as some adults. But manga will get a lot of teenagers, both boys and girls, and since they're dirt cheap, they're a pretty good investment on the library's part.
If the comics circulate well, then I'd branch out to some more obscure or European stuff, like Blacksad, anything by Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, some Hope Larson stuff, the Minx books, Popgun Anthology, some 2000 A.D., Metal Hurlant, some stuff by Soleil or Humanoids Publishing, etc. just to round out your collection.
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And a second on the Fables, great series with pretty much universal appeal.
LoL Summoner: infobrains | XBL: cwap4brains | PSN: infobrains
1.) Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories
2.) Conan Vol. 2: The God in the Bowl and Other Stories
3.) Conan Vol. 3: The Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories
4.) Conan Vol. 4: The Hall of the Dead and Other Stories
5.) Frank Miller's 300 (HC)
6.) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
7.) Batman: The Long Halloween
8.) Spiderman: Blue
9.) Daredevil: Yellow
10.) Hulk: Grey
11.) Danger Girl
12.) Invincible
13.) Hellboy
14.) Watchmen
15.) The Ultimates Omnibus
16.) PVP: Awesomology
17.) Penny Arcade
18.) WANTED
19.) Kingdom Come
20.) Maus
Manga and/or translated works:
1.) Lucha Libre
2.) Grey
3.) Ghost in the Shell
4.) Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight
5.) Vampire Hunter D (The Novels)
... Technically the D books are novels, but they feature Yoshitaka Amano's art throughout. And honestly, 1 and 3 are significant as they were "translated" to the original D and D Bloodlust movies. And although not comics, I think George R.R. Martin's Wildcard series would be another "gateway" for kids to get interested in reading and the public to get interested in comics. I purposefully shied away from "mainstream" comics because most of them are either tied to years of continuity or inconsistent in their quality.
There is a huge amount of research and attention to detail put into all the Concrete books, and the stories are very touching. It's a good title to try and convince people who look down their noses at the comic medium to take it more seriously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_(comics)
Also, how about getting Understanding Comics by Scott Mcloud in there. I discovered that book in a library and it blew my mind. Another good one for showing people the depth that comics can have.
Oh, and you should get the Flaming Carrot books as well. Because they are the greatest comics ever made.
xbox GT: Big Will C H
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Seconded.
I don't know how things work at your library, but some of these books have a lot of "mature" content, gore and titties and whatnot, so make sure you don't lose your job.
I was really impressed with Robotika. I think it is currently out of print, but Devil's Due is supposedly reprinting it some time.
So it begs the question - does your library treat the comic books as a kids section, a teen section, or differently? Books like Conan, Maus, and even Pride of Baghdad, are definitely not "regular old comic books" - they deal with some sensitive topics and gruesome images.
Hellboy is really good stuff. Again, pretty dark and bleak, not really a good idea for an all-ages section, but really really great. Hellboy and the related titles actually get tons better with every year too, so there is that.
At the place where I work, we have adult, young adult, and juvenile comic sections. It's a pretty cool setup actually.
Still, every day I come in and find out that some parent hasn't lost their shit because they caught their kid reading Empowered, LoEG, some schoolgirl fetish manga, Identity Crisis, or a ton of other comics featuring nudity and violence, I'm kind of surprised. But then, I'd probably just counter by pointing out the enormous section of art books featuring nudity, or all the romance and "gangsta love" books that have graphic descriptions of sex.
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Aqua Leung is a really cool book that is probably fine for 10+.
The two Amazon reviews are terrible. I wish I could find my copy to write a proper review. Too many comix in too small of an apartment.
Make sure you get the ones that have achieved some sort of decoration in the industry or in the press. Some of them have already been mentioned: Maus, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan (ANYTHING by Chris Ware), Sandman, of course all the Alan Moore stuff, Craig Thompson's Blankets, Hellboy, some Harvey Pekar...I could go on. Ooh, anything that P. Craig Russell has done, like his adaptations of operas and mythology.
Also look into some of the classic stuff from early in the days of comics, like Krazy Kat and Little Nemo, and the archives of later syndicated greats like the Peanuts books, Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, etc. Also maybe some of the more well-known underground comics of the 70s and 80s like R. Crumb and Lynda Barry.
Random stuff...the new adaptations of Stephen King's Dark Tower series seemed to be rather popular, as did that entire "Graphic Classics" series that had various folks illustrating the works of Poe, Lovecraft, Wells, Wilde, and others. People already mentioned stuff like Sinfest and PA, you could also get the PvP books, and maybe even Sam Brown's explodingdog books. Get all the Warren Ellis you can possibly find. Ooh, the Flight anthologies! MUST haves! Oh and Bone, lots of kids loved that and so did I. We had a lot of Hellblazer too. The Cerebus collections did well. Grab a few Doug TenNapel books, too. Also, start grabbing all sorts of Star Wars books from Dark Horse, the kids will go apeshit over that.
As far as worrying about content, make sure your superiors are aware that graphic novels are a medium and not an age-specific genre; they can and do contain ANYTHING. Basically say whatever you need to say so that if any parent objects to her kid reading some Sin City it's up to the manager or executive director to explain themselves, and not you defending yourself to your manager or exexutive director. If the library you work at is any descent sort of library, and your executive director has even half a brain, it'll defend itself to the death: libraries are neutral archives of information, they DO NOT take a moral stance on what they offer (i.e. pander to anyone) unless provoked by law (child pornography, etc.). When I was given control of our graphic novel collection, I expressed my own hesitations concerning this, but then generally got the picture; it's the job of the parent to police what their kids read and my executive wasn't gonna take crap from anyone saying otherwise. If your library doesn't have this sort of backbone, then they should stop calling themselves a public library.
Now, once that's taken care of, you can maybe even do something yourself to educate the library-going public, depending on what sort of control you have. I had always had in mind to create a poster/display in my section detailing the history of the comic art form and explaining the fact that comics are a medium and not a genre, and that they can contain any genre - mystery, SF, romance, fantasy, biography, history, drama, etc. I ended up leaving before I got a chance to do it, but something like that would be a great way to get people who don't normally pay attention to comics to start paying attention by saying that there's something for everyone. Then readership and circulation will go up, and you'll get a bigger budget for the collection next year.
shit those previews look good.
the art looks like rice boy a little a bit, but the content looks more entertaining.
While Bone is indeed awesome, I would probably avoid Cerebus, especially everything after issue #185.
Hey, kids gotta learn how crazy and evil women are sometime, right?
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