Friday, September 4, 2009

Love and Rockets in the Public Library

Brigid Alverson's column "Good Comics For Kids" links to Chris Mautner's recent "Comics 101" analysis of LOVE AND ROCKETS. Although her column is geared towards school libraries, this got me to wondering if some public or school libraries were placing this series in the Young Adult section. I did some quick research at the public library in the larger neighboring city. It seems about half of their Young Adult section (discreetly placed near the main fiction section, and on the opposite side of the building as the children's section) are dozens and dozens of manga titles with a few American titles mixed in as well (AMERICAN BORN CHINESE, ATOMIC ROBO, ELECTRIC GIRL, RE-GIFTERS, THE PLAIN JANES, Dan Clowes' GHOST WORLD, DEOGRATIAS, LEAP YEARS, and THE LOST COLONY). LOVE AND ROCKETS and other Hernandez Brothers books could be found upstairs in the non-fiction section filed under 741.59. They had a nice selection of THE EDUCATION OF HOPEY GLASS, LUBA: LUBA IN AMERICA, LUBA: BOOK OF OPHELIA, CHANCE IN HELL, SLOTH, and a Spanish-language edition of PALOMAR. Other comic strip, graphic novel, and comics history titles are grouped under 741.5 and 741.5973. I believe those hardcover omnibus volumes Fantagraphics has published in recent years (LOCAS, LOCAS II, PALOMAR, and LUBA) are ideally suited to libraries, as they are durable and dense reading.

So, what's in your public library? Check out all the graphic novels you may have missed because your budget couldn't handle it...

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