Thoughts on Graphic Novels.
I have always been a comic book junkie. I had stacks and stacks of them when I was a kid. I used to organize and cross reference them and make lists of what I had. I should have known back then I was fated to be a librarian. I still have them, each in their own special plastic bag in special boxes that keep them from being crushed. My son eyes them hungrily, but, luckily for me, he’s afraid of the dark and won’t go where they’re being kept. Keeping this in mind, I was thrilled about 20 years ago when I came across my first graphic novel- The Dark Knight. While this is about Batman, it doesn’t have that much to do with the recent movie. It was Frank MIller’s take on the Batman of the future. It is dark and creepy and very well written. The next one I came across was “The Killing Joke” which is in my humble opinion the best thing ever written, though Alan Moore’s stink on “The Swamp Thing” was pretty awesome too as was his “V for Vendetta” (skip the movie and read the book). While I could write an entire blog on Moore and his work, I will restrain myself. If you do want some funky reading, check out his wikipedia entry. One gets the feeling he’d be an interesting person to sit next to on a plane.
Anyway, when I became a librarian and moved to a library that had young adults, I seized upon the opportunity to purchase some graphic novels based on comics I had enjoyed as a child, and to explore the changes that the genre has gone through in the last 20 or so years. It has gone from simple rebinding of a series of comics (though those are still popular) to a way to tell a story.
As part of my job, I teach library skills classes to grades K-6. One of the things I teach is graphic novels. Usually it’s one of the most popular units I do in sixth grade.
I have had patrons ask me why I put “comic books” on the shelves instead of real books. My answer is that, they are real, and they are books, and they should be read and judged on their own merit.
A graphic novel is a chance to really experiment with a character. Comic books series bank on a status quo. Batman will never marry. If he falls in love, she will die or they won’t stay together. It’s kind of like Captain Kirk, James Bond and any of the guys on Bonanza. When you have a graphic novel, you can take the character and put him or her in a different set of circumstances. There are some great ones out there, like “Wonder Woman: Amazonia” where her character is 100 years in the past. There are also some characters who maybe can’t sustain an entire comic series, but have a truly fascinating story to tell.
Not to mention, graphic novels are not only based on comic books. Maus by Art Speigelman illustrates the Holocaust and the costs of it better than most regular novels. And “Caught in the Middle” has a great series of short stories about what it’s like to be in middle schools. There are some wonderful graphic novels for adults, such as Frank Miller’s “300″ and “Cancer Vixen” by Marisa Acocella Marchetto. There are more graphic novels than I care to name.
Stop by and read one. You might be pleasantly surprised.