Deadenders and more

Quick, who reads comics and graphic novels? Teens, kids, and "weirdos," right? That's the stereotype anyway. The truth is much more varied than that, however. Men and women of all ages read comics, and for many different reasons. The readings from Weiner this week go into more detail about who reads comics and why. While these articles were interesting, I didn't learn much new information, aside from the more academic classification system used to describe these reasons.


However, Boyer's discussion about getting graphic novels into the hands of patrons who might not be normally inclined to consider the format struck a cord with me. Just last week at Barnes and Noble, a customer came up to me and asked for books about  Holocaust survivors. Of course, my immediate thought was Maus, which I showed her and recommended heartily. She seemed to think graphic novel could only be fiction, and she wanted nonfiction, so I tried to explain how Speigelman uses visual metaphor to portray the horrific events that his father lived through. She seemed reassured, but still hesitant, so I also showed her the handful of other Holocaust memoirs we had and told her to try reading a few pages of each. Later, she came by to thank me and showed me she had purchased Maus volume 1 and a book of short essays from Holocaust survivors. Success! Maybe she will like the format and maybe she won't, but at least now she knows the format can be used for nonfiction, and knows she has a greater choice in what materials are available to her.

Let's talk about Deadenders. I'm about halfway through it and so far I have mixed feelings about it. 

First what I liked in mini comic form:

I tried anyway. Now some bullet points to finish off the likes.

• The overall story. I'm a sucker for futuristic dystopias with a mysterious premise. Why is there no weather? What was the cataclysm? Why can Beezer see these visions? I want to know!
• The complex relationships between the characters. Beezer is dating Sophie, who is flirted with by Hal who doesn't like Beezer, but still helps him out. Sophie then leaves Beezer for Daniel who may have loved her at another time but doesn't remember. Jasper is Beezer's best friend who is daing Danica, until he dies, at which point she and Beezer start hooking up regularly. The drama.
• The way the story changed perspective. This kept it feeling fresh and just happens to be one of my favorite writing styles.

Now, what I had problems with: 

• Beezer is so angsty/angry all the time, with basically everyone around him. WHAT ARE WE YELLING ABOUT? He very much reminded me of Harry Potter circa book 5. So many bottled up emotions that could just not be contained, except when anyone asked him to talk about it, in which case he clammed right up.
• The stereotypes of boys going out and doing all the crazy, dangerous, exciting stuff, while the girls hung out and waited passively for things to happen and then nursing their guys back to health.
• The constant ever present drug use. Personal opinion, just not my thing.
• What's up with the weird Archie callback?

I'm looking forward to finishing it anyway!

Freedom for Youth

Some last thoughts on comics in academic libraries. When Randall Scott said "Libraries are designed to collect books" I was momentarily annoyed that he would ascribe such a limited scope to libraries, and then I remembered he was talking about academic libraries and not public libraries (which are designed to do so much more than just collect books). He does go on to say that he catalogs and participates in digitization projects in order to make these items available to the largest audience possible, which is definitely a view I can agree with. Making comics accessible in digital format is something that can benefit all libraries, and by extension their patrons.

The only portion of William Fee's essay on the finer points of cataloging comics that was relevant in any way to youth services was his mention of including a 521 on target audience and not giving age inappropriate materials to children. My instinct is that there will be very few young users of a state library, so I wouldn't think this would truly be an issue there. But in public libraries, I am a pretty firm believer that librarians should not be the ones to tell anyone (including children) that they are not allowed to check particular materials out. If a parent doesn't want their child to check something out, then it is the parent's responsibility to be present with their child and monitor their choices. If a child is alone, then librarians should assume the parent trusts their child to read whatever they want.

Now to Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This is the kind of "graphic novel" I really enjoy reading. The simplified and stark style lends itself well to a memoir of a growing up in such a dangerous and complex environment. Marji tells her story in vignette chapters that while focusing on a time and place I wasn't familiar with, still felt very relatable to me. I remember those first acts of rebellion, the highs and lows of crushes, the struggles with school. This story also helped illuminate the events of the Iranian Revolution from a different perspective than what I saw in Argo, which was primarily from an American perspective. The atrocities that she lived through, while alien to me, are especially well captured in the comics medium.

Comics in Academic Libraries?

While I’m not really sure what academic libraries have to do with youth services, aside from the article about undergraduate leisure collections, that is the topic this week. From the Weiner readings this week, we can gather that there is a small but growing interest in using graphic novels (here referring to more literary works, with comics being relegated to second class status) in the college classroom. Subject wise, the humanities are most welcoming, with no mention of any of the sciences using graphic texts to supplement their coursework. There are comics out there that could be used to illustrate complex ideas in a more succinct manner. Check out this biology comic by Ellis.

The only mention of the graphic novel format being used for informational purposes came from Gwen Evans in “The Library After Dark: The Promotion of Collections and Services.” Evans talks about how she gathered a group of students to create a library informational booklet in graphic novel format. Unfortunately the article does not update us on whether this promotion was actually successful, although it does make the case that artists and other visually oriented students will find it more useful than text only brochures.

Since these articles showed growing interest in the more literary graphic novels, I’ll talk a little about what place the more popular comics might have in academia. The articles talk briefly about having graphic novels and comics in a leisure reading collection for undergraduates to enjoy, but make little mention of popular comics being used in the classroom. One professor teaching a Japanese culture class included manga, which seems to fall in the same category as popular western comics, i.e. “not scholarly.” He used manga as an example of Japanese popular culture. This same application could be made to many of the superhero comics in history classes. A course on World War II might make use of Captain America and his comic book fight against the Nazis.

 A course on Mythology would find plenty to consider in comparing superhero stories to more ancient myths, or looking at how comics have updated these ancient myths, as seen in Thor.

 

Anyone else have ideas about how to integrate the more popular comics into courses covering all kinds of different subjects?