Many people are now familiar with Hoopla for music and videos, but it is also an excellent place to download comic books and graphic novels!
The Seattle Public Library doesn’t carry individual issues of comics, but you can find many of them in Hoopla. If there is a hot new title you want to keep up with, Hoopla can be great for that. However, checking out one issue at a time will eat up your 15 monthly checkouts really quick!
To get the most of your 15 monthly checkouts, here a few tips:
- Don’t check all 15 out at once…there is a good chance you won’t get through them all, and we have a daily system limit, so share the wealth!
- Look for comics that are Volumes, not Issues. Volumes collect multiple issues, so you will get more bang for your proverbial buck.
- Right now, during the pandemic, Hoopla is offering Bonus Borrows, great titles that don’t count towards your 15 item limit
Don’t know where to start? Here are a few of my personal favorites:
Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life by Ellen Forney
Ellen Forney is something of a local legend in Seattle comic circles. You may recognize her work from The Stranger, where she had a long running strip called “I Was Seven in ’75”, has done many covers, and for a while illustrated the personal ads! Rock Steady is a great book for anyone dealing with mental illness or just trying to hold it together during these challenging times.
Fetch: How A Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole J. Georges
Anyone who has loved a less than perfect dog will be able to relate to this moving memoir. Pets can make such a difference, especially when things get rough. They pay back every bit of affection and support you give them, even if they have challenges, like Georges’ Beija.
Wrinkles by Paco Roca
A sweet and poignant story of an elderly man with growing memory loss, who finds himself in a nursing home. Together with his roommate they try to fool the doctors into not realizing things are getting worse and try to escape! Translated from Spanish and filled with beautiful and funny moments – this is also available as an animated movie.
Green Almonds: Letters From Palestine by Anaële Hermans and illustrated by Delphine Hermans
Anaële is a young writer volunteering in Palestine in an aid program. Delphine is her artist sister back in Belgium. This comic is their true story, told through the letters they wrote while Anaële was in Palestine, illuminating the complex reality of the occupied territories and the people who live there. This won the Doctors Without Borders Award for best travel diary highlighting the living conditions of populations in precarious situations the year it was published in France.
Chew Vol. 1: Taster’s Choice by John Layman
I’m not going to lie…this is a weird one (and sometimes gory), and not for all readers. Tony Chu is a police detective who solves crimes through cibopathy. He can get psychic impressions from anything he eats. But as he advances in his career, that means sometimes taking a nibble of a corpse to bring down the bad guys. Disgusting? Yes. Funny and bizarre? Totally. As the series progresses, there are yetis, aliens, vampires, and more. If you want a total distraction from reality, this may be just the thing.
None of these sound like your cup of tea? Your Next 5 Books can help find titles more to your liking or current mood.
~posted by Dawn R.
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