graphic novels

  • August Literary Holidays

    August may have few nationally acknowledged holidays, but if you appreciate literature I’ve got a few things you can celebrate. Kicking off the month we have National Book Lover’s Day taking place on August 9th. On this day celebrate by enjoying the smell of books, visit the library, drop literary references into casual speech, or just enjoy… Continue reading

  • Eisner Awards for Comics 2018

    The nominations for the 2018 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were announced on April 26th, with the awards to be presented July 20th at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The awards, presented annually since 1988, after the discontinuation of the Jack Kirby Award, are the most well-known honor in American comics. The nominations span 31… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2018: Graphic novels for a blackout!

    #BookBingoNW2018: Graphic novels for a blackout!

    One solid Summer Book Bingo blackout strategy is to stockpile quickly-read comic books that could be applied to one of a number of different squares. This strategy gives you multiple choices of where to place a title when you need to fill a certain area of bingo card real estate. Plus you’ve got options if… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2018: Graphic Novels

    #BookBingoNW2018: Graphic Novels

    It’s summertime, which nowadays essentially means Marvel™ movies season! Not looking for more Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, or the Avengers? Then check out these lesser-known, but equally Marvel™-ous graphic novels: Black Bolt vol. 1 Hard Time by Saladin Ahmed & Christian Ward Blackagar Boltagon (yes, really), the silent king of the Inhumans, finds himself… Continue reading

  • Own Voices Comics

    #ownvoices is a social media hashtag, first suggested on Twitter by Corinne Duyvis in September 2015 as a tool “to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group”. It is related to, and overlaps with, the “We Need Diverse Books” movement/non-profit organization. As a tool and a movement, #ownvoices can… Continue reading

  • Kickstarter Comics at the Library

    Kickstarter Comics at the Library

    Generally comic book collections or original graphic novels are purchased by the Library from a book distributor. The titles offered by these companies typically include materials from major publishing companies. But many wonderful titles are produced by smaller presses or individuals, and funded through crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter. Many of these titles, after their… Continue reading

  • Comics are a Medium, Not a Genre

    I hear it on occasion at the library, parents telling their children, comics in hand, “you need to choose a real book,” or, “I don’t want you only getting superhero stories.”  After the infamous campaign against reading comics in the middle of the 1950s by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and the resulting self-censorship by the Comics… Continue reading

  • Comedy in Comics Spotlight: Chip Zdarsky

    Rose City Comic Con is coming up, the weekend of September 8-10, in Portland, OR. Comic book artist and writer Chip Zdarsky will attend as a guest. As he rarely travels south from the wilderlands of Canada (urban Toronto), this is a unique opportunity for fans to meet him in person. Chip Zdarsky is the pseudonym… Continue reading

  • The Comic Book Mignola-verse

    When I’m asked for comics recommendations, people often bring up “The Big Two”, Marvel Comics or DC, as a starting point. We’re talking Iron Man or Superman. Thor or Batman. Sometimes that’s the right route to take, but other times, a suggestion outside of this much focused-upon segment of the comics medium is the more… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2017: Maximize your Blackout strategy with comic books

    Comic books are one of your greatest strategic resources in scoring a blackout on your Summer Book Bingo card. Don’t feel like you should limit comics to the Graphic novel square. There’s a comic for any square, many of which are quick reads (helpful for that Finish in a day square). Here are comic book… Continue reading

  • 20 Essential Seattle Books, Part 5 – Tales of the City

    Arriving at our fifth and final post suggesting twenty essential Seattle books, after posts highlighting history, race, place, and Northwest classics, we finish with a handful of novels evocative of our city and its culture. There are several good mystery series set in Seattle, but when a fictional detective has been on our rain-soaked streets for three decades his casebook offers real perspective.… Continue reading

  • Immigration and the Refugee Experience Presented in Comics for Kids and Young Adults

    Comics can be an effective gateway toward empathy and understanding. Both fiction and non-fiction comics can help the reader visualize and develop context for a wide variety of human experience. Here are a few comics which may help younger readers learn about the lives and experiences of refugees and immigrants. Continue reading

  • Notable Comics of 2016

    There were a lot of great comics published in 2016. Here are a few of my favorites from this year: March: Book Three by John Lewis The National Book Award winning conclusion to Congressman John Lewis’ comics memoir (created with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell) is a visceral, unsentimental portrayal of the civil rights movement… Continue reading

  • Must-Read Comics

    From the incredible storytelling in Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga to Marjorie Liu’s lush fantasy world in Monstress, these graphic novels will delight and amaze long-time fans of the format and new readers alike. Below are a few titles everyone who ever thought about reading a comic or graphic novel should have in their TBR (To… Continue reading

  • The Wondrous World of the Central Library

    Emily Winfield Martin is the writer of the blog The Black Apple that I have been following for eons it seems. She has also written a few children’s books that are beautiful, delightful, and available from the library; one being Oddfellow’s Orphanage. That particular story tells us about Delia, a silent albino girl, who discovers… Continue reading

  • FIRST FOLIO! Shakespeare in Graphic Novels

    Shakespeare’s influence can be seen everywhere…but that doesn’t mean that he is easy to understand or enjoy. Whether you already enjoy Shakespeare or have had problems with Shakespeare’s plays, why not check out a graphic novel? A frozen play, if you will. Gareth Hinds has illustrated and adapted a number of Shakespeare’s plays. I picked up several… Continue reading

  • Date Yourself with a Comic Book (or Three)

    ~posted by Micah K. One of my favorite ways to treat myself is to curl up in bed with my dog, a nice cup of tea, some chocolate, and a graphic novel. Or if I’m itching to get out of the house, I’ll take one of these quick reads to one of my neighborhood’s pubs to… Continue reading

  • A New Way to Read Biographies

    ~posted by Di Z. In The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, Julia Wertz recounts the time she was diagnosed with lupus and was not able to read novels, one of her favorite pastimes. Wertz’s condition gave her intense headaches and the inability to concentrate, resulting in her trying without success to finish the same paragraph for… Continue reading