Mychal L.

  • #BookBingoNW2019: Comics

    Comics is a magical and mysterious medium that can fill one or all of your Book Bingo card squares this summer! It’s up to you! Take a look at this recent staff booklist of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Comics and Graphic Novels and maybe try out In Between, a collection of poetry comics by… Continue reading

  • OverDrive Comics and ‘The Best We Could Do’

    The Seattle Public Library has physical comics for children, teens, and adults available for checkout in all of our 27 locations, as well as through our mobile services. We also have comics available through our Hoopla Digital service. But did you know, amongst all of the mysteries, memoirs, and literary fiction e-books, that we also… Continue reading

  • Food Comics and Manga

    I’ve been reading a lot of food-focused manga and comics recently. Maybe I’m just a hungry person? I do like food, but really, while these manga and comics share the culinary theme they span some wildly different story-telling territory; from D&D-esque dungeon crawlers, to queer slice-of-life stories, to cooking competitions. Some of these stories even… Continue reading

  • Rick Riordan Presents

    In early 2017, acclaimed author Rick Riordan, of Percy Jackson fame, announced he would be leading an imprint from Disney, with the goal of publishing “great books by middle grade authors from underrepresented cultures and backgrounds, to let them tell their own stories inspired by the mythology and folklore of their own heritage.” He had… Continue reading

  • Audiobook Narrator Spotlight: Robin Miles

    Actor, audiobook director and performer Robin Miles has narrated hundreds of audiobooks. Miles has the ability to convincingly recreate a huge range of speech patterns and accents, conveying more about a character than comes across through their words alone. After an experience narrating the horror book The Good House by Tananarive Due, she realized she… 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

    #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

  • The Seattle Public Library Zine Collections

    A zine is a self-published work of original or appropriated and remixed materials, including photographs, drawings, poetry, and prose. Typically limited in print number, zines are most often stapled-together paper reproduced on a photocopier, and distributed locally. While zines are closely associated with music scenes such as punk or riot grrrl, they have existed in… Continue reading

  • Wordless Comics

    In the influential graphic novel Understanding Comics, creator Scott McCloud defines comics as: “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” Notice that this definition does not include any specific mention of comics requiring words in order to be considered comics. Words,… Continue reading

  • Comics Anthologies

    Sequential art is a very flexible storytelling medium. Styles range from serialized or one-shot stories, published as individual comics issues and larger graphic novels, to very short comic strips and political cartoons. A favorite comics type of mine is the thematic comics anthology. Anthologies tend to highlight stories from up-and-coming creators, creators from under-represented groups… 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

  • Judge a Book by its Spine

    They say to never judge a book by its cover (though we all do), but what about its spine? While in libraries, bookstores, and private homes we all try our best to face our beautiful collections out for all of the world to behold, most collections are smooshed together citing space considerations, presenting only the… 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

  • Worldbuilding in Comics

    Worldbuilding in Comics

    Emerald City Comicon is coming up March 1 – 4, and also coming to The Seattle Public Library for a day aimed at educators and librarians! To celebrate, let’s take a look at the idea of worldbuilding in comics and graphic novels. Worldbuilding is the process by which the writer and the artist (in the case… Continue reading

  • Contextually appropriate audiobook narrators

    Audiobooks are great. They are not cheating – they count as reading. They are also wonderful opportunities for more tangibly presenting the characters and tone of any particular work. Whether it’s an individual narrator, or a full cast with sounds effects and music, listening to a well done audiobook can really magnify your experience of… Continue reading

  • Hungry Like a (Dire) Wolf: Cookbooks Inspired by Our Fandoms

    It all starts with a good book. Then a book series. Then, inevitably, a television series or a film. Your fandom is growing, but how can you satiate the hunger? Maybe you seek out your fandom at a convention, and try out cosplaying… What’s left?! What else can you do?! Fanfic, sure, sure. But you’re… Continue reading

  • Straight from the Horse’s Mouth: Audiobook Memoirs Read by the Author

    I unabashedly love audiobooks. They are not cheating. Audiobooks are simply a different way to take in and make sense of information, and to enjoy stories. Audiobooks have an inherent performance value that can be done well with multi-person cast productions or simply great individual narrators. My personal favorite is the particular insight and authenticity… Continue reading

  • A Tale of Two Comix Celebrations: ICAF and Short Run Comix

    During the first weekend in November, Seattle will be hosting both the International Comic Arts Forum Conference, and the Short Run Comix & Arts Festival, both free to attend! Continue reading