Mychal L.

  • 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

  • Making a Library Purchase Suggestion

    “They have every other book in this 57 volume manga series, how can they not have volume two?!?!” Sometimes the library doesn’t have what you’re looking for. This can be a frustrating or confusing situation. The library is supposed to have everything, right? Sometimes it’s one part of a book series, or one movie of… Continue reading

  • Hoopla for Comics

    Hoopla is an online streaming service available to Seattle Public Library patrons, offering 20 checkouts of movies, TV shows, music, and comics each calendar month, accessible on both web browsers and mobile devices. On mobile devices, the app, which is available for free through the Apple App store, Google Play, and Amazon, allows users to… 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