The Bremen Public Library is a small community library
located in Bremen, IN, that serves the citizens of German Township in Marshall
County. The population of the service
area is roughly 8,000 people, with one public school system. German Township
has a sizeable Hispanic population
as well as a large Amish population.
In order to try and attract new
patrons, and because the librarians recognize that many of their patrons love
graphic novels comics but have limited access because there is no comic book
retailer in Bremen, the Bremen Public Library staff wanted to do something for
Free Comic Day. Free Comic Book day is typically an event in which independent
comic retailers give away free comics in order to attract new readers. It is held annually on the 2nd of
May. In order to participate, and secure
the special Free Comic Book titles, libraries must find a comic retailer that
will agree to be an “educational sponsor.” We were able to contact BuyMeToys.com, which
has a storefront in Mishawaka, IN, and secure donations of singe-issue comics to
the Bremen Public Library. In order to
promote the event, the library marketed it on Facebook and created several
displays and bulletins prior to the event, and I volunteered to create an
annotated book list and a display. After getting input from the heads of the
adult and children’s departments, I decided to do something for the adult
department, and the titles that I choose to highlight are as follows:
·
Maus: A
Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
·
The
Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
·
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
·
Watchmen by
Alan Moore
·
The Dark
Knight Returns by Frank Miller
·
Sandman by
Neil Gaiman
·
All-Star
Superman by Grant Morrison
·
Ghost
World by Daniel Clowes
·
Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley
·
Y: The
Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn
When I created this book list, I
had two main goals: 1. To present some great alternatives to the
stereotypical “superhero” genre of
comics via titles whose artistic merit makes them worthy of the graphic novel
literary cannon, and 2. To showcase specific notable authors who I feel have
very unique voices. Maus was a given
for my project because it tops nearly every “great graphic novel of all time”
list, including lists by both IGN and
Wizard magazine, and it is still the
only graphic novel to ever receive a Pulitzer Prize. Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Persepolis, and Sandman are also titles that appear
frequently in the top ten on “all time greatest” lists, and Neil Gaiman, Frank
Miller and Alan Moore are all veteran comic book authors who have been hugely
important, throughout the years, to the mainstream acceptance of comics as an
artistic medium. I considered Frank Miller’s Sin City and Alan Moore’s V
for Vendetta for my list, but ultimately decided against their inclusion
because I wanted to reserve spots for some newer voices, and I think that both Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are superior works because of how they take
the conventional superhero worlds and turn them into what I can only describe
as dark parodies of themselves.
Brian K. Vaughn, Grant Morrison,
and Daniel Clowes were some of the “new voices” that I knew I wanted to include
in my annotated list straight off the bat, because I think they are some of the
most important and innovative authors currently writing in the medium. I debated whether or not to include Vaughn’s Saga, because I think that it’s his best
work to date, but went with Y: The Last
Man because I believe it is the most universally accessible to most readers
while still being critically acclaimed.
Similarly, Grant Morrison’s work is often very challenging, and he likes
to blur the line between reality and fantasy so often that it can be confusing
to follow plotlines, etc… All-Star
Superman is a great story and probably Morrison’s most accessible work.
Scott
Pilgrim, Persepolis, Watchmen, Ghost World and The Walking Dead have all spawned movie and television adaptations,
which are great for library displays—in my opinion—because it makes
cross-format promotion exceptionally easy.
I choose to include Scott Pilgrim
largely because of its appeal to teenagers, and because the movie adaptation is
excellent. Ghost World and Persepolis were both adapted into
critically acclaimed films, while The
Walking Dead has become one of the most watched television series currently
being produced
At the end of the day on May 2nd,
2015, we recorded a Free Comic Book Day attendance of 66 people. We started with roughly 120 single issue
comics, and by the end of the day, we only had 17 remaining—and most of them were
issues of a specific title, Red Sonja,
that doesn’t seem to be very popular.
The library’s copies of Watchmen,
Persepolis, The Walking Dead (Vol. 1-5), The Dark Knight Returns, Y: The Last
Man (Vol. 1-3), Sandman (Vol. 1-2), and All-Star
Superman (Vol. 1-2) had all been checked out by patrons by the end of the
day. All in all, I believe that the even
was a huge success, and I found a lot of satisfaction in the fact that many of
the titles on my annotated booklist ended up being circulated by the end of the
day.
