Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Roanoke libraries embrace graphic novels
Christian Trejbal
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- Radford University's president is overpaid
- The phantom parking shortage
- Republicans must wait until November
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From the RoundTable blog
Matt Phillips, the manager of the Raleigh Court library branch, always has a smile and a hello ready when I pop in after work. He grabs my requested books before I reach the counter, and he usually has something to say about them.
What am I reading? Dan Brown? David Sedaris? John Grisham?
Nope.
Try Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Brian Vaughan, some of the best comic book writers around.
"Comic books in the library?" the puritans gasp.
Get used to it.
There has been a lot of talk lately about improving Roanoke Valley libraries. Millions of dollars seem destined just for the city's, and that will be money well spent. With all the talk about what needs fixing, though, our librarians deserve credit for something they are getting right: compiling a superb collection of graphic novels and manga, a Japanese form of comic book.
In bygone times, kids smuggled their comic books into the library, hiding them behind superhero-concealing tomes. An oversized edition of "Macbeth" was as much Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent.
Today, kids and adults alike get online, search for "Batman," order "The Dark Night Returns," and pick it up within a few days at their local branch. A cooperative agreement between the city, Roanoke County, Botetourt County and Salem allows residents of each jurisdiction to borrow materials from the others, and a unified online catalog makes browsing easy.
It happens all the time at the Raleigh Court branch when Patrick Henry High School lets out. "We get a lot of kids from the school picking up reserved books," Phillips said. "The girls especially love manga."
That the libraries have finally started treating graphic novels like "real" books is no accident.
"We made a decision that we wanted to go there because it's such a popular format with younger people," said Diana Rosapepe, the county's director of library services about emphasizing graphic novels and manga a few years ago. "We have a group of people [on staff] who are very interested in it and know what they are looking for."
Wendy Rancier, the county's youth services divisional librarian, elaborated, "For us it's been a worthwhile investment. ... We've really noticed an increase in our young adult circulation. We think the graphic novels and manga have had a lot to do with that."
Few people even drag out the tired excuse that kids will start with comic books, get hooked on reading and move on to more serious works.
Today's graphic novels are plenty serious in their own right. Many span multiple volumes, each hundreds of pages long and packed with challenging stories and themes.
Take Garth Ennis' "Preacher" series, which tells the story of a man possessed by the offspring of an angel and a demon. It forces readers to think about the role of religion in modern society and confront fundamental beliefs. It also does not shy away from sex, drugs and violence. I was surprised to find it in a Bible Belt library.
Want something a little less racy? Try Brian Vaughan's "Y: The Last Man." It portrays the aftermath of a disease that kills every male on Earth save one. The results are not always pretty as politics, conceits and prejudices seem not to care which sex is in charge. Gender, homosexuality and science all go through Vaughan's wringer.
These and countless other books have little in common with Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead.
Thought-provoking content is nothing new for the comic format. The Man of Steel, in his original incarnation, was a champion for social justice. The difference today is that more adults are realizing that they have been missing something good.
Libraries warehouse society's collected wisdom, its thoughts and dreams. As graphic novels take their place on the shelves -- Dewey Decimal 741.5 -- they gain much deserved legitimacy. The other day, I did not even hide my face when I picked up "Kingdom Come."
