Popular Culture Association ConferenceSan Diego, CA March 26, 2005 Comic Books Built to Last: A Survey of Academic Library Holdings of Graphic Novels & Hardcover Comic Book Collections – a Preliminary Report
“Preface”
As most of you have no doubt
experienced firsthand, once you get started preparing for a presentation such
as this, you find that the focus of your work shifting slightly. For that
reason, the title I’m using for my presentation is a bit different from what
you may have seen in the program.
Instead of just “a survey of library
holdings,” it’s now “academic library.” Instead of simply “holdings of
hardcover comic book collections,” it’s now “holdings of graphic novels and
hardcover comic book collections.” And, finally, I’ve added “a preliminary
report” to the end of the title. I hope it will be clear as I make my
presentation why I feel that these changes more accurately reflect what I’ll be
talking about with you today…
Introduction
First of all, I’m going to assume a
general common understanding of the terms “graphic novel,” “trade paperback,”
and “hardcover collection.” However, as
an appendix to my talk I do have some definitions of at least the first 2 of
these terms taken from a recent posting on the Graphic Novels in Libraries listserv (GNLIB-L@topica.com). Do we want to send a moment looking at those
definitions…? Then onward—
When it comes to the matter of
academic libraries including works of graphic storytelling (in whatever format)
in their collections, there are, I would say, three basic questions that need
to be addressed:
Can they? Do they? Should
they?
I would posit that these three
questions can be fruitfully addressed in any order, and in conjunction with
each other or separately. I say that because I want to make it clear that my
talk today is focuses on the question of “Do
they?” I start with the assumption that the answer to the “Can they?” question is “Yes” – at least insofar that there are
now significant amounts (“significant” in terms of both quantity and quality) of graphic storytelling materials available in
“library-friendly” formats (i.e., graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and
hardcover (archival) editions). The question of whether they can afford to
from a budgetary perspective to purchase these materials is something else
again – a question which also very much brings us to the area of “Should they?”
Well, frankly, “Should they?” is (and has been) a topic big enough for us to devote
not only my time but the time slot allotted to this entire session to – and
still not come to closure on it. So I’m not even going to try...
But I will say, though, that I have
been a proud member of the library profession for nearly 30 years, and an active
fan and collector of comic books for more than a decade longer than that – so
you can probably guess what my answer to the “Should they?” question is.
And although I’ve spent most of my
years as a librarian as a business subject specialist, I’ve still been
fortunate enough to have had many opportunities to work on projects that
combine my professional expertise and personal interests. One of the most
enjoyable of these projects has been as a contributor to the chapter on Comic
Books for the past several editions of Magazines
for Libraries – initially in tandem with our absent-on-sabbatical Area
Chair, Allen Ellis, and later joined by our moderator for this year’s Area
presentations, Roger Adams.
As much as I believe that comic
magazines (a.k.a. “comic books”) do indeed have a place in many libraries, it
has become increasingly evident to me (and, I dare say, to most others who
concern themselves with this issue) that most libraries that want to collect in
this area should consider primarily acquiring not comic books themselves, but
rather their off-springs -- the graphic novel, the trade paperback, and the
hardcover collection.
They are, after all, generally more
“library-friendly” in form and in “preserve-ability.” (If not always truly “built to last” due to
some questionable quality of binding – at least for the trade paperbacks –
certainly more likely to stand up to repeated use and years of sitting in
library collections than is the average comic book.) Since they are generally not
on-going serials in and of themselves, graphic novels, trade paperbacks, &
hardcover collections lend themselves to many more collection options than do
standard comic books – one time purchases, standing orders, etc. And, most importantly, the content of what
is available in this forms is easily significant enough – in terms of both
quantity and quality –for libraries to able to build important “comics
collections” without purchasing even a single “comic book.”
In terms of recent comics material, one
can generally assume that significant and/or popular work that first appears in
comic book form from a publisher is likely to be collected in trade paperback
and/or in hardcover form (although there is no guarantee this is always the
case) -- and in this form to remain available for purchase by libraries for
considerably longer than are the original comic books (unless, of course, the
library has the time and money to have someone search the issue market).
Equally noteworthy (in my opinion, at
least), a significant portion of the “cream of the crop” in terms of
historically significant comic book stories from decades past are also available
in book form – thanks to publishers such as DC Comics, with their Archive Editions volumes for various
series and titles; Marvel Comics with both their Marvel Masterworks hardcover collections and their much cheaper (in
every sense) series of “Essential”
trade paperback collections; and, most recently, Dark Horse Comics, which has
offered their own “archives” volumes of Gold Key’s Magnus, Robot Fighter, & Dr.
Solar, Man of the Atom, as well as trade paperback collections of both the
Gold Key run of the Star Trek comic,
and the Wally Wood drawn issues of the obscure but interesting book M.A.R.S. Patrol/Total War.
Always keeping in mind that we are
writing for a publication called Magazines
for Libraries, my colleagues and I have tried in the past few editions to
alert our readers not only to the existence of both “archival” hardcover
collections and trade paperbacks (although the focus of the publication has
pretty much precluded our covering individual “stand-alone” graphic novels) –
but to the very real probability that this would be a better format to acquire
in for most libraries. Indeed, we are going so far in the next edition of MagsforLibs
as to prepare an entry for DC Comics’ series of Archives volumes of Will Eisner’s seminal creation – the Spirit.
With fifteen volumes already published and, despite Eisner’s recent passing, a
total of 24 expected, The Sprit Archives
comes close enough (in our estimation at least) to qualify as a serial for us
to attempt to slip in an entry for it. (Whether of not the editor of MfL agrees with our judgment remains to
be seen, of course.)
The fact that graphic novels, etc.
are available in relative abundance, and by all indications have gained
increasingly strong footholds both in the library community (as witnessed by
the very active “Graphic Novels in Libraries” mailing list, for instance), and
in the publishing and bookselling industries (with most Border’s stores having
increased both the shelf space devote to and the visibility of their graphic
novels areas over the past few years) – led me to begin to wonder to what
extent libraries were currently collecting graphic novels, etc.
In
particular, being an academic librarian, my focus was on how much
“market penetration” had graphic novels, etc. achieved in academic library
collections. What general level of interest does there appear to be? What works
(or types of works) seem most likely to be deemed worth of adding?
Methodology & Analysis
After some consideration of my
options, I decided to limit my research to this report to library holdings as shown
in OCLC’s WorldCat database -- keeping
in mind that in so doing, I may be missing some libraries’ holdings, but also
realizing that I didn’t really have the time to be any more ambitious at this
point. My review of WorldCat would be two-fold: (1) attempt to identify the
most widely held graphic novels or trade paperbacks (i.e., those works, whether
fiction or non-fiction, that told their narratives primarily through graphic
storytelling using sequential art), and (2) time permitting, check the library
holdings of the DC Archives sets,
along with the Marvel Masterworks
volumes.
Discussing know the first part of my
investigation, the steps were to:
a) Identify the candidates for being
among the most popular of the graphic novels,/trade paperbacks/hardcover
collections
b) Check the Worldcat holdings
information to try to determine the number of academic & research libraries
that held the various books I had selected.
My initial screening was to look for
those item records retrieved using “graphic novels” or “comic books” as part of
the search statement that indicated at least 500 libraries owning them. From
that list I eliminated:
·
Histories,
critical works, and reference works about comic books and/or graphic novels.
·
Paperback
collections of newspaper comic strips, such as Garfield, Peanuts, Doonesbury,
& Dilbert.
This still left enough titles to choose
from that I decided to prioritize further. I eliminated works that seemed to be
aimed at a purely juvenile (i.e., grade school level and below), on the
assumption that such works would tend to have the least general interest for
academic libraries. In making my final selections of titles to examine, I also
wanted to make sure to include some of the most popular of the “super hero”
offerings, to compare their holdings among academic libraries with graphic
novels that dealt with other subject matter.
I also recognized that most of the titles of potential interest for my study
actually had multiple entries in
WorldCat (primarily, but not always, due to multiple editions being published).
To get a true sense of both total library holdings and academic/research
library holding would require me to check all the item records. This I did do
for the titles I selected -- but I did not generally bend my “500 hundred
minimum library holdings attached to one specific item entry” approach. In
other words, I did not attempt to expand my search to identify other titles
that would hit the 500 library plateau if I added together the unique library
holdings for all the OCLC records for that title (various editions, etc.)
But without casting my net any wider,
I would have found myself not having the opportunity to examine the academic
library “market penetration” for such outstanding works as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Jeff Smith’s Bone – neither of which had a specific
volume/collection that had achieved the “500 libraries own” critical mass for
its primary WorldCat item record.
I wanted to look at holdings for Bone in the context of there being both
a series of trade paperback collections of the various story arcs, as well as a
recently-published one volume edition collecting the entire Bone opus, and I
was curious to see if I would be able to notice any discernable differences in
library acquisition patterns for the one-volume edition as compared to the
individual volumes would . To do that , I looked both at the library holdings
for the 2004 1-volume edition, as well as taking a quick look at the library
holdings of the 5 most widely-held volumes of the Bone series: Out of Boneville, The Great Cow Race, Eye of
the Storm, Ghost Circles, and Dragonslayer. The results are included in the
table below. Insofar as Sandman is concerned, unfortunately I
ran out of time to be able to look into the library holdings for that series of
books as closely as I would have liked, so I won’t be able to report on that
today.
In addition to Bone, other “exceptions” I eventually made were for:
(1) Joe Sacco’s Palenstine, which came very close to the 500-libraries cut-off for
its primary WorldCat record (and easily surpassed it when combined with the
holdings records for the previously-released two volumes which combined to form
the single-volume Palenstine work),
and which I thought would be interesting to examine.
(2) The Sprit Archives edition, since, when I first started out, I wasn’t sure if I would have
time to make a more systematic check of academic library holdings for the DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks series overall, and I wanted to be sure to at
the very least include an examination of the one set that is arguably most
likely and/or most “deserving” to be included in the collections of academic
libraries.
(3) The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics and its recently published
sequel, the New Smithsonian Book of
Comic-Book Stories. I initially dismissed these as being
historical/critical works (and in being a bit too old in the case of the
former, as it was published in 1981) , but then decided they were worth looking
at for this study, as “touchstones” for other volumes featuring primarily
“long-underwear characters.”
(4) Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross.
This book was also held by 500+ libraries, and I decided to review it
because I was curious (a) how the total number of academic libraries owning
this title would compare to the numbers found for the titles that really did
meet my “search criteria,” and (b) whether I would notice a significant
difference in which academic libraries own this book compared to the
others. In other words, was there any
reason to suspect that academic libraries that might have no real interest in
acquiring books that contained graphic stories would be any more likely to get
an ‘art book” featuring the work of one of the most respected on current-day
comic book artists?
Analysis of Holdings for “Top 25” Graphic Novels/Collections
So, once I had settled on the
titles/series I would be looking at, how did I go about the process of “checking?” Well, I literally counted up the
number of academic and research libraries that indicated they owned the
item. Included in this count:
·
Universities
·
4-year
colleges
·
2-year
colleges & trade schools
·
And,
because I thought it was relevant given the subject matter, art institutes
(which would increase the total number of “academic libraries by at most 4-5
for any one title, and usually not even that)
Since I did an “eyeball” check, I
could have certainly overlooked so academic libraries or miscounted, but I’m reasonably
confident that the results are pretty accurate.
Most of the titles I examined I
expected would make the grade. Certainly, it was easy to anticipate that Maus and Maus II would prove to be the “gold standard” for graphic novels in
libraries. That certainly proved to be the case. Although I had neither the
time (nor the visual acuity) to cross-check the libraries that hold Maus I and an individual title versus
those that hold Maus II versus those
that hold one of the 2-volume editions for the entire U.S., I did do so for
California, and found that there was about a 40% redundancy of entries (i.e.,
156 total CA hits, once duplicates were removed, got down to 96). It is
extremely safe to say that well over 1,000 academic libraries in the United
States hold one or more volumes/version of this Pulitzer Prize winner. If
California is representative of the
entire U.S., then once can assume that somewhere between 1200 and 1300 academic
libraries hold some edition of at least one volume of Maus. This number became then my “upper limit” for graphic novel
“market penetration” in U.S. academic libraries. If that is the number that
have seen fit to include Maus in
their collections, one shouldn’t expect any other work in this format to have
achieved any greater success.
Using this as the benchmark, we see
that no one title that I examined was held in even 600 academic libraries –
meaning even the most widely held among them was to be found in fewer than half
the academic libraries that own at least one volume of Maus.
| TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | DATE WORLDCAT CHECKED | # OF LIBRARIES OWNING | # OF U.S. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES |
| 1. 911 Emergency Relief | Various | 2/17/05 | 747 | 161 |
| 2.Batmen: the Dark Knight Returns | Frank Miller | 2/26/05 | 1247(1) | 135(1) |
| 3. Blankets | Craig Thompson | 2/17/05 | 760 | 227 |
| 4a. Bone: 1-volume edition | Jeff Smith | 3/20/05 | 216 | 22 |
| 4b. Bone: individual collections | Jeff Smith | 3/18/05 | 1000++?(2) | 25 (est.) |
| 5. In the Shadow of No Towers... | Art Spiegelman | 2/26/05 | 1172 | 441 |
| 6. Jimmy Corrigan... | Chris Ware | 2/17/05 | 825 | 277 |
| 7. Kingdom Come | Alex Ross & Mark waid | 2/28/05 | 503(3) | 44(3) |
| 8. Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City | Busiek, Ross, & Brent Anderson | 2/17/05 | 627 | 39 |
| 9. Maus I | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 2310+ | 965 |
| 10. Maus II | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 1941+ | 831 |
| 11. Maus 2-volume set | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 792+ | 384 |
| 12. Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross | Ross w/ Chip Kidd | 3/17/05 | 647 | 131 |
| 13. One Hundred Demons | Lynn Barry | 2/17/05 | 615 | 167 |
| 14. Palestine | Joe Sacco | 3/3/05 | 600 (approx.) |
238 |
| 15. Pedro & Me | Judd Winick | 2/26/05 | 1159 | 347 |
| 16. Persepolis | Marjane Satrapi | 2/26/05 | 1276 | 503 |
| 17. Persepolis 2 | Marjane Satrapi | 2/26/05 | 826 | 255 |
| 18. (Ultimate Spider-Man) Power & Responsibility | Brian Bendis & Mark Bagley | 2/28/05 | 995 | 21 |
| 19. Reinventing Comics | Scott McCloud | 3/2/05 | 875 | 363 |
| 20a. Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics | various | 3/18/05 | 1058 | 366 |
| 20b. New Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Stories | various | 3/18/05 | 137 | 40 |
| 21. Spirit Archives (all editions) | Wil Eisner. et. al | 3/3/05 | 250 (est.)(4) | 42(4) |
| 22. Tales of One Bad Rat | Bryan Talbot | 2/17/05 | 605 | 60 |
| 23. Understanding Comics | Scott McCloud | 3/2/05 | 1626 | 595 |
| 24. Watchmen | Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons | 2/28/05 | 918 | 181 |
(1) Includes library holdings
for The Complete Frank Miller Batman,
which includes Dark Knight Returns.
(2) The five Bone volumes that were checked were: Out of Boneville, The Great Cow Race, Eye of
the Storm, Ghost Circles, and Dragonslayer,
each of which are owned by 400+ libraries. The 1000++ total libraries estimate reflects the fact that I couldn’t
check for overlap in the time available.
(3) There
was also a novelization of Kingdom Come by Elliot S. Maggin. 211 showed as
owning that title; ten (10) of which were academic.
(4)At
least twenty (20) academic libraries hold other Spirit publications by Eisner
– including Spirit Casebook; Spirit Color Album, Christmas Spirit;
and Spirit: the Dailies. Thirteen
of these schools do not show up as holders of Sprit
Archives volumes. This indicates that at least 55 academic libraries in the U.S. hold at least one volume devoted
to Eisner’s classic creation.
Some other observations on other
titles that “made my list:”
Clearly the Art Spiegelman name,
combined with the subject matter, assured that In the Shadow of No Towers would quickly find its way onto many
library bookshelves -- despite some
rather mixed reviews for the book.
Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman:
the Dark Knight Returns certainly seemed the most likely “super-hero”
volumes to crack the list. I knew Persepolis
and its sequel should be popular among libraries, although the extent of that
popularity surprised me. (Ditto Pedro
& Me.) Once I decided that Scott
McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics “qualified’ as
graphic novels for my purposes, I certainly hoped they would make strong
showing in terms of library holdings – and they did not disappoint.
Among those I didn’t expect to
include, perhaps the biggest surprise was the Astro City collection, Life in the Big City – this is a series
I really respect personally, but I just didn’t expect any one collection of Astro City tales to have found a place
of the shelves of so many libraries. Others that I had not anticipated showing
up include 9-11 Emergency Relief and One Hundred Demons.
Given the popularity of Spider-Man in
general and this version in particular, I guess I should have expected Power and Responsibility, the first
volume of Ultimate Spider-Man stories, to have found its way into quite a few
library collections, but, again, the extent of that collection’s popularity
caught me a bit by surprise. I should also mention as a sort of “negative surprise” that I had been expecting
Byron Talbot’s Tale of One Bad Rat to
have been relatively more popular among libraries than it proved to be – both
in terms of total libraries and academic collections.
While it came as no surprise, the
relative lack of popularity among academic libraries of even the most
significant super-hero comics collections I found a bit disappointing. Should nearly 50 more academic and research
libraries own Blankets as do Watchmen? Should twice as many academic libraries
have Jimmy Corrigan in their
collection have Dark Knight Returns?
Personally, I don’t think so. Of course,
I say that in the context of suggesting that not enough academic libraries own Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, not in any way suggesting that “too many”
chose Blankets and Jimmy Corrigan instead of those two
works.
Granted, it’s harder to argue a
pressing curricular need for most academic libraries to acquire the Power and Responsibility volume, other
than as a very solid example of contemporary American mainstream comic
book storytelling. Stronger cases could
be made, I think for both Kingdom Come
and Astro City, each of which makes a serious effort to deal in a fresh way
with super-hero motifs and themes -- most specifically, with the impact on the
lives of “normal people” from the existence and actions of meta-powered beings.
And both offer the artistic vision of Alex Ross, an artist whose work I believe should be represented in
many libraries.
And speaking of Mr. Ross, Mythology’s
presence in academic libraries certainly compares favorably with other
“super-hero-themed” titles I looked at. Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns might be owned by twice as many libraries
overall, but the number of academic libraries that these two titles is
virtually the same.
As mentioned, one thing I was
interested in seeing as I did this project is whether I would be able to
identify any academic libraries that appeared to have especially strong
collections in graphic novels and other comics related works. Since WorldCat
holdings are provided by state, I was also able to get a bit of a sense of which seemed to be the more “comics-friendly”
states, at least when it came to academic library collections. A few non-scientific
observations:
Not surprisingly, California and New
York generally had the most academic libraries holding most of the titles
examined. Massachusetts, my home state of Illinois and Pennsylvania were also
generally well-represented. Possibly because of the presence of MSU, Michigan
doesn’t overall seem to acquire these works as extensively; I found similar
patterns for Ohio, with both OSU and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Bowling
Green actively collecting in this area. Among the “mid-sized” states, North
Carolina, and, most especially Minnesota seemed to have the most extensive
comics-related holdings among academic libraries.
I’ll talk about individual academic
& research libraries I found seemed to have strong holdings after I’ve
discussed my analysis of academic library holdings for some of the DC Archives & Marvel Masterworks editions.
Analysis of Holdings for DC Archives & Marvel Masterworks Collections
Will Eisner is one of the great names
in the history of American comic books, whose work should be readily available
for study. One direction I gave consideration for my research was to try to
ascertain how well represented Mr. Eisner’s entire body of work is in academic
libraries. Ultimately, I decided to concentrate on looking holdings for the Spirit Archives in the context of trying
to determine how extensively series such as DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks
are finding their way into library collections in general and academic/research
library collections in particular. My
findings for The Spirit Archives is
shown above. I found at most only 250 libraries own any of the volumes.
Retailing at $50 per volume, these are admittedly items that are not likely to
be casually selected. Still, I would have hoped for a greater number. But,
relatively speaking, The Spirit Archives
is well-represented in academic library collections compared to other works
featuring costumed crime fighters. But how does representative is this for
other sets of the DC Archives, and
for the Marvel Masterworks sets?
There
have been over 100 volumes of various Archives series to date – covering at least 43 distinctly different
comic book series and/or titles (44 counting Tor). I limited the Archives sets I would study to those that had
at least 50 libraries shown as owning the primary WorldCat entry for the series.
This covered fifteen of the total 43 Archives
series that of series that have had at least one volume published to date:
For
the Marvel Masterworks sets (for
which, about 1/3 as many volumes have been published thus far), I was a bit
less systematic, just looking at 5
titles that I thought might have some critical cache or name recognition for
academic libraries. These five: Spider-Man,
Fantastic Four, X-Men, Captain America, & Silver Surfer.
| DC ARCHIVES SERIES | APPROX. # OF LIBRARIES OWNING | U.S. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES OWNING 1+ VOLUMES |
| The Spirit | 250 | 42 |
| ElfQuest | 200 | 12 |
| Batman | 150 | 21 |
| Wonder Woman | 100+ | 21 |
| Plastic Man | 100+ | 22 |
| Superman | 100+ | 12 |
| New Teen Titans | 100+ | 8 |
| Green Lantern | 100+ | 12 |
| All-Star Comics | 100+ | 17 |
| Superman in Action Comics | 75+ | 12 |
| Batman: the Dark Knight | 75+ | 7 |
| Shazam! | 60+ | 12 |
| Justice League of America | 60+ | 12 |
| The Flash | 60+ | 10 |
| Hawkman | 60+ | 10 |
| MARVEL MASTERWORK SERIES | ||
| Spider-Man | 200+ | 20 |
| Fantatsic Four | 100+ | 9 |
| X-Men | 175+ | 12 |
| Captain America | 7 | 3 |
| Silver Surfer | 25+ | 5 |
It should be noted that the Marvel Masterworks series was placed on
hiatus for several years, and has just recently begun releasing new volumes on
a regular basis. From that perspective, one might expect the DC Archives series to fare better – more
titles to choose from, a wider “brand name” recognition factor, and many more
titles being published in the past decade, when the “graphic novel” format was
becoming much more widely known, widely available, and widely accepted – both
among the general public and within the library community.
Academic Libraries with Notable Holdings of Graphic Novels,
etc.
All that being said, it looks like
there’s a core of perhaps 15-25 institutions when it comes to academic/research
libraries that I would characterize as
being at all active in assembling collections of “library friendly” collections
of historically important examples of the American comic book. Who are some of these institutions? They include (by state):
CA: Art
Ctr College of Design – Fogg Library
FL: Ringling
School of Art & Design
IL: Columbia
College
MA: Harvard
MI: Michigan
State U
MN: Art
Institute Int, Minnesota
NY: School
of the Visual Arts
OH: Bowling
Green State U
&
Ohio State U
RI: Rhode
Island School of Design
TX: Lamar
U (at least for the DC Archives)
Other academic/research libraries
that hold volumes in several of these series include:
Henderson State University (AR) Yale University
Drury University (MO) UNC, Chapel Hill
Ramapo College of New Jersey St. Bonaventure University
Savannah College of Art & Design
These all tend to have significant
holdings in other graphic novel titles studied (with the probably exception of
Drury U). A few other institutions caught my eye as having fairly interesting
collections of graphic novels, but didn’t seem to go in much for the
acquisition of Archives or Masterworks
series. Among these:
Eastern Illinois University
Pratt Institute/GSLIS
University of Memphis Cal
State U, Fullerton
Comments & Conclusion
What I have been reporting on today
is the result of some preliminary investigations of “who owns what” in terms of
graphic novels, etc. in academic library collections, but I haven’t been able
to speak to the matter of “why?” – of
what criteria were used in making selection/acquisition decisions. If I (or
someone else) continue(s) research in this area, a logical area for further
study is to look at the libraries who do own significant graphic novel
collections and try to ascertain what led to their acquisition decisions.
Ø Are purchase decisions primarily
curriculum-based?
Ø Format based?
Ø Driven by the recreational and
research interests primarily of students?
Ø The research interest of the
instructional faculty?
Ø The personal interests of librarians?
Ø Are there libraries that owe their
collections to gifts/donations rather than to purchases?
Conversely, what’s holding back other
academic libraries from acquiring more in this area?
Ø In there resistance to format?
Ø Lack of interest in content?
Ø Simply no curricular justification?
Ø Interest, but insufficient funds?
Keeping in mind that I have no direct
knowledge of the acquisition/purchase decision processes of individual
libraries, let me offer a few observations based on what I found in the course
of my investigations:
Graphic novels that tell historical
stories or depict biographical/autobiographical events are the ones most likely
to appeal to academic libraries. (To be fair, the best of these works are also
the ones that tend to be most widely reviewed and win the most industry
accolades.)
In general, academic libraries do not
seem to be nearly so interested to purchase books that tell purely fictional
stories, especially of the super-heroic variety. The Smithsonian
Book of Comic-Book- Comics (published back in 1981) is indeed to be found
in the collections of a substantial number of libraries. Although the stories
reprinted therein were not exclusively devoted to super-heroes, it certainly
boasts the widest holdings in academic libraries among any of the titles
examined that could be said to be primarily focused on super-heroes. Of course,
one needs to keep in mind that this books was not devoted solely to
representing top-of-the-line comic books stories from days gone by, but also to
provide historical information and, to some extent, critical analysis. In
retrospect, I wish I had examined the library “ownership” of Jules Feiffer’s the Great Comic Books Heroes for this presentation as well, but, on
the other hand, my focus was on library acquisition trends for “current
product” rather than library holding for a 40-year old work.
I would argue that, based on my
study, there does not appear to be any widespread desire to include in academic
library collections substantial numbers of examples of comics as a means to
purely tell a fictional story --
super-heroic or otherwise. The academic
library community in general seems to be more than satisfied that there are a
few of their numbers – in particular, Michigan State U., The Ohio State U., and
Bowling Green State U. – that are actively collecting in this area. But is this
any different with most other forms of genre popular literature (SF, romance,
mysteries, westerns, etc.)?
The graphic novel/comic book as a medium; graphic storytelling as an accepted technique of communications – these do seem to me to be more widely accepted in academe today than ever before. Is it enough? – Well, it’s a start...
It willing be interesting, I think to
revisit the situation about every 5 years:
·
Will
libraries – especially academic libraries—strengthen their collections in this
area as their budgets recover (assuming they do)?
·
Will
graphic novels, etc, retain or increase their current level of popularity in the
publishing & bookselling industries? Will the comic book industry in general
remain sufficiently healthy to continue to produce the “content?”
·
Will
recent movies such as “Hellboy” and “Constantine,” and upcoming big-budget
films like “Fantastic Four” and “Batman Begins,” along with future installments
in the “X-Men” & “Spider-Man” series, provide any additional spur for the
publication and purchase of graphic novels and “deluxe” collections?
·
Will
the repackaged “Sin City” graphic novels, released in coordination with the
upcoming “Sin City” movie, make their way into a significant number of academic
library collections.
·
And,
perhaps most intriguing, how many
academic libraries take advantage of the opportunity to get Will Eisner’s
graphic novels when mainstream publisher W.W. Norton begins its systematic
reissuing of them? This, I would say, will mark a golden opportunity for
academic libraries to recognize the craft and artistry of a true storytelling
genius. And I for one would hate to see this opportunity slip away.
There isn't any one widely-accepted definition [of “graphic novel”], and no matter
what definition you pick, there are almost always numerous exceptions.
Some common definitions include:
* Anything of at least 48 pages* Anything hardbound, even if fewer than 48 pages* Anything of at least 64 pages* Anything of at least 72 pages* Anything of at least 96 pages* Anything not staple-bound* Anything that tells a self-contained story* Some combination of the above. For some further context, here are the relevant breakdowns & definitions/eligibility
standards (where available, and generally paraphrased)used by some industry awards.
The Eisner Awards:
* Short story: less than one issue in length* Single issue/one-shot: must be able to stand alone* Graphic album--new material* Graphic album--reprint material: not archival* Archival collection: material must be at least 15 years old The Harvey Awards:
* Single issue or story* Graphic album of original work* Graphic album of previously published work* Domestic reprint project The Rec.Arts.Comics Awards:
* Comics short story: single story (standalone or in an anthology) or episode of
an ongoing story, published in one part, of 24 pages or less.
* Comics novella: single story or episode of an ongoing story, published
in one part and not part of an anthology, of 25 to 72 pages (excluding non-story
material, e.g. ads)
* Comics graphic novel: single story or episode of an ongoing story of 73 pages
or more (excluding non-story material)
* Comics reprint collection: book or trade paperback reprinting comics
or comic strips
And some definitions from Diamond Comics online glossary:<http://bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/glossary.html> * "Graphic Novel: A comic book that is longer in format that the usual 'pamphlet,'
and typically contains a complete story unto itself. Graphic novels usually have
higher production values than the typical stapled comic book - they may be squarebound,
for example, with cardstock covers. Some may be hardcover volumes.
Although a graphic novel usually stands on its own as a complete story, it is possible to
have a ongoing series or limited series of graphic novels telling a single story or series
of related stories."
* "Trade Paperback: In comics, the term is used differently than in the book trade.
A comic book trade paperback is a squarebound edition that collects and reprints
in mini-series, maxi-series, or story arc in this sturdier format, giving readers a complete
story at one time, rather than over a period of months. Sometimes, a trade paperback
may collect stories that are not interconnected, but rather are related by some theme.
Many trade paperbacks also contain additional material, such as an introduction or foreword,
or character sketches."
-- Joel HahnLead CatalogerNiles Public Library DistrictNiles, Ill.
Posted on GSLIB-L@topica.com listserv 3/22/05
| TITLE | AUTHOR(S) | DATE WORLDCAT CHECKED | # OF LIBRARIES OWNING | # OF U.S. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES |
| 1. 911 Emergency Relief | Various | 2/17/05 | 747 | 161 |
| 2.Batmen: the Dark Knight Returns | Frank Miller | 2/26/05 | 1247(1) | 135(1) |
| 3. Blankets | Craig Thompson | 2/17/05 | 760 | 227 |
| 4a. Bone: 1-volume edition | Jeff Smith | 3/20/05 | 216 | 22 |
| 4b. Bone: individual collections | Jeff Smith | 3/18/05 | 1000++?(2) | 25 (est.) |
| 5. In the Shadow of No Towers... | Art Spiegelman | 2/26/05 | 1172 | 441 |
| 6. Jimmy Corrigan... | Chris Ware | 2/17/05 | 825 | 277 |
| 7. Kingdom Come | Alex Ross & Mark waid | 2/28/05 | 503(3) | 44(3) |
| 8. Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City | Busiek, Ross, & Brent Anderson | 2/17/05 | 627 | 39 |
| 9. Maus I | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 2310+ | 965 |
| 10. Maus II | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 1941+ | 831 |
| 11. Maus 2-volume set | Art Spigelman | 3/11/05 | 792+ | 384 |
| 12. Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross | Ross w/ Chip Kidd | 3/17/05 | 647 | 131 |
| 13. One Hundred Demons | Lynn Barry | 2/17/05 | 615 | 167 |
| 14. Palestine | Joe Sacco | 3/3/05 | 600 (approx.) |
238 |
| 15. Pedro & Me | Judd Winick | 2/26/05 | 1159 | 347 |
| 16. Persepolis | Marjane Satrapi | 2/26/05 | 1276 | 503 |
| 17. Persepolis 2 | Marjane Satrapi | 2/26/05 | 826 | 255 |
| 18. (Ultimate Spider-Man) Power & Responsibility | Brian Bendis & Mark Bagley | 2/28/05 | 995 | 21 |
| 19. Reinventing Comics | Scott McCloud | 3/2/05 | 875 | 363 |
| 20a. Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics | various | 3/18/05 | 1058 | 366 |
| 20b. New Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Stories | various | 3/18/05 | 137 | 40 |
| 21. Spirit Archives (all editions) | Wil Eisner. et. al | 3/3/05 | 250 (est.)(4) | 42(4) |
| 22. Tales of One Bad Rat | Bryan Talbot | 2/17/05 | 605 | 60 |
| 23. Understanding Comics | Scott McCloud | 3/2/05 | 1626 | 595 |
| 24. Watchmen | Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons | 2/28/05 | 918 | 181 |
| DC ARCHIVES SERIES | APPROX. # OF LIBRARIES OWNING | U.S. ACADEMIC LIBRARIES OWNING 1+ VOLUMES |
| The Spirit | 250 | 42 |
| ElfQuest |