Comic giveaway and year-round reading

Posted on April 21, 2016 at 6:00 am

By David Wyatt

Free Comic Book Day has been the first Saturday in May for 15 years. This year it falls on May 7. Comic book shops (including local shops, The Comic Book Shop and Merlyn’s) will have promotional comics and usually some colorful characters in full costume.

This year at the Argonne Library, our Friends of the Library book sale will also be on May 7, starting with a $5 pre-sale from 9–10am, followed by the regular sale until 3pm. We will have a comic book giveaway and gift-basket raffle ($5 per ticket) at the book sale, as well.

The Argonne Library also has a comics collection that you can explore all year round. Just like any other of our books and periodicals, the library has a wide variety of comics for all age levels with content for many interests. For example, not all comic books have heroes (super or otherwise). Some are non-fiction. Some you can find in the newspaper like Funky Winkerbean or Calvin and Hobbes. And some are long and contain a long, narrative arc and prefer to be called graphic novels. Some have a specific art style, such as manga. Our collection of comics at the library is varied and free, every day.

Here’s the inside track on some of our favorites for different ages and interests:

Children’s Graphics

This is the youngest readers group we have for comics and graphic novels. You can locate them with the other paperback genres in the children’s area. Here you’ll find comic spin-offs of popular classic titles like Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys but also original titles like the Babymouse or Amulet series. A fair selection of non-fiction titles covering many topics are on our shelves: biographies, history topics, and science—all rendered with loads of artwork.

Teen Graphics

If you are a manga fan, Teen is where you will find that volume of Bleach or One Piece. A good deal of your superhero comics (X-Men and Avengers abound) live in Teen as well; however, some of these titles flirt with more mature storylines and with the same characters that can be found in the adult collection. You will also find a small collection of single issue comics, such as Archie or The Simpsons.

Adult Graphics

Along with the grittier versions of all your staple superheroes, some of my go-to fantasy series like The Unwritten are in the Adult section of the library. The more inventive and quirky artwork and storylines tend to fall in this category too, from Apocalyptigirl (a girl, her cat, and the apocalypse) to Step Aside, Pops: a Hark! a vagrant collection (cheeky, historic satire).

Super-sneaky Non-fiction

I promised you Calvin and Hobbes, and here they are in non-fiction. Many of the classic comics found in the newspaper have been collected into big, beautiful hardbound volumes. You’ll find these iconic collections on the shelves in section 741.

Digital Comics

We also have a digital comics collection to explore with hoopla, where you can download titles such as Ben 10 Classics, Lumberjanes, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, and Wanted. You can find even more digital recommendations in my previous post about digital comics.

Tags: adults, children, comic books, comics, graphic novels, hoopla, kids, non-fiction, teens, tweens, YA