A Librarian's Quest to End the Stigma Against Comics

Laura Mehaffey

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Oct 10, 2014
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Dragonlayer said:
Is there a technical difference between graphic novels and comics? Because I've always considered the former to be a term employed by people too self-conscious to admit to reading the latter.
I consider graphic novels to be book made up of comics content. Basically, trade paperbacks that collect stories from single issue stories and put them together in a cohesive whole or storyline. There are some that consider graphic novels to simply be those stand-alone books like Kingdom Come or Watchmen, but I consider all of them graphic novels.

To me "comic" simply means a single issue story. The accepted definition among most fans is that "comics" are American comics, usually centering around a heroic archetype story while "manga" is anything with characters with big eyes no matter the genre or origin and "graphic novels" are things like American Born Chinese and Persepolis.

To me, they are all part of the same graphic medium that I've loved since first grade when I picked up my first copy of Elfquest at a local library. Back then comics were not something that went into libraries, and finding a huge, hardcover, IN COLOR book like that was a big freaking deal. And now I travel around the US to addict more people to the graphic medium.


wetfart said:
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
Had to look it up to see if you were joking. You weren't. So it's basically a degree in storing, managing, and analyzing data right. Learn something new every day.
Yup, basically its a degree in knowing how to find ANY POSSIBLE information and how to disseminate that information into a usable medium.
 

Skratt

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Dec 20, 2008
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Fappy said:
"No one has the right to tell you that what you read isn't worth reading," the campaign states.
I hope they reach their goal, but good luck to them. This apparent comment sense is lost among at least all of the population on this shiny blue marble. People derogate and deride people who own a Wii, FFS - as if somehow another person owning and *gasp* enjoying it somehow affects them.

I hate comics. I think they are stupid. That just means I don't read them. What other people do with their free time is their business. End of story.

+1 to this group for trying to get other people to STFU and mind their own business. :)
 

Lightknight

Mugwamp Supreme
Nov 26, 2008
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I'd say that Manga specifically has more of a Stigma than the other forms of Graphic Novels mentioned. And, honestly, not entirely without warrant. For every great piece of Manga I find, I find a ton of others that are filled with terrible content that is entirely inappropriate for western morality.

But hopefully this will serve to educate people that Manga is far more diverse than people think and just because someone is reading a Manga doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. It's not always full of school girl porn. But honestly, a lot does have it so I've personally gravitated away from reading Manga that hasn't been read and then referenced by people I trust not to give me garbage or what I consider to be under age nudity. It's interesting to discuss to say the least. On the one hand there's some damn fine stuff out there but on the other I understand why the negative perception exists and I'm not wholly unsympathetic to people with that perception.

Either way, this beats the hell out of the miniscule section the library of my childhood had.
 

Double Cut

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Oct 25, 2014
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What is the manga library's impact on vendors at conventions? Does the library whet people's appetite to go buy comics, or are people reading comics for free when they might otherwise spend time shopping?
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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What stigma? I was under the impression that anime and manga was quite popular in the US.