Comments | stacymckenna: in brighter news

stacymckenna

in brighter news

Dec 11, 2011 19:13

I met with a librarian downtown to see about joining her for a special project involving their graphic narrative collection. Come January, I will be helping her assemble even more of their collection into a new sub-collection of graphic works - everything from Snoopy strips to Maus, Dark Knight, and Clan Apis. Every text is being checked by hand to ( Read more... )

Comments 5

mlerules December 12 2011, 05:31:33 UTC

What a good thing to get involved in - kudos to you! I don't have any particular ideas, but methinks RB might.

argentla December 12 2011, 07:51:32 UTC

I've found that it's quite inconvenient to put hold requests on graphic novels through LAPL, because multiple volumes all have the same catalog number, requiring a librarian to place the hold for you, in person or over the phone. I'd love to see them revamp that, particularly since the copies of multi-volume series tend to be spread out across the system.

I do think there's plenty of grounds to catalog books about graphic novels, although at most of the branches, stuff like that tends to be scattered between the 741 and Young Adult sections in a manner that's confusing to the casual browser. TwoMorrows, for instance, has done a whole series of books and magazines on comics history, including a lot of interviews with early creators. Since the early years of the comics industry are not particularly well documented and a lot of the people involved are getting on in years (if they're not already dead), those materials are a goldmine -- and practically the *only* goldmine -- for future scholars in that area. I'd love to see LAPL or other ( ... )

stacymckenna December 12 2011, 14:30:35 UTC

Excellent! Thank you so much for this! I will definitely be printing this out and handing it over to Eileen so we can make sure we cover as many of these bases as possible.

The scattering issue is what she's trying to eliminate. The graphic novels themselves downtown will be pulled to a section called "Graphic Novels and Comics" (currently in the front entrance area tot he Art dept) but the books about will remain in the fine art section (741) along with technique manuals, with that section revamped so your historical analysis/criticism books about a given style will be adjacent to your technique manuals for that same style whereas right now they're horribly mixed.

argentla December 13 2011, 00:27:02 UTC

The challenge with the subdivision is that there's now a fair number of collections of shorter works by a specific artist and/or from a specific publisher, which intersperse reprinted stories with explanatory essays or other editorial matter, akin to a collection of short stories. (For decades, a great many comic book stories were between seven and 15 pages -- primarily as a matter of editorial convenience, as it facilitated the stockpiling of material that could be slotted into each issue as required. Longer stories, often trumpeted as "book-length" or "novel-length," didn't become common until the 1960s, and were not prevalent until the 1970s.) For example, there was recently a nice-looking new volume of that sort called Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954. If it were prose fiction, it would presumably be filed alongside Toth's other work, but stuff like that may end up segregated in 741 ( ... )

argentla December 13 2011, 00:27:10 UTC

Some other things worth including:
- Rick Veitch's controversial Bratpack and Maximortal. Bratpack is a withering (not to mention profane) excoriation of grim-and-gritty superheroes and marketing-driven stunts like the call-in poll death of Robin in 1988; Maximortal is a savage satirical look at Superman, the men who created him, and the rise of the Comics Code Authority, with a few pointed shots at Walt Disney, for good measure. Challenging and not for the faint of heart, but essential to any serious critical survey of the movement that includes The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen.
- DC recently introduced a line of mid-priced hardcover reprints (price point is $39.95, although the print quality is not up to their pricier Archives line) that LAPL seems not to have embraced at all, although it includes some worthwhile material. A bunch of Kirby stuff has been reprinted in this fashion, including his popular Boy Commandos, Sandman, and Newsboy Legion series with Joe Simon from the 1940s and later material like OMAC and The Demon. ( ( ... )