House ad, Fiction House (defunct magazine & comics publisher), 1940s
New York Comic Con
On October 13, 2011, I went to New York Comic Con. It was very entertaining.
I am only describing what I thought was useful. There was quite a bit more said. I also included some commentary of my own.
I went to the following panels:
Digital Comics & Libraries Past, Present, and Future Digital 12:00-1:00 p.m.
This was an interesting session. They talked about the Ipad. Many readers are reading digital comics on both the Ipad and the Android. I learned that New York Public Library circulates Marvel Comics as ebooks through Overdrive. People can also subscribe online to services like Comixology. In our own library, I see a number of the teenagers using our computers to look up manga. As we switch to more Ebooks, this is something to consider.
Video Game Collection Development 1:15-2:15 p.m.
I learned the biggest barrier to video game collection development was the lack of distributors for libraries. People either used Amazon or Ingram. They talked a lot about tying the collection together with books, graphic novels, films, and other media. For example with Halo, we have graphic novels and a whole series of books in the science fiction section. This is in addition to the game. I have never played the game, but I have read the books and read the graphic novels. I also learned that most libraries checked out video games for one week. This was enough time for people to finish the game.
In addition, there was a description of a variety of programming using Guitar Hero, and other video games for teenagers. In our programming we have done Guitar Hero and other games for the teenagers. There was also a talk of intergenerational programming using older video games. There was also some description of video games as a form of storytelling.
The book Video Games in the Library by Eli Neiburger was cited as the most up to date material on using games for programs.
They also mentioned that School Library Journal has a column on video games.
If you want a laugh take a look at
http://www.8bitlibrary.ocm/
National Gaming Day at Your Library: Using Video Games as Library Outreach Tool
2:3-3:30 p.m.
The speakers also mentioned Free Comic Book Day which is on May 5, 2012
National Gaming Day was on October
12, 2011
http://ngd.ala.org/ .
This would be a way to promote our collection of games in our library.
American Library Association now has a Gaming Roundtable as part of their membership which is $10 a year to join. The name of the roundtable is Gamert.
The speakers talked about how games pulled people together. They also discussed multipart programs using games, dvds, and books. For example, one of them did a discussion of the book Watchmen, showed the movie, and then played the game.
They mentioned how graphic novels can be used to lure in male teenagers which would not normally come to the library. One of the series they mentioned was Scott Pilgrim which has a movie, graphic novel, and game. We have the movie and the graphic novel series. They also talked about how to use graphic novels as a way to teach non-native readers how to learn English.
The final panel was:
Graphic Novels and Libraries: Beyond the Basics
This was a very well organized panel. They spent some time describing what circulated best for them. There were a few titles that I had not heard of; Fairies Landing and Big Gun. Most of the titles were familiar, popular titles which we had like Fruits Basket, Naruto, Bleach, Vampire Kisses, Full Metal Alchemist, Fables, Scott Pilgrim, The Losers, The Runaways, and Powers.
The panelists talked about how it was important to display the graphic novels in a prominent area. There was some discussion of putting the graphic novels and anime together. Queens Public Library puts their anime and manga together. They also described a trend where the new books are not the most popular comics. The big compilations with whole sets of comics put together are very popular.
Most of the people in the panel said they prefer the print versions because most of their customers cannot afford the devices like the Ipad to download comics on.
I had a chance to walk the show floor in the evening. I stopped by the American Library Association booth and went to most of the major comic book vendors to see what they had to offer.
I also picked up a variety of swag including bookmarks, comics, and posters.
I gave a lot of it to the
young adult librarian for programming (especially the anime club) and I put aside some for my graphic novels club in the future.
I added two books to the collection as well which were free.
I rather liked the paperback
Star Wars Old Republic Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams.
They also had paper hats for the comic Naruto and Cookie Monster from
Sesame Street
.
There was also a very dark free uncorrected proof of a graphic novel called My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf. It is the story of Jeffrey Dahmer the serial killer during his high school days. The graphic novel is not easy to read. The author wonders why the adults did not see what was happening while Jeffrey Dahmer was growing up. The story is very creepy. The uncorrected proof is put out by Abrams Comicarts. The graphic novel is due out in March of 2012
I saw a variety of excellent books including Habibi by Craig Thompson, The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon which is a childrens comic, volume 2 of the Twilight graphic novel, the graphic novel adaptation of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I also had a chance to look at the young adult books by Rick Riordan. They plan on releasing more of his books as graphic novels.
It was both entertaining and interesting. I stopped by the American Library Association booth. I saw several colleages at the convention.
