Graphic Novels in Libraries
are for children. “Everyone needs to be
reminded that the Caldecott doesn’t
always go to picture books for younger
children,” she says.
James Larue, director of the ALA’s
Office of Intellectual Freedom, confirms
the rise in challenges to graphic novels.
He notes that both This One Summer and
Drama—which includes a subplot about
two gay middle schoolers—deal with
LGBTQ themes, and “that continues to
be a concern for many who challenge
books.”
Even acquiring and shelving conven-
tionally published graphic novels for
adults can pose problems. Big Hard Sex
Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip
Zdarsky collects a popular crime comedy
series about a couple who can stop time
when they have sex and use their powers
to rob banks. The book is rated mature
for explicit content. According to Larue,
in the library where it was challenged, it
was appropriately shelved in the adult
section and clearly labeled as such. Larue
suspects that, once again, parents
assumed that “a book in the comics
format is aimed at kids, even when it
clearly isn’t.”
Librarians PW spoke with all agreed
that book challenges are on the rise and
the reported ones are just the tip of the
iceberg. Tilley is worried that the cur-
rent political and social climate may give
rise to more challenges, and that, in areas
where library funding is more tenuous,
“it may be easier in some instances to say
no to comics because they seem more
frivolous.” She adds: “It’s going to be
important for librarians to figure out
how comics are working in their com-
munities. We may have to start doing
more justifying.”
Digital Comics Lending
for Libraries
Making it easier for libraries to offer
digital comics is Hoopla, a digital
streaming service providing a wide
variety of content to public libraries.
Hoopla Digital is the digital lending
service of Midwest Tape; the service
offered e-books, music, and movies when
it launched in 2014 and added comics in
2015. Hoopla is currently available in
1,400 library systems and 5,600
branches across the U.S. and Canada.
When its comics service began,
Hoopla offered only a small selection of
DC comics and titles from independent
comics publishers. Since then, “it’s
grown by leaps and bounds,” according
to Michael Manon, public relations and
communications manager at Hoopla
Digital. The service works with more
than 70 publishers (including every
major comics publishers except Marvel)
and offers nearly 10,000 titles, including
single-issue periodical comics, which are
often a problem for libraries to carry
because they are essentially magazines
and not durable enough for circulation.
Patrons of library systems using Hoopla
can access the comics for free using their
library cards.
Demons, the Devil, and Fallen Angels
978-1-57859-613-3
The Dream Interpretation Dictionary
978-1-57859-637-9
The Handy Communication Answer Book
978-1-57859-587-7
The Handy Diabetes Answer Book
978-1-57859-597-6
The Handy New York City Answer Book
978-1-57859-586-0
The Illuminati
978-1-57859-619-5
The New World Order Book
978-1-57859-615-7
Supernatural Gods
978-1-57859-660-7
Distributed by Publishers Group West
28 Years of Popular
References
Hoopla solved problems librarians
faced using other digital-lending pro-
grams by offering a subscription model,
which allows the library systems to pay
in advance for a set number of checkouts.
Although, with a popular genre like
comics, making that estimate can ini-
tially be challenging, Brenner says. “It
took libraries a while to figure out how
to pay for it since we have set budgets.
We had to set a limit of 10 checkouts a
month per person, but that works for
most people.” She notes that the system
really caught on when Image Comics—
in particular, Brian K. Vaughan’s wildly
popular Saga series—became available.
“Everyone got very excited, and kids
were excited that they didn’t have to
wait for trade book collections.”
Titles popular on Hoopla reflect
what’s popular in print, according to
Manon, including bestsellers such as the
Walking Dead and Lumberjanes, and
comics for younger readers from Disney,
Andrews McMeel, and the inevitable
Wimpy Kid series of graphic novels.
Acquiring Webcomics
While Hoopla may have solved one
problem with digital comics for libraries,
a more vexing one remains: webcomics.
There are thousands of webcomic series,
some with millions of readers. The webcomics world is attractive to artists
because it’s so wide open that a teenage
cartoonist can start by posting comics on
Tumblr and end up a National Book
Award nominee. That was the route
taken by Noelle Stevenson with her
much-lauded webcomic turned graphic
novel, Nimona, which was nominated for
