Graphic Novels: Challenge & Change

What is it about comics and the people who challenge them in libraries? Comics have been theoretically protected by the First Amendment since Winters v. New York in 1948. But psychiatrist Fredric Wertham soon convinced millions of people otherwise, ushering in the Comics Code Authority and some 30 years of sanitized plots (see the review of David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague, p. 86). Even today, "The censors and the 'politically correct'...regard comics as products for kids and thus view adult/mature comics as inappropriate, or even illegal," maintains the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (www.cbldf.org).

VOYA editor Stacy Creel wrote this April that parents—who despair over controlling the sexually freewheeling Internet—focus their wrath on closer-at-hand books. And, obviously, a picture is simply more in-your-face than text. The result is a double standard for visual vs. print media, and "context" goes out the window. So, as preconceptions about comics as "kid stuff" make an adult graphic novel into a chimera, any sexual image may seem inappropriate.

Sex and nudity in graphic novels do seem to be the main reasons for objections and challenges in libraries, and many come from library staff. In a survey by the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, 185 public libraries reported a total of 149 graphic novel objections or challenges: 75 external and 74 internal. What can comics-lovin' librarians do?

First, segregate materials by age level, and keep the collections apart at some physical distance so underage readers are less likely to stumble on to older-level titles. When a Georgia comics shop owner accidentally gave a minor a free anthology including an excerpt with nudity from The Salon (see review, p. 84), the parent complained, the owner was prosecuted, and the case is still going on (see details on Georgia v. Gordon Lee at www.cbldf.org).

Educate patrons and staff with brochures, articles, displays, signage, workshops, and how-to events for all ages. Invoke literacy, entertainment, education, and the right to read. Stock a wide variety of titles and genres so "safe" alternatives are always available to patrons: well-known newspaper strips, adaptations of literary classics, historical collections of superhero favorites, and titles with religious themes, treated respectfully and published or endorsed by religious organizations.

Finally, underscore the library's commitment by including graphic novels in normal library paperwork. Keep good circulation statistics to show the popularity of graphic novels and how they can attract new patrons and reluctant readers. Get reviews or background for new titles, especially if they are potentially objectionable. Have up-to-date collection development and reconsideration policies that explicitly incorporate graphic novels. The reconsideration policy should apply to staff objections also, or else there should be a separate process that all staff must follow. Throughout—and here's the fun part—cultivate allies from local comics advocates, enthusiasts in other libraries, comics shops, art organizations, the media, and online. Join the Graphic Novels in Libraries (GNLIB-L) email discussion list (groups/yahoo.com/group/GNLIB-L), where a whole community is always ready with expert opinions and suggestions. The central message should be that just as regular books deal with all subjects for all ages, employ a wide variety of styles, and offer educational, literacy, and entertainment benefits, so do graphic novels.

Remember that the word challenge suggests both difficulty and opportunity. The aftermath of a challenge to a graphic novel may prompt a library to create better policies and procedures, develop educational programs, diversify the collection, form local alliances, correct misplacements (perhaps a title does need relocation), and offer a reality check. Sometimes a certain title just isn't the best thing for a library at a certain time—and there's always interlibrary loan. Libraries and communities can grow into new ideas, new titles, and new synergies.

(Note: Thanks to the GNLIB-L and ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom for providing information and assistance.)—M.C.

In this standout shojo manga, 12-year-old Ann Uekusa and her mother have been abandoned by Ann's debt-ridden father and forced to move from Tokyo to Ann's grandparents' home in Shimane. At first, Ann feels both oppressed by her mean grandmother and totally out of place in a small town, but once she makes some friends she adapts quickly. When her disillusioned and demoralized mother commits suicide, Ann leans on Daigo, the first boy her own age that she met in Shimane, and their budding romance becomes the story's focus. The book's second half jumps ahead 18 months to a summer camp where Ann deals with a rival scheming for Daigo's affections. Ashihara deals sensitively with her characters' emotions, giving the book a measure of depth and subtlety amid the expected shojo elements (expressionistic backgrounds, romantic complications, and occasional silly bits of business). Her artwork has improved markedly since her earlier series Forbidden Dance, with more delicate lines and more attractive, better-proportioned figures. Rated for older teens by Viz (a subplot concerns Ann's period, and there's one sexual situation involving adults), this ten-volume, true-to-life series is recommended for all collections.—S.R.

Gertude Stein's art salon in turn-of-19th-century Paris offers irresistible appeal for modern comikkers—Bertozzi's romp follows hard on the heels of Jason's The Left Bank Gang (LJ 11/15/06). A mysterious blue-skinned woman is murdering artists, and Stein's salon vows to stop her to save their own hides. Their bumbling attempts at sleuthing are complicated by interartist rivalry and outlandish lapses of propriety—especially from the frequently naked and always irrepressible Picasso and Leo Stein's jealousy of his sister's new flame, Alice. The cause of and the solution to the murders turn out to be a special blue absinthe that enables Gauguin and his psychopathic-homicidal mistress to enter paintings and, eventually, allows the sleuthing salonistes to pursue them. Modern art aficionados will love the send-up (How many in-jokes do you get?), while neophytes will learn about cubism and may be inspired to become savvy about the real artists and their work. This sophisticated bit of magical-mystery history belongs in all academic and large public libraries; for older teens and adults owing to nudity, light sexual content, and strong language.—M.C.

In this well-conceived projected-future tale, Marvel's first family has splintered after a devastating final battle with Dr. Doom in which Franklin and Valeria Richards, children of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, were lost. Reed Richards, whose technology has extended human life spans and brought humanity into a new golden age, toils away on new inventions alone in his asteroid home. His wife, Sue, has embarked on an archaeological quest; Ben Grimm (the Thing) lives with his family on a terraformed Mars; and John Storm (the Human Torch) has joined the Avengers. Earth's solar system is under protective quarantine following a treaty that Reed negotiated with the galactic parliament, keeping humanity isolated from alien races—but when the Torch and the Avengers investigate a breach in the quarantine field, they follow an illegal interstellar transmission to Mars, where they uncover a plot to threaten Earth. Davis (Excalibur, JLA: The Nail) stuffs this exciting story full of familiar Marvel heroes, villains, and aliens and makes interesting speculations on the future of several of them. His highly accomplished artwork remains as dynamic, detailed, and gorgeous as ever. This is recommended for all collections.—S.R.

Originally published in France in 1996, this edition collects the four corresponding English-language volumes that were first issued between 1997 and 2002 by NBM. Plessix's style has been called "detailed impressionism," and the limpid watercolors of his lavish adaptation give that "Somewhere Else" quality to the classic story—2008 is the 100th anniversary of Graham's novel. So many adaptations have so little space to work in that they seem more like CliffsNotes versions. But Plessix has truly adapted the tale with most of the narrative details intact—and a few new twists at the end. And while the anthropomorphic animal characters have a cute, cartoony quality, the overall effect of a timeless, golden world is not thereby disrupted; all the looniness and love of nature from the original come through beautifully. Somehow the world of Mole and his friends suggests an animal Hobbiton in a Ring-less alternative universe, where talking animals and humans coexist amid a gloriously bucolic world of water, woods, and fields based on preindustrial rural England. Unfortunately, the pages are a little too small to showcase the details of Plessix's lush art as it deserves. For all ages.—M.C.

In the 1970s, World's Finest Comics occasionally featured out-of-continuity tales written by Haney in which Superman and Batman had college-aged sons who wore costumes identical to their fathers' and battled evil as Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. These often hokey and fun stories are collected here. At first, their fathers oppose the supersons' desire to fight crime, but the small fries rebel and begin to prove themselves in action, taking down a crime boss and cleaning up a Central American forced labor camp, among other exploits. At one point, with Batman presumed dead, Bruce Jr. and Dick Grayson (aka Robin) argue over who should succeed him. One odd tale features the sons and their fathers attending an "encounter camp," where long-haired guru Dr. Zamm attempts to bridge the "super-generation gap" between them. But the most bizarre story sees the sons suddenly accusing their fathers of insincere grandstanding and somehow convincing a jury to sentence them to jail for their (imagined) hubris. A 1980 tale by O'Neil contrives a reason for the sons' existence and ends the series—but the sons appeared once more, in a rare 1999 revival that rounds out this collection. Recommended for longtime DC followers.—S.R.

In this supernatural shojo manga thriller, destiny thieves feed on the lives of humans, erasing the fact that their victims ever existed. Glorious Lily was once a human Japanese boy named Hirokazu living circa 1890—but when Valeriana, a Western girl he cared for, was burned by villagers who suspected her of witchcraft, he accepted an offer from the destiny thief Vermillion to become a destiny thief himself. Glorious used the villagers' lives to resurrect Valeriana—but since suffering some unexplained trauma in World War II-era Japan, Valeriana has been nearly comatose. More recently, after erasing a human boy named Hiromu who looked just like him, Glorious somehow forgets his destiny thief nature, takes Hiromu's place, and lives as a human with a girlfriend named Natsumi. When Vermillion restores Glorious's memory, everyone forgets Hiromu, except for Natsumi. In this concluding volume, Valeriana finally awakens as Glorious and Vermillion threaten to erase Natsumi. Kazumi's art is sometimes rough, sometimes darkly beautiful; her pastel covers are gorgeous. But while the story is often compelling, some characters' actions seem quite contrived, as does the cozy relationship between Glorious and Vermillion. Accurately rated ages 13+, this is recommended only for larger collections.—S.R.

King's dark epic in the Great Quest tradition evokes a parallel world Old West channeled through Arthurian magicks and mysteries: falconry and witches mix with a knightly order known as "gunslingers" and rusted Panzer tanks from another era. The epic spans seven novels drawing on themes from fantasy, sf, horror, and New Age, and the graphic version will present the tale in chronological order for the first time. In this initial volume, adapted from flashbacks in the novels, student-apprentice Roland Deschain earns his guns and with his friends sets off on a mission on behalf of the Alliance against enemy John Farson, who is ironically called "the Good Man." Along the way, he gains the trust and help of the beautiful Susan Delgado. But their budding love ends in ashes, and her death helps forge the steel-hard Gunslinger he is to become. Setting aside the questionable rhetorical value of destroying the hero's love interest seemingly just to re-create and harden him, this adaptation delivers a gorgeous package of story. The dry delivery animates the voiceovers and dialog, and the warm, compelling artwork has the hyperreality of dreamed color photographs. With artful violence, horror, and sexual themes; for older teens and up.—M.C.

Black and White are like Peter Pan brothers, flying hoodlum kid vigilantes who frolic through the high-rise surreality of Treasure Town in cool, urchin-chic getups. Respected and feared by both cops and yakuza gangsters, they kick butt and bust heads when threatened by other hoodlums or just dopey bystanders. Black's tough and savvy dark karma complements White's more childlike, sweetly intuitive nature, and their deep love for each other drives the plot amid neurotic cops who shift loyalties and gentrification-prone yakuza. The textured layering in plot and characters recalls Watchmen in complexity, and nearly everyone has nasty and noble aspects—from street boozer Gramps with his spiritual advice to outsider yakuza Serpent, who wants to replace strip parlors with kiddie amusement centers and sets his alien assassins on the boys. This lush reissue includes color insert sections and an interview with Michael Arias, director of the recent anime. First translated in the mid-1990s in PULP magazine and then in three Viz volumes from 2000, this classic and innovative manga reflects European and indie comics influences. The art's unpolished, detailed crudeness represents how the characters see their world and comes off as appropriate, even perversely charming. With (nonsexual) nudity and frequent violence; recommended for older teens and adults. (The title is also written as Tekkon Kinkreet.)—M.C.

Risa is the tallest girl in her high school class; Atsushi is the shortest boy. Their teacher nicknames them "All Hanshin-Kyojin" after a Japanese comedy duo with the same height differential—and the insults the two toss back and forth make it an apt comparison. Both react with horror to the persistent rumor that they're dating, but when they're not at each other's throats they find that they have a lot in common and become good friends. In this volume, Risa finally admits that she's developed a crush on Atsushi. When hints of this fail to penetrate Atsushi's brain, she has to come right out and tell him, and even then he can't believe it. While Atsushi ponders how to respond, Risa worries that she may have just ruined their relationship. The charm of this shojo manga lies partly in its comical, even uproarious dialog (particularly Risa and Atsushi's banter) and partly in the genuineness of its characters, situations, and emotions. Only a few elements seem forced (such as a girl with a crush on Atsushi turning out to be a cross-dressing boy). Accurately rated for teens, this winning series, running 13 volumes, is recommended for all collections.—S.R.

In this acclaimed manga, mushi are primitive life-forms invisible to most people that take countless shapes and affect human life in mysterious and destructive ways. Laconic traveler Ginko is a mushishi (or "mushi master") wandering through premodern Japan helping people with their various mushi problems. In this volume, he meets a girl whose voice attracts mushi to her town and then a man waiting on the beach for his wife, who was lost at sea over two years before. He visits a village that always has a bountiful harvest in times of famine and discovers the grim price the people pay for their prosperity; then, a mushi-infested artifact owned by Ginko's friend, the physician and collector Adashino, endangers local children. The final tale reveals Ginko's past and the reason for his white hair and missing eye. Urushibara's stories are like old folktales, full of strangeness and wonder and sometimes crossing into horror territory. The art is remarkable, featuring striking landscapes, meticulous crosshatched detail, and a largely realistic style. In addition to the manga, there's also an unusually faithful (and unusually beautiful) anime adaptation available. Rated ages 16+, presumably for its grotesque imagery, this ongoing series is recommended for all collections.—S.R.

Waid and Perez are known for reinventing important characters (the Flash and Wonder Woman, respectively) and for major stories (Kingdom Come; Crisis on Infinite Earths) that virtually defined superhero comics for their eras. But this volume is just a chance for two top creators to have some fun in the DC playground. Investigating the appearance of 64 identical corpses, Green Lantern and Batman visit Las Vegas, where they are unable to prevent the Book of Destiny—recently stolen from its master, Destiny of the Endless, and containing all knowledge of the past, present, and future—from being stolen again by aliens who leave a dangerous weapon on Earth. The heroes' parallel quests to retrieve the book and the weapon take one into space and one to the far future, which involves many other heroes and villains and allows Waid and Perez to demonstrate their encyclopedic knowledge of the DC Universe. Much of the book's considerable humor comes from the dynamics that Waid develops among the adult characters (Green Lantern, Batman, Lobo) and the teens (Supergirl, the new Blue Beetle, the Legion of Super-Heroes). Perez's highly detailed artwork remains excellent. Recommended for all fans of the creators.—S.R.

Jack is the scoundrel, the trickster, the cunning fool we love to scorn who's been alive and well in folklore across time and place. An amalgam of Jack Horner, Jack of the Beanstalk, Jack of all Trades, Jack Frost, and Jack Spratt, among others, he's been banished for criminal behavior from the Fables community (see Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile, LJ 5/1/03; Fables, Vol. 8: Wolves, LJ 5/15/07). Unfortunately, the threadbare, hitchhiking wannabe player is kidnapped almost immediately by wardens from the Golden Boughs Retirement Community, whose function is to imprison unpopular and rogue Fable characters until everyone forgets about them. In a unique touch, the wardens are sassy librarians reporting to "Mr. Revise," the head librarian (see Jack of Fables, Vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape). Amid chaos and casualties, Jack finally busts out with a few other inmates. Now we find Jack in Las Vegas, awakening with a pocketful of ill-gotten millions, in the arms of an unexpected wife. Unfortunately, a certain powerful individual isn't happy about that: Lady Luck herself, depicted as a Shakespeare-speechifying Lady Macbeth type. Both Fables and Jack of Fables deliver clever, adult plots about fairy-tale characters past puberty, drawing on a wide sweep of cultural tropes and characters for intellectual entertainment. For adult collections.—M.C.

Tarnish still lingers on the graphic narrative from anticomics crusades peaking in the 1950s. Remembering the past will hopefully prevent a replay, and this detailed history by Hajdu (Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña) fills the bill admirably as a prompt. Several trends powered the crusades: a bright and talented but ignored out-class working in comics, a rising youth culture before television and rock music, a national Cold War witch-hunt mentality, and the prewar intelligentsia's desire to retain their cultural hegemony over all ages and ethnicities. Comics took serious critical heat as early as 1906, but it was the escalation of crime and horror comics in the 1940s and 1950s that became linked to "juvenile delinquency" (especially by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham) and led to legislation, book burnings, the Comics Code Authority, and the evisceration of the industry, with hundreds of people put out of work. Hajdu documents this painful, fascinating story and includes over 80 pages of notes and sources. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries. See also Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign, edited by John Lent, for reverberations around the world, and Bart Beaty's Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/07.]—M.C.

At 41 volumes and counting—29 in English so far—ninja-in-training Naruto just keeps riding the best sellers lists. This 2002 fan book is no Naruto 101 for newbies, and don't look for definitions of such basic concepts as shinobi or jutsu or even an index. (The detailed table of contents does help.) This is more like a baroque collage with an assortment of maps, character profiles, social hierarchies, quizzes, historical-cultural details, and fan art that jumble together along with arcane how-tos: how to make hyorogan (ninja military ration pellets), how to cut your hair like character Rock Lee, how to make the 12 shinobi hand signs. Manga-ka Kishimoto includes a long and fascinating section about his own background, workspace, drawing tools, and lifestyle (bottom line: he doesn't get much sleep or leisure). Another special feature is the full text of the original 1997 short story on which the Naruto manga was based. Heavily illustrated and featuring dozens of fan submissions from multiple countries, this bag of goodies will have wide appeal for Naruto readers in all public libraries. A downside: the small size of some of the more detailed graphics. For teens up.—M.C.