The Walking Dead and the Age of Graphic Novels
Graphic novels have been overlooked and criticized for decades, and they are still highly controversial and just as highly challenged. Over the past couple of decades, graphic novels have increased in popularity at an impressive rate. Much of this can be attributed to one of the most popular and influential graphic novel series on the market - The Walking Dead. "No graphic novel series has ever dominated the list quite like Kirkman's Walking Dead and a sign of the series' steady popularity can be seen in the growing sales for the Book 1, a sure indication that it is picking up new readers as well as holding on to its original fans (Summerlin, 2014).
Since its debut, The Walking Dead has steadily increased in popularity with numerous volumes topping the New York Times' best-seller list. In addition to that, in 2010, The Walking Dead received the comic book industry's highest honor when it won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at the San Diego International Comic Con. It's no secret that The Walking Dead is easily one of my favorite series of all time, coupled with Joe Hill's Locke & Key (another Eisner Award winner), but there is still a huge stigma surrounding adults reading graphic novels.
When I first embarked on this topic, I had no idea what I was going to write about, because there is an evident lack of readers advisory resources for graphic novels - for adults at least. Unfortunately, I've seen it time and time again, if a librarian isn't familiar with a subject matter, they will either tell the patron that or point them to someone who might know more. Outside of a companion book to our class textbook - The Reader Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels, I was able to find one website from the University of Illinois, which listed a few reader's advisory resources for comics and graphic novels. However, they weren't solely dedicated to adult materials. Instead it was a mix of kids, teen, and adult.
The resources listed there were:
- Comics Worth Reading (https://comicsworthreading.com/) which is dedicated to independent opinions, news and reviews of graphic novels, manga, and comic books.
- No Flying No Tights (https://noflyingnotights.com/) which is dedicated to reviews, education and advocacy covering a range of materials from strip-comic books to mature graphic novels for adults.
- Manga Bookshelf (https://mangabookshelf.com/) which markets itself as an area for discussion, resources and reviews specifically focusing on manga comics.
There is much more understanding and acceptance of graphic novels for younger readers, but there is still a huge stigma towards adult graphic novel readers. As a result, there are very few reader advisory resources available for librarians to use. Until we can either find more helpful resources, or create them ourselves, it's going to be a difficult area for readers advisory.
References
Summerlin, D. (2014). The Walking Dead. In New Georgia Encyclopedia. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/the-walking-dead/
What a great topic! As a huge fan of The Walking Dead TV series, I wonder how much influence the show has on the success of the graphic novels. I realize the novels came first, but I'm guessing the popularity is related to the popularity of the show. But I don't think this is a bad thing. If it draws attention to adult graphic novels, then maybe we should hope for more TV adaptations to lead to more attention on them? As we've learned in this class we can cross platforms in reader's advisory! Another means of drawing attention to graphic novels I've noticed is adapting classic stories into GN formats. I recently read a manga version of Anne of Green Gables and loved it. I'm hopeful that as youth graphic novels gain more mainstream notice, graphic novels for adults will eventually follow.
ReplyDeleteKayla, thank you for writing on this topic. I read my first graphic novel this past fall and I didn't love it. It was a YA novel and the premise was OK, I liked the story, but I found that I had trouble figuring out things because I had to look more at the pictures and try to understand what was happening. It was a good experience for me. I do agree that people look down on them. I mostly work in the Youth area at my library and we are supportive of them (though some parents are not - and I often try to remind parents that any reading is good). But I also work at the main desk sometimes and I see colleagues who are quite dismissive of graphic novels. Not to patrons - but they don't like shelving them and you get a general sense that they think they are a waste of paper. So it's not really surprising to me that there aren't very many resources for RA for graphic novels and I'm glad you brought that to light. I know that graphic novels are an important part of the collection of any library and those people need to feel as supported as anyone else. It's been interesting to learn about the genres that are not as supported - I think the Romance genre also struggles with that (though it's huge and there are tons of books and resources for that one). But still, I think people sometimes don't want to admit to liking Romance.
ReplyDeleteI also just went to Goodreads to look up about graphic novels. Do you find that a useful place to help patrons find their next book? I see that they do the same "readers also enjoyed" listing which I find helpful when trying to help patrons. But I don't know the genre well enough to know if it's really helpful.
DeleteGreat summary and discussion in the comments!
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