All Things Graphic Novels! | Dillon Willhelm

Join Stephanie, Christy, and Kate as they interview the newest member of the podcast team, Dillon (me the editor) about all things Manga.  As well as some important announcements and upcoming events from Shannon and Kim in TTSU followed by more book recommendations from Stephanie, Christy, and Kate in Shelf Life.

Book Recommendations

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
Lore Olympus (Vol 1) by Rachel Smythe
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Maus by Art Spiegelman
March by John Lewis
El Deafo by Cece Bell
The Fire Never Goes Out by ND Stevenson
Genderqueer by Maya Kobabe
Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
Science Comics: Coral Reefs by Maris Wicks,
The Bat by Elise Gravel

The Library Vault Blog Posts

https://thelibraryvault.com/2023/12/18/animation-that-excites-manga-that-inspires/
https://thelibraryvault.com/2024/02/05/lost-in-translation-the-confession/

This podcast uses music by Ashutosh, under a creative commons license:
Time by ASHUTOSH | https://soundcloud.com/grandakt
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Middletown Strong. Looking up with Russell Library today. We're doing a shelf life takeover. We're really excited to have with us our new newest member of the podcast, Dylan. And we are going to be talking today a little bit about manga, a little bit about anime and a little bit about graphic novels. So Dylan, thank you so much for, first of all, joining the podcast team. We're pretty excited about that and we love for our listeners to know a little bit about you. So could you tell us a little bit about yourself? 
Yes, I can. Hi, my name is Dawn Wilhelm. A couple of things about me. I am originally from Texas. I was born and raised in Abilene, Texas, was born in San Antonio and raised in Abilene, Texas, which is a little bit west, about three hour drive west of Dallas, Fort Worth. And another interesting thing about me is I have been physically I have set foot on Easter Island. 
That's very cool. Oh, very. That's another podcast. I don't know. 
I wondered what questions I thought you were going to say. You set foot in every US state and I was going to be really impressed. But that's also. 
Very well traveled the equator. Yeah. 
Yeah. You never know where that science is going to go. I love it. I love it. 
That's right. Now the podcast for another day. But today we'd love to know a little bit more about a genre that you're going to be taking on at Russell Library. 
Luke we are interested in what is manga and how does it affect, how does it differ from the anime? 
So great question. Manga quick shameless plug to read my blog, The library blog I've been posting, I've had a couple entries just kind of clarifying things on manga and some things that can get lost in translation and stuff like that. So quick Shameless plug Library Voter.com where I go into little more detail, but manga is Japanese comics. They're comics from Japan that have been translated into English and shipped over here, and anime is just the cartoon adaptations of those comics. So it's similar to how we have animated series of like Batman and Spiderman and things from our American comics. It's it's the same thing. 
Okay, that seems such a simple explanation, but it never occurred to me that it's it's like a one for one like that. 
Yeah, it's actually really it's actually more one for one than like, American comics. Like a lot of manga and anime. The anime will be chapter by chapter, like episode by episode, or at least, you know, one or two chapters per episode and stuff like that. 
I did not know. 
That I didn't. And so this has happened to me before. Or maybe I'm like, like retconning my own memory. But young people have come in and been like, Where's the anime? But they're actually looking for manga probably. 
Unless they think we have like an anime series on DVD. 
But they're most likely looking for manga and they just don't know the terminology difference. Okay. 
Cool
So what about graphic novels? Where do they fit into this whole discussion? Because they're different, but they're similar. And sometimes we have patrons that come in and they're kind of looking for a mix. Where how does that fit into this conversation? 
So in my mind, I mean, manga is a form of graphic novel. It's I equate it more to like comics, but like longer in like, like issues of comics are usually really thin, you know? But manga is typically about, like, maybe ten of ten of those in one. It's like ten chapters. And one if like one issue of comics is equivalent to one chapter, maybe So graphic novels, I kind of I kind of split graphic novels in my head into like two baskets. One is like comics, like Batman, Superman and manga fits in there and comic adjacent stuff and the other is kind of like the visual novel kind of focusing on art or education, like educational stuff that's been translated into like a visual, more visual format. So I think that how does it fit in? It is a graphic novel and it fits in my mind into the comic book kind of category of graphic novel. Does that make. 
Sense? Yeah, yeah. Most of what we have that is classified in our graphic novel section is graphic novels. So it's good to know that, like, they can kind of coexist. But as library folks, they're kind of it's kind of an umbrella term just for categorization that to call everything graphic novels. But they're not technically the same. 
Yeah, Gotcha. I'm working on splitting the graphic the way graphic novels and manga on two different shows. 
Which I think is an awesome idea. 
Yeah, I think that will help. 
I think so too. Yeah. 
I think we've lumped them all into the same category because they all have panels. Yeah. And I think visually we think of them that way. I didn't know that Japanese ones were black and white pretty exclusively. We talked a little bit about that. 
Mostly they are black and white. They'll have some art spreads and the covers that are in color. There are a few that are full color, but mostly in mostly they are black and. 
White, and most of the graphic novels are not. 
Yeah, most of the graphic novels are color. Occasionally you have black and white. But yeah, that's also another good distinction is that generally the color versus black and white is probably a good way to distinguish visually. Visually. Yeah, Yeah. 
do you have favorite genres and some genres within manga that you gravitate towards? 
I do, and in general I think everyone has like their, you know, favorites things. I'm a big like Tolkien fan, so I really enjoy like fantasy specifically, like a high fantasy setting. But I mean, I like, I like it all. It's y sci fi and everything as well. Even I'm even getting into like the slice of life and romance manga. I've read a few of those, but I mean, generally I stick to like, fantasy anything with like, you know, dwarves, elves, goblins, you know, I love that kind of Tolkien setting. I'm a big fan of that, but I subgenres, I kind of like Dark Fantasy, like stuff that's a little bit more heavy serious, like Busywork and Tokyo Ghoul and Jujutsu Kaisen for a new series for the younger listeners, if we have any, they might like that one. But yeah, it's a fantasy. 
It's like something that has a real rich tapestry to it. 
Yeah, it's something with a lot of like lore and stuff that like builds this universe that the story exists. And I really like to be whisked away when I'm reading going to a different place somewhere that's not the real world, Somewhere where I don't have to worry about paying my taxes. 
Mm hmm. So choice. 
So tangential question. So we're seeing a lot in mainstream fiction, this romanticized genre that's starting to kind of it's not a new term, but we talked about it in a way. It's not a new term, but it's this new kind of emerging, big, buzzy genre that is the romance and fantasy. Are you finding that that's also kind of making its way to manga? 
Not as much, but not as much in like the Sarah Jane Mass? Yeah, kind of sense. Yeah. There's always romance, subplots in a lot of these. Like a lot of these series have their characters have romantic interests and stuff like that. But I mean for the most part now, okay, I would say now. 
I'm just curious. I figured, you know, that's the thing that's trendy right now, so maybe it'll make its way or maybe it'll stay out comic. 
We never. 
Know. Yeah. 
So we've had this genre on ourselves for many years and some of the ones that we had were kind of elderly in fact. How has the manga and anime evolved over time? 
That's a great question because manga and anime are constantly evolving, not only evolving like as a genre just in general, but evolving and learning from each other. And they like, take things that were successful from other series and kind of springboard into new ideas. Shows like Neon Genesis, and I know you're not going to know any of these shows. 
That I'd say. 
But our listeners might. 
They might, they might recognize a few of these shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Bleach like and, you know, Dragon Ball Z. 
That one I know. 
And hopefully those series, like they pave a path forward because they're so successful and they have so many iconic like attributes of them that like they set a tone. And when that success like is evident, other series like take those things that and they're inspired by them and they kind of take those things and grow and take the good and throw away the bad kind of thing. And they evolve and learn from each other. And I really like that. Like Jujutsu Kaisen is a newer series and it was heavily inspired by Bleach and the author JJ I can tell me again, you're not to recognize these names, but they like they really are. You can tell that they're a big fan of older series because of how much they've taken and. 
Influenced, right? Yeah. I'm sorry I a minute, but sort of influenced. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. This might be a good time to ask the question. 
Yeah, Yeah, go ahead. 
Kit. Do you want to ask this one? Yeah, It's. 
A name that many of our listeners may recognize and is known worldwide is Dragon Ball Z. Recently, the creator Akira Toriyama, passed away. What do you think he will best be remembered for? 
I think that Toriyama will be remembered for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in the Dragon Ball universe. I think that Toriyama will be remembered for being the author and creator of one of the greatest fighting fighting Shonen of all time. I think that during the war he gets the credit for making anime and manga more mainstream. I think Dragon Ball is what is the snowball that finally started picking up other snow and getting bigger and bigger and rolling down the hill. I think that he is an inspiration to so many others and on on the day of his passing, other manga authors, other mangaka like wrote public statements are grieving for him and like the author of one piece another one of the biggest shonen of all time called referred to Toriyama in his statement as Toriyama sensei saying, like calling him teacher. Yeah, even though they're more peers than anything. Like he showed so much showing so much respect for him, just like mentoring, mentioning him as as a teacher, as a mentor when I mean yes. And appropriately so, like he did so much for the industry and Dragon Ball gets all the credit Dragon ball in the early like midnight mid to late nineties on Toonami is what got, you know, thousands of millennials and Gen Z hooked on. 
Very cool stuff. I'm going to take this question. Yeah, go ahead then we're going to let you kind of roll through. 
Yeah, I got a whole bunch. 
So how did how did this start? How did this all come from Japan to the U.S.? Sort of Dragon Ball was probably one of the earlier ones. But how did it kind of begin? 
Dragon Ball, actually, yeah, I would say it began in the sixties and seventies. 
Well. 
I a lot earlier than Dragon Ball, but Dragon Ball definitely made it big if it came in the sixties and seventies, kind of to diversify America's comics portfolio with series like Astro Boy, that's probably the most recognizable of the earlier series. But it wasn't super popular. It wasn't super mainstream until like Dragon Ball in like 1996. 
So a few years went by. Yeah. 
So we touched briefly on the fact that you're kind of taking this piece of the collection. So for listeners, the manga was was my collection that I knew very little about because I inherited the way, which in turn came the graphic novels, which in turn came the manga. And for two years now I've been kind of scratching my head of what to do with it, and it's kind of just been there for people who want it. But I don't have a whole lot of knowledge about it. So when Dylan started here and said he wanted to take over, I was like, Yes, please, please take this for me. Somebody who knows. So what would you like to highlight about the current collection and what are your goals for it moving forward? Kind of a two parter. 
The current collection. What I would like to say about the current collection is that it is growing, it is going to get a lot bigger and better. It's been weeded. It's the older stuff. The stuff that wasn't circulating has been taken out. We've purchased new things. We're in processing, we're about to put them on the shelves. So it is growing, it is getting better, it is being developed and our Connecticut libraries share books between us in a way that I've never seen libraries do it because I'm not from originally from Connecticut, and we have a access to a vast collection of manga, even if we don't have it on our shelves physically. If you have a library card, you can place holds and they will ship it to us and you can pick it up here and read it. And I've been doing that myself. I've been out to Colchester because I've been selling all of their volumes of Dungeon MASH and reading them nonstop. So we have a large collection, even if we don't have it physically on our shelves and our physical collection is growing and it's going to continue to grow. My goals for that collection is I'm currently relabeling all of it. I'm peeling off those old stickers. I am rubbing Google all over to get all the gum off. Yeah, I've been putting on new labels and we got new manga stickers specifically for manga to help them stand out from the other graphic novels. We're shelving them to separate them from the other graphic novel so that they're next to each other, but they're shelved differently. We're changing the way we categorize them from series title or to series title from author last name. 
So yeah, that was that was a wild way to do it. 
It was a lot of work into making it better. And I hope that this hard work pays off. I, you know, I think that people will come and people will think if we build that, they will come. 
Yeah. 
I think that people, teenagers know about manga, you know, younger adults know about manga and they might even know we have it, but we need to update it and it is being updated actively. 
So I think the new collection is superb and I'm really looking forward to people coming in and asking for it. 
Yeah, yeah. And I hope we continue. Like I'll try to continue to be vigilant about keeping it updated by getting the new volumes as they come out and stuff. 
Like that and helping educate some of the staff around it too, because we interact patrons that have questions that we might not have answers to and you're not always there to answer those questions. So helping us is going to help everybody in the end kind of get the books into the hands of the right readers. 
Shout out to the blog one more time. 
That, yeah. 
Sure, you'll like it. 
I believe I have posted two blog entries and I'm cooking up a third one right now, so. 
We'll definitely link it in the show notes so that people can find out. 
More. 
What would you suggest for someone who is new to the genre and would like to try it out. 
For like a new reader who's never read any manga before? Yeah, I would recommend Fullmetal Alchemist. It's a coming of age story about two brothers with tragic beginnings. They have this coveted magic skill that they learn. It's a female author. It's a great starting point, great entry point. It doesn't have a lot of the tropes of other manga, so it's more I think it's an easier translation because, you know, sometimes when you get in the weeds of this and you've read so much manga, the tropes and stuff really come to light. And this is something that I think is a great standalone story that doesn't necessarily have all things. It's just a good story. So if you're into good storytelling, I think Fullmetal is the way to go. 
Sounds very accessible. 
And any tips for reading manga? Because I know that there are some some things about it that are different. 
So manga is, as it's been translated, it's it's from Japan, so it's original in Japanese, the print it's printed to be read from right to left instead of left to right. So the covers are on the wrong side. The front is the back in the back in the front. So when you pick up along with manga, you'll look to the right side and you'll start page one there and you have to read it from the top right to the bottom left. It's it is a little confusing at first, but you really do get used to it pretty quickly. There are some times where you catch yourself reading the wrong panel first and you're like, Oh boy. 
I need to know more. 
Yeah, yeah. And that happens. That even happens to me as a seasoned reader. So it happens to the best of us. 
I have another personal, like nerdy question. This is not on here, so please feel free to take your time answering. But as we're talking, I'm like, I'm finding I have lots more questions. I'm so curious so we know where we get our manga through the library because we order it through specific sources. If you were going to buy it and not get it from the library, which sometimes you do, where do you find it? Do you find it at a comic book store? Do you have to order online? What? Where are you getting your manga? 
So a lot of the manga that I read, I read online. Okay, there's a lot of websites that do that for free. Just make sure you have a good ad blocker installed. Oh, chrome extension, but a lot of it you can get online for free. There is an app called Shonen Jump that you can subscribe for like a dollar 99 a month and you get access to a pretty good collection of manga. They're cool, but bookstores sell manga like Barnes and Noble and other bookstores have manga collections. there's a bunch of like, you can find local shops. There's one in Mystic Village. I know that's a really good manga shop there. They have like, not only books, but like figurines and imported snacks and stuff like that. It's really. 
Fun. Yeah. 
I was also going to ask, did other like toys and props that come with it, like you see with comics. 
There's a lot of plushies and stuff. Japan is yeah, Japan is big on like, gotcha. Little like little, you know, mystery packs and stuff like that. You put in a quarter and you spin the wheel and you get a little, you know, a mystery figurine on this show. And I think that there's a whole lot and then there's access to. 
A lot. 
Of stuff like that. Cool. Yeah. 
Cool. That's great. 
All right. Anyone have any other questions? I mean, I could ask questions about this all day, but we only prepared so many. 
I think there was one question that we didn't get to. Oh, yeah. And just sitting here listening to you talk about the genre and the all the little extensions and what like the plushies and the, you know, just where you find these things and your love for manga. How did you get into manga? Like, what was it that drew you to it? 
Yeah, it started in late middle school, early high school. Some of my friends Inter tried to introduce me to this cartoon that I had. This weird cartoon had never seen before, never heard of it started with Naruto and one piece and. 
Which we have. 
Yeah, we do have a lot of books and I branched out eventually to Dragon Ball and I got into a bunch of other stuff, but that's where it started the current day and I started watching the anime and once I caught up on the anime and I wanted to know what happens next, I didn't want to wait for the next season, so I went to the source material. I started reading that there's a lot more. Yeah, written because it takes it takes a while to animate these things. So you can really if you're if you're kind of on your favorite series, you might be able to read, read the rest and I would recommend that. 
Okay. So that actually is a good segue way to my other question that I was thinking about earlier. So the anime adaptations, do they ever get like ahead of the, the, the manga and they kind of have to like catch up and retcon because I was listening to something the other day about how when the Ninja Turtles were really big and when the transformers were really big, they got so ahead of these characters that the companies had to kind of like retcon and create all this law that didn't previously exist because it was getting so popular. Does that ever happen with the anime that it gets so big they have to go back? 
It has happened a few times, but it typically does. 
Okay, that question made sense. Yes, it. 
Does. It does. Typically, manga or anime is direct adaptation. Okay. It's a play by play on most of the panels of the comic. And it's really interesting to see, having read and watched certain series that you can see the similarities, the differences and how they made things. Like I, for instance, I'm caught up on Jujutsu Kaisen and season two just finished airing like in into February. So watching Season two being animated was like, you watch it come alive off the page almost. It jumps to life. You get to see not only the action that's happening, but the sounds and the, you know, the voice acting and the the color, because it's fully color when it comes out and on TV. 
Oh, that's. 
True. It's really cool to see. And yeah, for the most part it is a direct, direct comparison, like it is a chapter by chapter almost. But like Fullmetal Alchemist is actually Fullmetal Alchemist. The show first aired and it got ahead of the source material and they remade Fullmetal Alchemist and they made Fullmetal optimism Brotherhood, which is doing the show that I would recommend you watch because it is true to the source material like Babel, but Full Metal Alchemist, the original show, they got way ahead of the source. John Then they had to remake the show. And so it happened. What happened? Yeah. 
Yeah. Well, and the American version of things, they mess it up. So I love that they're keeping it in line with what people really like. So yeah, TV adaptations in America are sometimes heart stopper, which we will talk about. Yeah, we will talk about honors and stuff like I don't. 
Know if you know the answer to this, but do you know why it they are typically drawn in black and white? 
I'm not sure. I mean, maybe because that's the way it's been done, right? It's traditional. I it it's probably also a lot easier on printing. 
As you say, it's probably cheaper, cheaper. 
A lot cheaper and just more accessible because to my knowledge, most of manga is printed with blank speech bubbles and blank. Oh, so that so that later it's printed blank and then they can fill in the speech bubbles with another printing basically. 
That's fantastic. 
Enabling blank speech bubbles to be printed in English. They can send blanks. Boop bubbles. 
I don't. 
Mind those. So that's. 
Incredible. The Japanese have this figured out. 
Yeah. Wow. 
They have a lot of things figured out. 
Yeah, for sure. But it is. Yeah, I think it's more accessible that way. 
That's fascinating. Yeah. No, no idea. I had no idea. Cool. 
How can the Russell Library curate and introduce this genre to our patrons? 
I think that like I said earlier, I think that people know about manga and anime. They might not know what to call it. They might say, Hey, where's your anime? They might not ask for the manga. Exactly. But I think that I think that young people especially know what manga is or is, and I think that if we curate the clay, if we build the collection and we have the good stuff, I think they'll come and read it for the older audiences that might not know, I think we need to display it. I think we like I've been, I've been blogging to kind of explain like what this genre is, how can you read it, how accessible is it where you should start? And I think that this is another like this this interview is another way for us to kind of put it out there into the world. Yeah, start here, you know, read the classics and I think that think they if we build that, they'll come. And I think that if we display it and show it off, people will pick it up as well. 
And there'll be a display in April. 
So I'll be putting together a display for April. I think April 15th is National Anime Day. Oh cool. Is when I'm going to put the display out. 
Yeah. It's also text or tax day. 
This is much more fun as. 
People are. 
Instead of. 
But that's the second time taxes have come up during this episode. I just want to mark that. 
That's something that's fresh on the mind. 
Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much, Dillon, for joining us today We have Stephanie Rush. Hi. Kate McCarthy-Bond And I'm Christy Billings. And join us next time on Middle Town Strong

Hello and welcome to the segment we're calling Turn that ssshhhh up
 
Up projects at Russell Library that are too good to keep quiet. Spring temperatures are on the rise and the library is ready to celebrate This month. The librarians are putting aside our cardigans to lead. Dance parties, share poetry, and consider how to make more money with side hustles. Joining me today is Shannon from our Digital and Emerging Technologies Department. So, Shannon, are you starting to feel the spring vibes? 
Yes. Even though it's gloomy and raining today, the spring is on its way, even though it's technically here. But in New. 
England, it's. 
New England. So tomorrow it might be 32 degrees and we'll have to put our winter coats back on. But yeah, you know, the flowers are coming out, the buds and the trees are coming. It's it's feeling like spring, so I'm excited. How about you? 
Yeah, I'm excited too. You can definitely tell that the light is changing and there's a freshness in the air that wasn't there before. You can tell that spring is coming. 
People's energy has changed as well. Yes, you can definitely feel it. 
Yeah. And so are youth and family Learning Department actually has a couple of programs for kids whose energy levels is up. 
Oh. 
For kids whose energy levels are up? Sorry, Kids? 
Yeah. Yeah. 
So what do they have going on on. 
Mondays and Thursdays at 10 a.m.? You can join our children's librarians to connect with families and explore the power of play. 
A variety of toys will be out for free play, including building materials, crafts and sensory toys. The activities planned are aimed at children's ages, one through five and a caregiver. 
But all ages are welcome. 
And just to let everybody know, our activity. 
Room is open all the time, unless otherwise. But majority of the time. So it's always a time for free play for kids to come in. So it's wonderful. And on Friday, April 19th at 11 a.m., you can join our children's library and for our. 
Movement, music and the art of dance, we will learn ballet moves, use props and have some fun flowing and grooving to the music. No experience is needed in this activity is intended for children's ages 2 to 6, but families and siblings are welcome. Registration is recommended for the program and there will be weather updates. 
As you know. 
As we were saying, it's doing good. Yeah, whatever persists, this will happen. 
Yeah. So in addition to kids having more energy, some of us have more energy for entrepreneurial ideas. And so I've been thinking about the fact that you can actually make more money from your skills, passions and everyday tasks. If you want more information, join personal financial expert Petrina Dixon for making more money with side hustles on Thursday, April 25th at 6 p.m.. in this session you will learn tips on creating a business plan to start your own side hustle. So topics are going to include some of the more popular side hustles and how they work, how you can get started, the pros and cons of a particular project and whether that should be a side hustle and also some information about networking and mentors. So to sign up, please visit the library's online events calendar. Petrina is wonderful. 
And it's going to be a great program. 
And it will it will fill up. 
Quickly. Yes. 
other kinds of inspiration. Not everybody wants to start a business, but some of us are feeling a little more artistic. So if you're feeling inspired, you may want to attend a poetry reading and book signing Elaine Nadel is a writer from Connecticut. She is the author of When and Sweet Dancing Cut, published by Finishing Line Press. She's a pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. And she holds a master's degree in liberal studies from Wesleyan University, as well as degrees in Spanish secondary education and fine arts. Now, she studied in Spain and Puerto Rico, and she enjoys singing, translating and traveling. And she was really excited to come back to Middletown, having gone to Wesleyan. so we're really excited to have her back so that she can share some of her work. 
Yeah, she sounds like such a well-rounded person with that background and everything love to attend. Yeah. Seriously? Yeah. So I guess the last thing we need to discuss is for the entire month of April. Dun, dun, dun. 
Passport to the Connecticut Libraries. 
I'm so glad they're doing it again this year. 
Yeah, it's really good. So I've actually never done it, but I don't know. It sounds great. Mm hmm. 
So it's from April 1st to April 30th. The Russell Library will be participating in passports to Connecticut libraries. The participants can win one of four 200 visa gift cards by visiting five or more Connecticut libraries. What this program does is that makes you. 
Go to other libraries as being a librarian. I don't go to too many other libraries, and a lot of us either don't go or they just kind of stay in their local like library in their community. So this is a good way to branch out and see what else is out there. 
This program was modeled after the CT wine passport by visiting participating libraries in the month of April, you will get your passport stamped. This activity is great for families and for solo participants. Signups begin April 1st and participants can pick up their passport at any participating library. So say you do live in Middletown. You could go pick it up in Portland. 
It's all good. 
To be entered into the drawing. A passport with five or more stamps must be submitted to the Russell Library by May 10th. If you have any questions or anything, just come to the Russell Library at the borrowing desk and we can assist you further or give you your passport. 
Yeah, it's a great it's a great way to see more of Connecticut. Debbie Elliott, be honest with you. They there are. Connecticut is known for having libraries in every city, hamlet, county. So there's it's a good reason to get out and travel a little
Well, in each library. So unique, it brings something else to the table that you haven't seen before, because every community is unique, so we're just trying to provide the best we can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 
So a lot going on, been great talking with you, Shannon. Same here. 
Kim. Always. 
Yeah. And I hope you've heard something that you make inspires you to come to the library or visit another library in Connecticut. Feel free to share what you've learned with others. Russell Library definitely has too many exciting things going on to keep them quiet. Next up is shelf life with some great book recommendations from Christie, Kate and Stephanie. 
Bye bye. 
Hello and welcome to Shelf Life. I'm Christy Billings. 
I'm Stephanie Rush. 
And I'm Cait McCarthy. Bonnie. 
We're following up today with a little bit about graphic novels. 
Yes. So if you are still tuned in, you will have heard our discussion just now with Dylan about manga or manga, which I pronounced both ways. Please do not at me. You can say it either way. Dylan said so. So we had an all night discussion about that and anime and we talked a little bit about graphic novels, so I thought it would be fun for us as a trio to talk about graphic novels today, because that's something that I think the three of us have a little bit more experience with, and most of our patrons might have a little bit more familiarity with. So we're going to talk a little bit about graphic novels. We're going to recommend some graphic novels. Some of you might be thinking, what is a graphic novel? 
So if you are not familiar graphic novels or sometimes, like Dylan said, they're known as the visual novels. They are sometimes adaptations of books or novels that are in more of a visual graphic format. They have panels, kind of like a comic book. So it's not to say that they're any easier to read. They're just a different style of reading. They take a different skill set of reading and you might get a little bit something different. But they're definitely a visual style format of reading a book. So and they do count as books. Anyone listening out there, graphic novels on his books, too, is laughing because I'm sure she's had that conversation before. 
I believe when they first came out, people thought graphic referred to content and that. 
Is, yeah. 
You know, I would hear people talk about, oh, it's a. 
Graphic novel. 
But that is not with the graphic. 
And this does mean this is graphic, as in the art style. It's a graphic art style, not graphic gory. Yes. No, that's a good point. 
Particularly. I mean, there certainly are graphic novels that have their place with a little bit more adult content, but not if your teen or your tween brings home a graphic novel. Yes. It's no cause for concern. 
Correct. And they are very popular with teens and tweens, especially with our younger readers, too. They're really great for. I know some people hate this term, quote unquote, reluctant readers, readers who are are maybe not into reading or are struggling to read traditional. Yeah, graphic novels are great for that. Graphic novels, I find, are great as a palate cleanser between two other types of books. Maybe you're reading something heavier, you want something lighter, or vice versa. Graphic novels are also great because, like I mentioned before, there are different style of reading, so they actually take a different skill set. So your brain has to take in what the pictures are showing in addition to the text. So it kind of challenges your brain to read in a different way. And I know some people will read a graphic novel or a comic book more than once because the first pass, they kind of read it for the the story and the content. And then they come back and they read it again for the pictures. 
The pictures. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's sort of like the way your brain absorbs an audio book. Yes. It's still reading, folks. Yes, it is. Yes. A little bit different. And you're using different parts of your brain. 
Yeah. And I'm one of those people that I read for the text and the story and how I've missed the pictures, which is a lot of the point for a lot of people. 
Yeah, absolutely. 
And the point for the illustrators is the pictures. So I am very guilty of reading and missing half the content. So strongly recommend either going slower or rereading because then you really get the full experience that the author and the illustrator are trying to convey. So who wants to talk about their first library? 
I only brought one today, so I guess I will. I will go first. I don't have a lot of experience with graphic novels, but now, after listening to Dillon's episode, I certainly want to do a lot more with manga, with some of these other things that we talked about and graphic novels, in my experience so far have been a lot of the adaptations of non-fiction, something that I would like to learn a little bit more about Indigenous culture, maybe a book that was really a heavy topic, and now it has been translated into this graphic novel type format and it's like, okay, I can absorb this a little better, then go back and read like the full version of the nonfiction and understand a. 
Little bit some more digestible format we've seen. So we were talking off, make a little bit. So like some titles we've talked about Mouse. There's one called March, which is about the civil rights Movement. You Have Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. 
You make classic, big classic. 
You have Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. So you have all of these stories that some of them are heavy topics, but when you combine it with that format, with the graphic format, it's a little bit easier to digest. And I think also more accessible for a lot of our audiences. Definitely. Yeah. So, Kristy, go ahead. 
The one that I brought today is called Heart Stopper by Alice Osman. It is a British art novel, sorry, British graphic novel, and it has been turned into a TV series. I recommend both of them. 
It's so good. 
Oh my gosh. So like, be prepared with your Kleenex and the whole thing because you will have all the feels. 
I'll be prepared to watch the adaptation in one sitting like I did. 
I went straight through without without a doubt, we could do another whole podcast on like this kind of adaptation and the way they use the animations with it, like the illustrations in the TV show. 
It's the best adaptation I've seen from a graphic because it gets the art style, so. Right. 
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. 
But I could talk all day about that. 
Go ahead. So so we're talking about two young men, Charlie, who is a highly strung, openly gay overthinker and Nick, a cheerful, soft hearted rugby player. And they meet at a British all boys grammar school and they have a friendship. Could there be something more? The past year hasn't been all that great for Charlie this year, but at least he's not being bullied anymore. Nick is in year 11 and is also on the rugby team. He's heard a little bit about Charlie the kid hit. He had been outed the year before and he'd been bullied, but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him. So they quickly become friends and soon. Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner. So we have all of the heart stopper books. But you know, I suggest you start with volume one. Probably check out volume two and three and four. Just because you're going to want to keep going is just a beautiful story of romance. And I you know, I think it's done in such a way that there's no 
there's nothing forced about it. It's like two people that are meeting and getting to know each other and, you know, does this person really like me? Don't you know? Is that not a thing? I found it to be so romantic and believable in so many ways. So I just want to really suggest heart, eyes. 
Clutching my heart over here. Keep looking out. I just every time I think about heart stopper, my whole face flushes like this is just what I like about life stories because they're swoony and they're full of big feelings. But you're like, right alongside with them. You are feeling those big feelings in the same way Nick and Charlie are. And the whole time you're just like, squishing your face with your cheeks. You're just like, I love you. 
Yes, I see the romance episode again. I just was like, Oh man. 
Yeah. All the feels, all of them. 
And the casting on the Netflix show was excellent. 
Really good. Yes, really, really good. I had seen there's a new character. I don't recall who it was, so I have to go back and find out a little bit more about that. But yeah, definitely check out the Netflix episode as well. 
So just a quick question because I know we talk about sometimes like the movie versus the book. And so how is the show versus the book? 
And I think they capture it pretty well. 
I don't think they certainly don't leave anything out. From what I remember, I didn't have any trouble going between the two. I didn't get mad. You know, a lot of you know, that didn't happen in the book. 
Or they they added a couple of new characters or like took characters from other other volumes and kind of threaded them in early, which Yes, I didn't have a problem with that. And the Netflix adaptation has this just this beautiful organic group of all these different LGBTQ identifying teens. There's so many different versions of what that looks like, and that's why the story is so beautiful. And I, Alice Holzman, the author I believe is Queer, I think is also potentially asexual. So there's like a lot of different threads there within the characters. It's just a beautiful. 
Beautiful piece. And for people to like, look at, to have this in their life and kind of either as a mirror or as a window, I think it's a really great way to explore. 
Kate you brought a bus? Yeah. So not being a graphic novel reader, I do have for two of them I have read, so I'm going to just start with those. The first one is Phoebe and her unicorn. Of course I'm showing the cover. 
It's really cute. It's pink. And I was a young child on the Unicorn who's smiling and riding her. 
So the unicorn is a little bit full of herself. It's basic, 
basically about a girl who, know, she meets this unicorn and they have all sorts of adventures. you know, the unicorn follows Phoebe through her day and. 
As a unicorn should. 
As a unicorn, either as a young person should have a unicorn with them all the time. so they just have lots of adventures. But, you know, we were talking earlier about how sometimes with graphic novels, it's hard. You may have to go back and reread them. You read the text first, or you go back and then, you know, go through the art. What's really interesting about this story is that the artwork, it's nice and big because I know some of graphic novels, the panels are smaller, there are lots of them. So this are bright. These are, you know, bright pictures, the expressions on the characters, or she's like, they've all got these huge eyes. And so that's just a cute little story called Phoebe and Her Unicorn. And it's a whole series. They go bowling together or they I don't know, they, they do all sorts of other stuff together, but this one is description on the boxes. Do you believe in unicorns? Phoebe does. She has no choice. One day she skipped a rock across the pond and hit a unicorn in the face. And probably this resulted in a lasting friendship between Phoebe and the Unicorn. One Miracle Heavenly Nostrils. Q This is. 
A popular series for our readers. 
Yes. Yes, we have. I think there's a ten or. 
Yeah. 
Yeah. Good. We have a bunch of those. Snapdragon is the next Maxwell Oh, nice hashtag. And I'm feeling really it's it it was a little off putting because the the dark is are a little like I couldn't tell like if this was like a fantasy creature I couldn't tell So. 
You can't tell until you're reading. 
It, until you read it. So the cover's like there's a dog with these weird eyes sitting in the milk crate and on the back of of the bike. The main character, she's got this, 
she's got, like, puffs, like hairstyle. Exactly right. 
So also sort of antlers. 
They almost look like antlers. 
Yeah, exactly. And you see, like, the image of a deer behind. 
It, even though it is that until you just. 
See the reflection. 
Yeah. 
Or almost like. Like a spirit in a ghost or something. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even notice that came until you just pointed it out nice. 
And I read this twice. Yeah. So as I was thinking about how I wanted to describe it, you know, this is a book about stereotypes and judging a book by its cover, and. 
Which we'll try not to do. Yeah, we like this cover. 
We did. We didn't actually like this cover because once you start reading the story, then you get like who they are, the people are. And so there's this girl. You pretty much find out right away that she there's somebody in town who people thinks kills animals and eats them. 
Done so. 
Exactly. Exactly right. And there's so you think this person is horrible and a witch. And so the main character goes off looking for her dog and she thinks that this person has done a terrible thing. And then she finds out that that's not true because based on everything in town, everything she's heard is person is like horrible. There are images in here that do suggest that this is true, but the images are over the image. There's a scary image. But you find out a little bit more about this person as you go through the story. I thought it was really interesting. I did find it hard to get into, but once I realized what was happening and then there's another story under this where she is finding out that people have this image of this other character in the story and she's developing her own 
perspective about this person. And then she discovers underneath a connection to her own mother. 
It comes together beautifully. Yeah, but it's definitely like, not suspenseful. It's like it's totally mysterious. 
Right? Yeah, it's mysterious. It's a little dark, spooky and spooky simply because I think people have ingrained this this image of what they think that this person really is. And so there's all these stories, but so it's a it's called Snapdragon. It's a good story. It's by Cat Lee. Don't let the cover scare you, scare you or turn you away. 
Or let the cover kind of draw you in because it's a little mysterious. Right? Exactly. Right. Right. 
So the final two, I'm just going to highlight the graphic novel nonfiction, because we were talking about nonfiction earlier. We have science comics, coral reefs, cities of the ocean. 
Those are super popular. The science comics, these. 
Are really cool because it's you are reading about real facts. You're getting, you know. 
The scientific. 
Names, the scientific names, the ocean, all in nonfiction, graphic novel formula. And it's a fun way to read nonfiction, I think, because sometimes people can be nonfiction can be a little daunting. I am. Yeah. And then there's something called the That It's a series by Allie Esquivel. There's a bunch of other. 
But these are so fun because she is a comic artist, so she brings her like comic style animation to these nonfiction graphics. 
And I also think of like elephant, a little bit of Elephant Man. 
Because there's no panels. I like. 
This. Yeah, this one is more of a what do we call it? Early reader. No, maybe, but it's not. It's not. You're right, because it's not in the panel's style. It's definitely more of a graphic novel than a comic book style, right? But it gets the point across in the same manner that it has these big fine illustrations, but facts. 
With the bat hibernating. 
Yeah. So if it's. Yeah, So we have we have a bunch of these we have a lot of the science comics. The one I brought to you is coral reefs. If you like dogs, check out the science comics. One for dogs. 
There's a shark. One, I believe. 
Nice. Yeah. 
So our graphic novel collection really spans fiction through nonfiction. Yeah. 
So it is the place that everybody goes to when they come into the children's room. 
Yeah, Yeah, it's right there. Front center. It's easy to find. 
Yeah, I. I'm glad you highlighted the nonfiction, because I feel like not everybody knows we have that section in the children's department, but it's. It's a nice little section that has some really interesting stuff. And I've had families who have come in and they're their students are looking for graphic novels, but the families and the caregivers want them to be reading nonfiction. I'm like, Well, guess why we have those? So that's a nice little gap that bridges that very nicely. So I have two fiction, but I actually did want to touch on nonfiction because we were talking how sometimes the graphic format makes some of it easier to digest. So I've really liked graphic memoirs in recent years. That's like a subgenre that I find really interesting because you're getting the person's story, but you're also getting it through their art, which is a really cool way to do something. 
Yeah, Yeah. 
So I mean, genderqueer is the one that comes to mind, which has been on the minds of lots lately for lots of various reasons. I admire Barbie. And then there's another one. The title is Escaping Me right now. It's called I Think the Fire Within or Fire Burns Inside by Andy Stevenson. But these artists have both taken their personal stories. Both of these don't happen to be LGBTQ stories, but they've taken their personal stories and they've they've drawn and written how they're feeling through this art medium. And it just comes through in this beautiful way that I don't think you can capture in any other way. And same thing going back to that, Allison, Back to Out Funnel is a graphic memoir and that's an older one. It's a classic one, but it's still a graphic memoir very much. And I feel like that was one of the first ones that and the Persepolis one like that. 
People didn't. They were like, What is this? Yeah, I want more of this. 
Now. Graphic memoirs are really their own little subgenre, and they're a really interesting way, the other way accessible. Elle Defoe. 
Oh, right. 
The children. So yes. Elle Dufault is technically a graphic memoir, even though Belle has reimagined it to be an animal creature that is based on Susie Belle's life. So interesting. Another kind of a little intro into nonfiction and how artists kind of combine their mediums. 
You know, take reader table. 
Myers books I think there are semi-autobiographical to yes, you've got smile and you've got guts. Those are semi-autobiographical. Yeah. So you're getting all these artists who are taking their own personal stories. There's one called Be Prepared that's based on the author's story as well. That's just a really cool medium and we have tons of those. 
Yeah, I love it. 
Yeah. So now I want to talk about the two. I actually brought talk about this. I forgot how much I love graphic novels, so I brought two fiction recommendations today. One is adult and then one is way. I'll start with the adult. There's a series called Law Olympus, I believe you heard of those have not. Okay. Laura Olympus, Volume one by Rachel Smith. So it started as a Web tune or a Web comic. So Dylan had mentioned that earlier. So just a way, a web comic that was that endless scrolls. You just kept scrolling till the end and then you had to wait until they posted a new version of it. Yeah, Yeah. Back in the time of the Internet where you had to wait for things. 
Once or not. But that stressed that drama. 
Yeah, but eventually was released in print and now it is a full color graphic adaptation and it's a modern reimagining of the perception. E and Hades met. So it's funny that you just said that. So it's a modern reimagining of it, but this adaptation kind of bridges the gap between comics and graphic novels to create this compilation of a serialized story into one connected narrative. So this is volume one and it features it's it's parties, it's debauchery, it's glamour, because that's what the gods would be really like if they were living in modern times. But as these beautiful eye popping colors and this cartoon, this cartoon inspired artistic style, it's definitely like older Y.A. slash new adult adult content. Why so like, please do not give this to your 12 year old. I think it'll be too mature for them. But a lot of young adult readers have picked it up. Just go in knowing the content is a little bit more mature than most Y.A. and then it gets steamier as the series progresses. But it takes that keep laughing. It takes the poor Stephanie in Haiti as myth and turns it into that like a fully formed romance. But it starts with like, he had to go to the party. I don't know what's going to be there. I was he can like meet like it's very much that like first crushes bubbly is he feeling that Thanks Exactly. That kind of builds into this forbidden romance but with these like beautiful bright blues and pinks is beautiful. If you see the cover, you'll know. So that's Laura Lopez, volume one. And my second one is Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with me My by Mariko Tamaki. This is one that I read several years back. I kept seeing it everywhere and I was like, I think I'll just read it. This is a graphic novel that follows Franky in her on and off again relationship with Laura Dean. And this is one of those graphic novels that kind of kicks you in the stomach because you're not expecting the turn that it takes, but it's like really rich and important. And so it reveals this teenage relationship that's actually quite abusive and it highlights the signs and the symptoms of teen dating violence, especially ones that are usually overlooked or downplayed, which doesn't sound like a fun read. I swear this is delightful, but it's also something really important that our young readers need to need to see. And if they're not having these conversations with people, having this conversation within a storyline is like the kind of way to get them. So when I read it, I was like, Whoa, like, wow, I maybe needed this as a as a 17 year old or as a 22 or like somebody somewhere needs this story or somebody somewhere knows someone who needs the story. And I'm so glad it exists who I'm getting choked up. 
But very, very true. Like this is like so this is showing that this relationship that's happening isn't real love, right? And that there's ways to talk about it. There's language for it, and then there are ways to change and get out of it. 
Yes. And it's told through Frankie's point of view, and it has these pastel colors. So it's really beautifully illustrated. But seeing it through Frankie's eyes, you realize that she's having a hard time understanding the reality of the situation. And as the story goes, you start to see her noticing the signs and internalizing the signs and being like, Oh, wait, this thing that is happening to me is maybe not right. And you're with her the whole ride because you are in the the point of view of the main character who can't see it. And Laura Dean keeps breaking up with her. And that seems to eventually she sees if she keeps breaking up with me, maybe there's something here that's really going on. And maybe the problem is me. Maybe it's not me. 
Right? So there's red flags, but she doesn't have the wisdom karate that they're red flags or immediately or as probably as the story goes on, she realizes because now she's been educated about this and now this is educating other young people. 
Exactly. And and I like that Mariko Tamaki chooses to make it in pastel colors, so. 
Right. It's beautiful. 
Yes. And because, like you said, red flags, you're not seeing the red flags. If everything is pastel around you, you get the release sequence back. Lee So this sounds like it's a really hard read. I promise it's not that challenging of a read. It's emotionally very, very hard, but it's beautiful. And I'm so glad that this book exists because Kate and I have this conversation all the time as librarians. There's a kid out there who needs the book. There's a teen out there that needs the book. There's a person out there that needs that book. So we're going to get that book out there so that maybe they can find it. 
Exactly right. Yeah, that's I mean, it's such a hard thing because you come across it. We come across these books center. I mean, not necessarily graphic novels. It's the fiction book. So, yeah, you know, it might be for a younger audience, but then it's like you're looking at the top kid, you know, and then you're like, Well, somebody is going through that. Some kid within that age group or surrounding that age might find this and need this book at that. 
Time, or somebody reads this book and realizes that they know someone who is in this position or they know someone who could use this. And it's our job to just buy these titles and have them there and hope that our readers find them, too, because no one, no one is going to come up to me and say. 
Stephanie, I need a book on domestic violence. 
Correct? I need a book on teen dating violence. However, they could they could be looking for a book that's I don't know. I'm looking for a graphic novel that has pretty pictures. Or they could just stumble upon this on the shop. It's like, you never know who's coming in. You never know what they need. Yeah. And so, you know, we kind of just get what we think everybody will need. 
And Graham is not buying this book for someone for Christmas. No, this is so important to have on her. 
Yeah, I just read just one quick thing. I just recently read a really interesting article. I think it may have been may have been Scholastic or And it was a whole article about the about teens who choose dark stories for reasons and then the who they talked to some of the teens and somebody said, you know, I read this book and it just it helped me to become a better person or read this. And it just it was really scary. And I've learned something, you know, So they choose specific teens, choose these specific types of books, dark, heavy, for specific reasons. And they reach out. They somehow these books just touch them in different ways. That's really, really fast. Yeah. Yeah. That. 
And they don't always have the language to talk about them, but they know something deep inside that that book is speaking to them, even if they can't name it exactly like I read. Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me as an adult who is trained to understand what the signs of teen dating violence looks like. And it still kind of caught me off guard in this story. So young readers reading anybody reading this might not even see it until they reach the end. Just like without being spoiler. Just like Frankie does that. all the thing I thought was happening is not really the reality. Yeah, I. 
Have to read the New. 
Deal. I'm telling you, the cover is beautiful. It's. It's. It's a girl hugging another girl, and it's just the illustrations are beautiful. All right, Go to Matt is very talented. 
And you had a second one? No, that. 
Was my second one. Oh, wow. So Laura Lynn and Laura Deeks is breaking up with me. You buried her once before. 
I'm sorry. I guess. Absolutely. 
But I looked back and I was like, Oh, look, to romance. 
This class isn't right. 
I know. That's amazing. And yes, of course. Just so appreciate that you guys bring this really great perspective of our collection that we have here at Russell. So check this stuff out. But I hope our listeners come in and borrow these books. Or if you're at another library, your library card is good for books all over Connecticut. We're going to be doing the passport program in April. Yep. Where you visit other libraries and they'll probably talk a little bit more about that and turn that up. But you can get these books from Russell and you don't have to drive here. 
And don't forget about our online resources. If for some reason you can't get a physical copy or you prefer to not read a physical copy of our library online has lots of digital and audio and E versions of all these titles. 
Thanks so much for joining us today for Shelf Life