The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines a comic book as a magazine with one or more comic strips, and a graphic novel as a novel in the form of comic strips. For many, these definitions may bring to mind the “funny papers” or a Dilbert or Doonesbury comic strip from the Sunday newspaper.
Comic books and graphic novels, however, are generally much more than a simple compilation of strips, and it seems that everyone is getting into the game these days. Browsing the shelves at Rock Bottom Comics or Barnes & Noble reveals such gems as Twilight: The Graphic Novel, based on Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular Twilight series, and the graphic novelization of Stephen King’s bestseller The Stand, as well as the more traditional X-Men and Wonder Woman titles.
In addition to the better-known places to find comics and graphic novels, such as those mentioned above or The Antiquarium and Hastings in Jeff City, graphic novels and comics can be found in some unexpected places in mid-Missouri.
DBRL in Columbia has an nice selection of graphic novels. The DBRL online catalog record for a graphic novel, such as Astonishing X-Men Vol.1, has a “browse the shelf” link at the right of the screen that leads to a list or images of other titles near the one being viewed. This allows patrons to browse a virtual shelf online, just as they would scan the shelves while standing in the bricks and mortar library.
Downtown Book & Toy in Jeff City has a small selection of comics on a rack near the magazines, generally containing the newest releases only.
The Special Collections at the MU Libraries have a Comic Art Collection with over 2,000 comics in it. The collection can be browsed online, and contains some intriguing titles: one can only imagine what Adventures of Aaron: My Mom's Meatloaf Moves might be about (even Amazon.com doesn’t have more information about this one)! The comics don’t circulate, so visitors have to stay at the library to read them, but that’s certainly no hardship for a true comic book aficionado!
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