Recently, the LRC has been trying to improve our collection of graphic novels. We just got a bunch in, and they'll be ready for checkout soon. Here are a few that deal with the challenges that we face in our day-to-day lives:
American Splendor: Ordinary Life is Pretty Complex Stuff, by Harvey Pekar
"American Splendor is the world's first literary comic book. Cleveland native Harvey Pekar is a true American original. A comic book writer and V.A. hospital file clerk, Harvey chronicles the ordinary and mundane in stories both funny and touching. His dead-on eye for the frustrations and minutiae of the workaday world mix in a delicate balance with his insight into personal relationships. Pekar has been compared to Dresiser, Dostoevsky, and Lenny Bruce. But he is truly more than all of them - he is himself."
Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli
"Who is Asterios Polyp? Architect, professor, author, husband - but that was all in the past. Now, as he marks half a century, he's become a shadow of his former self. But it's a stormy night, and a lightening bolt is about to set him on a fateful journey."
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
"The setting: suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease manifests itself in any number of ways - from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable) - but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back."
The notes about each one are taken from the covers of the items. In the coming weeks, I'll post a little on some of the other graphic novels we've gotten:
- DMZ: On the Ground
- The Death of Superman
- Maus I
- Maus II
- Pride of Baghdad
- The Uncanny X-Men
- Watchmen
