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How to talk about a (comic) book

Tips for Graphic Novel Booktalkers


1. As with any other title you plan to booktalk, make sure you've read the book in its entirety before taking it to an audience.

2. Select the character, plot element, or artistic style about which you want to concentrate your talk.

3. Prepare a comparison and/or contrast between this selected element, as it is realized in this particular title, with a similar element in a print-oriented title or with a movie.

4. Make and show a prop: an enlarged image of the main character, or a "chart" of facial expressions [for a manga title], or a photo of the graphic novelist at work.

5. Mix graphic novel titles with print-oriented ones when doing a theme-based series of booktalks (e.g., historical fiction, popular science).

6. Elicit listener input: which graphic novels styles are their favorites? Which artists are most familiar to them? What source do they have of graphic novels for browsing? Is anyone prepared to booktalk a graphic novel right now?


Other Marketing Suggestions

1. Prepare and update annotated lists of your newest graphic novel purchases.

2. Place bookmarks with the library's contact info and a phrase akin to "your source for graphic novels" in every graphic novel on your shelves.

3. Solicit graphic novel-style book reviews and post them near your graphic novel collection.

4. Make sure there are flyers about the library at your local comic book store and that the staff there knows they can refer readers to you for out of stock material.



Community Contacts to Cultivate

1. Find a local art teacher willing to discuss comic book styles and traditions in a dialog format, for a staff training or a public library program.

2. If your hometown does have a good comics shop, start networking with the proprietor.


3. If you're not sure about the availability of local talent (published cartoonists), one of the above persons can steer you to a covey of them. Make contact and determine any willingness to be part of a library program.


4. The Web makes the world our community pretty easily: search online for advice on shopping and promoting.
Some resources to check include:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/

http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/comics/pages/

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/index.htm

http://www.comics.org/

http://www.rationalmagic.com/Comics/Comics.html

http://www.koyagi.com/Libguide.html


5. Join the Graphic Novels in Libraries list and give yourself a community for graphic novel discussion.
To subscribe, send a blank e-mail message to gnlib-l-subscribe@topica.com
(You must send the subscription request message from the e-mail address at which you wish to receive the GNLIB-L messages.)




Prepared by Francisca Goldsmith
Sr. Librarian, Teen Services
Berkeley Public Library
2090 Kittredge St
Berkeley, CA 94704
frg1@ci.berkeley.ca.us
(510)981-6139

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