ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics: ALIA Graphic October 2021 Roundup

It's been a great month for ALIA Graphic and we couldn't be happier. We also have a new committee member, which we're very chuffed about. We're all volunteers and we do all this work and share it all for free because we believe that comics are worth it and we believe that together we can achieve more.

We encourage anyone interested in comics and libraries to join our group. The more members we have the better we can continue this work. If you're interested just contact us. Our official ALIA has the contact details.

Our first live webinar was a great success and we're very thankful to our special speakers and everyone who registered. We also had a great chat with award winning indie publisher Glom Press. You can access recordings for both of them on our YouTube channel, or through our podcast.

We've also had our fourth ALIA Graphic Novel Club session. Just a reminder that the November 28 session on Non-fiction comics will be our last for the year. You can find all the details here.

This month, we also have some great news, collection and PD resources and a great selection of new titles that we believe will be great additions to any library collection. As usual, you can also listen to our podcast roundup to hear Iurgi, James and Jade discuss their personal favourite news items and new titles.

News

Gene Luen Yang’s celebrated American Born Chinese will be made into a TV series by Disney with the director of Shang Chi on board.
The current Superman, Jonathan Kent, has come out as bisexual this month, the story will come out in November but the announcement was made on October 11 in honour of International Coming Out Day.
Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga is back soon for the second half of the story.
The Beat has a great interview with Ray Fawkes who’s recently concluded his One Soul Trilogy, three graphic novels that push the comics medium with incredible storytelling.

Collections & PD

Our very first live webinar is now up on YouTube. If you missed it, sit down and enjoy our Getting Graphic: Comics Around the World webinar. The blog post includes the video, a link to an audio only podcast version, and a link to a couple of documents with resources/websites of interest shared by the speakers and participants.
Don’t forget to register for the free upcoming Library Con Live organised by the Library Journal and School Library Journal. As usual, it should be recorded and whatever you can’t access live (it’s probably at some ghastly hour for us) you can watch later.
We all know that Manga are often very long with lots of volumes. Librarian Matthew Murray has continued with his series of one volume Manga recommendations, this time for ages 16+. Check out his list.
Simon & Schuster has published a guide to using graphic novels worth checking out.
If you want to learn more about Manga, Evergreen has published an excellent article by Eric Margolis really worth reading.
Publisher’s Weekly has published their traditional Holiday Gift Guide 2021 Comics. As usual, there’s a great range of excellent titles worth checking out and ordering for the library.