Alexx's Journal

Librarian action-adventure comics!

_Bookhunter_ is a graphic novel set in the 1970s, just as libraries were starting to computerize, but still largely in the card catalog era. It's also an alternate-history police procedural. In this world, the Library Police have resources and status comparable to that of the FBI in our world. They hunt down amateur censors and rare book thieves, among other things.

It's a goofy premise, but Shiga plays it largely straight. It's full of well-researched arcane book-lore. Little of which is *explained*, mind you, but enough should be clear from context to the inteligent reader. (I did recognize several bits of technology from my time at a work-study job in my college library, in the late 80s.)

But this isn't just dry detective work, oh no. There are several thrilling action scenes, drawn with verve and energy. The climactic one, a running chase/fight through a library, using lots of library props in combat, is delightfully over the top.

Shiga's rendering is rather loose and cartoony, but his storytelling is superb. And while his characters are drawn simplistically, their emotions come through strongly.

It's from a very small press, not even available from Amazon. But if the premise appeals to you (and I know many of my readers are librarians or bibliophiles), then it's well worth making a special order. www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com Recommended.

P.S. This is actually the *second* action-librarian comic book I've seen. Must remember to write more about the first one sometime soon...

Fascinating, if depressing article:

Although the public may not have caught on, ask any urban library administrator in the nation where the chronically homeless go during the day and he or she will tell you about the struggles of America's public librarians to cope with their unwanted and unappreciated role as the daytime guardians of the down and out. In our public libraries, the outcasts are inside.
...
And if the chronically homeless show up at the ball, looking worse than Cinderella after midnight? Well, in a democratic culture, even disturbing information is useful feedback. When the mentally ill whom we have thrown onto the streets haunt our public places, their presence tells us something important about the state of our union, our national character, our priorities, and our capacity to care for one another. That information is no less important than the information we provide through databases and books. The presence of the impoverished mentally ill among us is not an eloquent expression of civil discourse, like a lecture in the library's auditorium, but it speaks volumes nonetheless.